Paramount understood who our market is, who we need to influence, and how to communicate with them. The tone of voice and professionalism were spot-on. I’ve worked with many agencies, and I’ve had no misgivings about working with Paramount, quite the opposite.
The Challenge
Clarkes Golf is one of our longest serving clients and have built one of the most comprehensive ranges of golf clubs and equipment in the UK over that time. One of the benefits of Clarkes Golf for customers is the high level of customisation they provide and bespoke orders across a wide portfolio of products.
But this is what also makes the site hard to manage.
In February 2025 the site was still growing and bringing in significant revenue, but we’d started to see leaks in conversions. Checkout completion had stalled at around 46%, so more than half of shoppers who were getting to the last stage before paying, weren’t following through. So not ideal.
There was also a backlog of recurring functional problems around how products were configured, the site’s navigation and also page speed. They weren’t one-off bugs in the system, they’d resurfaced multiple times as Clarkes product catalogue grew and were impacting checkouts and product pages.
So there was real commercial damage potentially being done.
Our objective was to get more revenue from the traffic already coming to the site, instead of just getting more traffic. Which meant improving every stage of the journey and rolling improvements out across every product.
What we did for Clarkes Golf
The CRO programme ran on a monthly cycle of development updates, reviews and analysis. Each month’s focus was decided by the data we gathered, rather than a fixed roadmap.
A monthly cycle, not just a one-off audit
New products, new configurations and new customer behaviours continued to come up during this project, which meant a single audit wouldn’t have given us the data we needed to make an impact. Instead we built in a continuous cycle of analysis and improvement based on website data gathered at the end of the month, which guided the next month’s development work.
A checkout that stops losing customers
Most commercial losses from Clarkes’ website were coming from the checkout, so fixing this was our priority. We focused on making prices more obvious, messaging at the basket and checkout stages and making it clear to shoppers what they were paying. Product configuration faults were fixed and payment and checkout bugs (which happened outside our planned work) were urgently brought forward to be fixed.
Product pages that answer customer questions
Users arrived on Clarkes Golf product pages with specific questions, not surprising considering that golf equipment is a considered purchase. So we put more detail and better product presentation on these key pages to encourage clicks. Availability of stock was visible earlier in the journey to avoid disappointing users and we also improved how the site handled product recommendations.
Product configuration that works for buyers
Clarkes’ custom product builder for bespoke orders is a huge selling point of the website, but also one of the biggest issues because of the number of combinations and prices. Our team put the time in to make sure this feature worked for the site, instead of causing frustration for users.
Reliable product filtering
Mobile navigation and page structure were improved to create a seamless experience across devices. This made sure browsers could easily find the products or range they were looking for.
Improved page speed
Our developers put significant time into improving the site’s page load speed across mobile and desktop. Page load faults had been a consistent problem as the content on the site grew so this was a key part of improving the customer experience.
Content strategy for the whole buyer journey
Clarkes Golf serves new and experienced golfers in equal measure and we needed a content strategy that reflected that. We focused on informational content (matched to keywords with high traffic potential) to give potential customers the information they needed throughout the buying process.
Improved checkout completion rate
60
We gradually increased the checkout completion rate from around 46% to 60%, which has held in the long term. During November and December 2025 (a peak period for Clarkes in the run up to Christmas), completion rates reached as high as 68%.
More overall purchases
8,205
We were seeing around the same number of shoppers reach the checkout as before our work started, but lots more of them actually completed their purchase.
Increased add to cart
3.47
3.28% to 3.47% add to cart rate
Website sessions grew over the same period as our content strategy attracted a bigger, more broad audience, to the site. What made the difference here is our content attracted users in the buyer journey, not just people looking for golf information.
The Results
Clarkes Golf now converts a significantly higher number of shoppers who reach the checkout. We’re continuing with our monthly improvement cycles with a content strategy that carries on broadening our audience, but always with a commercial focus.
What Our Customers Say
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