A note on this one
I led the CRO strategy and design for Tabs as part of a CRO agency engagement — Tabs was the agency's client, and the conversion architecture and visual design were my work. It's also one of the early projects where the Baseline framework took shape: the section order, the trust-to-sales balance, and the pack-pricing logic I'd later formalise were all being pressure-tested here on a real, fast-scaling brand.
The situation
Tabs sells a pleasure-enhancement dark chocolate — a bold product in a category that lives or dies on trust. The old store leaned hard into the product novelty: "Sex Chocolate," big bars, not much structure. It got attention, but attention isn't conversion. For a product people feel slightly uncertain about buying, the page wasn't doing enough to make the decision feel safe, credible, and obvious.
The brand had the raw materials — a memorable identity, press coverage, real customer love. What it didn't have was a page architected to convert a sceptical first-time visitor into a buyer.
What I rebuilt
The rebuild applied the full Baseline section order, adapted to the brand's loud, confident personality rather than flattening it.
Trust before the sell. A benefits bar and guarantee were placed where they'd be seen first — "30-day satisfaction guarantee," happy-customer count, star rating — so the riskiest objection ("what if this doesn't work?") was answered before the visitor had to think about it. Homepage weighted ~80% trust, product page ~80% selling.
Headline rebuilt around the outcome. "Break. Bite. Bang." kept the brand's voice, but the supporting copy was rewritten to lead with what the customer actually wants — blood flow, performance, drive — backed by the ingredient story (cocoa, epimedium, maca root, DHEA) rather than leading with it.
Pack pricing engineered for AOV. Three linear tiers: a deliberately weak single box, a "Most Popular" 2-box with free shipping, and a "Best Value" 3-box at the deepest discount — each anchored against the original price. This was the exact pack logic that became a core part of Baseline, and it's the module that drew the loudest reaction at launch.
Social proof, sequenced. Press logos (VICE, TMZ, Metro), then UGC video reviews ("See Tabs in action"), then the aggregated written reviews — credibility built in layers, with proof concentrated near each decision point rather than dumped at the bottom.
Ingredients with benefit depth. Each active ingredient was given its own card with multiple specific benefits and sourcing/safety notes — turning "it's chocolate" into a transparent, evidence-backed supplement story.
Mobile-first execution. The majority of the traffic was mobile, so every section was designed for the thumb first — sticky add-to-cart, tight hierarchy, fast scannability.
What happened at launch
The founder revealed the new site publicly — and the thread went viral, racking up 392K+ views and a wave of reactions from the DTC and CRO community:
2.5 months. $13,000. Blood, sweat, and tears. Unveiling the new Tabs site. She's pretty… but more importantly, she converts like a mf. No stone was unturned.
— Oliver, founder of Tabs (@oliver__b1)
The replies were the kind of proof you can't manufacture — practitioners reacting to the work itself:
"GENIUS 🔥🔥🔥🔥" — on the pack-pricing module
"by the way your mobile is KILLER 🔥"
"Far out, $13k feels like a bargain for this!"
"masterful work sir"
"$13k is an absolute steal for that"
Why it worked
Tabs proved the core Baseline thesis on a hard-mode product: in a category built on hesitation, you win by removing risk and making the decision feel obvious — guarantee first, outcome-led copy, sequenced proof, and a pricing structure that quietly does the AOV work. The brand kept its loud personality; the page underneath it started thinking like a conversion machine.
And here's the honest part: maybe 10% of this was bespoke to Tabs. The other 90% was the Baseline framework applied properly — the same section order, trust-to-sales balance, and pack logic that work across stores. That's the whole point. The framework is strong enough that the wins are repeatable, not one-off strokes of genius. Tabs is one of the projects that convinced me of exactly that — which is why it became Baseline.
