The State of Ecommerce Quizzes · First-Question Report
The first question decides whether there's a second.
We read the actual opening question of 1,193 live quizzes — the first thing a real shopper is asked. The patterns are clear: the best openers get to the point and put the customer first, and the worst ones make you work before you've gained anything.
0
quiz openers read & classified
0
make you sit through an intro before the first question
0
words in the average first question
The Preamble Penalty
Don't make them read before they click
More than a third of quizzes open with an "explainer" — a welcome screen, a wall of intro copy, a value-prop slide — before the shopper can answer anything. It feels helpful. It isn't. Quizzes that drop the preamble and open straight into a real question keep noticeably more people.
0%
open with an explainer / intro
452 quizzes · higher drop-off
vs
0%
open with a real question
740 quizzes · lower drop-off
−7.5pts
of drop-off, just by cutting the intro. The preamble is the single clearest first-question signal in the data. If your quiz opens with a slide instead of a question, that's the easiest fix you'll make this quarter.
What To Open With
Lead with the customer, not the clipboard
We grouped every opener by what it asks. Two losers stand out: questions that screen the shopper (eligibility, age, "safety check") and questions that demand demographics up front carry the worst drop-off. The openers tied to the best-designed quizzes invite the shopper to describe themselves or name a goal.
Average drop-off by opening-question theme. *Self-description & Goal openers also belong to the highest-scoring quizzes overall (avg 70 vs 66) — the mark of a customer-first design.
The Myth
It's what you ask, not how big
A common worry is that the first question should be tiny — one or two options, a handful of words. The data says the size of the first question barely matters. Drop-off is essentially flat whether you offer 2 options or 9, 5 words or 16. Spend your energy on relevance, not on shrinking the question.
Drop-off by # of options
2–3: 54% · 4–5: 53% · 6–8: 55% · 9+: 53%
Flat. More choices don't scare people off.
Drop-off by question length
1–5 wds: 54% · 6–10: 53% · 11–15: 55% · 16+: 53%
Flat. A longer, clearer question is fine.
The Playbook
Anatomy of a great first question
Four rules for the opener
Earn the second question. Make the first one immediate, relevant, and about them.
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Skip the intro screen. Open on a question, not a welcome slide — worth ~7.5 points of drop-off.
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Make it about the customer. Their goal, their problem, or "which sounds like you" — not eligibility or demographics.
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Make it the easiest one in the quiz. A question they can answer instantly builds momentum into the harder ones.
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Don't sweat the size. Relevance beats brevity — a clear 12-word question with 6 options is fine.