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Raphael Paulin-Daigle
CEO, SplitBase. Conversion Optimization & Landing Pages for DTC Brands.
Raphael Paulin-Daigle is the CEO of SplitBase, a conversion optimization agency specializing in ecommerce for luxury, lifestyle, and fashion brands.12 He founded SplitBase in May 2015 and is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.12
SplitBase helps ecommerce brands increase their online sales and conversions through:
- User experience research
- A/B testing
- Fully managed conversion optimization programs2
Under Raphael's leadership, SplitBase has worked with notable clients such as L'Oréal, Kiehl's, Frank + Oak, DIFF Eyewear, and Dr. Squatch.34 The company's Testing Trifecta Methodology combines quantitative, qualitative, and UX analysis with A/B and AI testing to improve user experience and drive growth for their clients.1
Before founding SplitBase, Raphael held various positions, including:
- Digital Marketing Consultant (2011-2015)
- Special Projects at Blockstream (2014-2015)
- Co-Founder/CEO of DucatFlow (2014-2015)
- Founder of Shopulse (2012-2013)1
Raphael is also the host of the Minds of Ecommerce Podcast, where he interviews founders and executives of successful ecommerce brands about their growth strategies.4
In 2013, Raphael received the Kevin O'Leary Future Dragon Award, being selected as one of 10 young entrepreneurs across Canada to receive a grant from Kevin O'Leary's fund.1
Highlights
Most CRO programs fail because they treat customer behavior like it's static.
A few minutes ago we finished a sprint planning session for a client (a 9-fig household name).
Every 3 months, we do this for each client. 7-8 of our specialists from strategy, analytics, and design sit down together.
We pull up everything we've learned about that specific brand in the last 90 days. Their customer surveys. Their A/B test results. Their analytics patterns. Their user research.
Then we create what we call a "thematic definition board" in a massive FigJam board. It's basically our way of synthesizing all that data into clear themes about what's actually happening with their customers.
But here's the part that took us years to get right...
We don't just create it once and move on. Every quarter, we review it. Update it. Iterate on it. And then we use it to plan the next 90 days.
Just like any business sets quarterly goals, we do this with CRO. We don't spread changes all over the site hoping something works. We focus on the specific areas and changes that will drive the biggest revenue increases.
Because what we learned about a brand's customers in Q1 might be completely different by Q3. Maybe their biggest conversion barrier was pricing concerns. Now it's shipping anxiety. Or maybe mobile behavior patterns shifted after they launched a new product line.
The themes evolve. So our strategy evolves with them.
This process does two things: It keeps our CRO methodology sharp and relevant to what's actually happening. And it gets our entire team aligned - aligned with the brand's goals, with what we need to solve for, and with how to create real impact.
And that brings me to the #1 thing I learned from doing CRO for over a decade: running tests isn't CRO. Having a strategy behind your tests and a system that makes the methodology better over time - that's real CRO.

Wrote 3 new case studies of our work this week. So excited to make them live!
