Every day, a new eCommerce brand enters the market. With endless options to choose from, shoppers have their pick of the store they want to shop from. One of the best ways to stand out for shoppers is by delivering an on-site experience they would enjoy and would come back to.
While there are tried and tested tactics you can implement to improve your on-site experience, leveraging eCommerce A/B testing lets you validate these tactics and get proof that they work.
If you aren’t yet familiar with running A/B tests on your site, this quick guide will get you up to speed, help you start optimizing your store experience, and ultimately, improve your conversions.
What is eCommerce A/B testing?
With eCommerce A/B testing, you can create multiple versions of a web page and compare which one performs better. The first version of the page is shown to half of your website visitors while the second version is shown to the other half.
A fashion brand can choose to show just the products on their homepage or add a styling video to show the product in context. By testing the 2 versions, the brand can figure out which one drives higher engagement.
Why do you run A/B tests?
When you plan to run an A/B test, you can choose to test based on:
- An existing problem you want to solve, like lowering dropoffs after adding to cart.
- A goal you want to achieve, like higher engagements.
- A hypothesis you have on what may work better, like testing 2 buttons on the homepage.
But, why is A/B testing important for eCommerce?
By A/B testing, eCommerce brands can better understand their customers, what works, and how to make their website convert better. Here are some results you can expect from consistent testing:
Better audience understanding
The learnings from the tests you run can help you better understand what your audience responds to and what they don't like. These insights can also be used to tailor other aspects of your online business for your audience, like the products you offer and the promotions you design.
Better user experience
A low-friction and delightful user experience is more likely to keep your visitors on-site and drive them to checkout. By A/B testing, you can identify pain points across your site, make improvements, and deliver a better UX.
Increased conversion
Look, your end goal when making changes to your page is to get more sales in the door. With A/B testing, you can test and optimize every part of your site, experiment with different tactics, and narrow down on what your audience converts best from.
Lower drop-offs
If you can identify drop-off points across your online store, you can fix it too! Run A/B tests to try out different tactics and find ways to keep visitors on your page for longer.
Avoid launching strategies that don't work
You don't want to make a change on your site and then find out that it negatively affects your visitors' experience and lowers your page performance.
Testing lets you validate the change, ensuring that it drives positive results before you set it live. If your test yields poor results, you can understand what won't work for your store without affecting your conversions.
Types of A/B tests
There are 3 types of A/B tests that you can run.
1. Split testing
Split testing lets you compare 2 versions of a webpage— the original and a variation— to determine which performs better. Usually, the variation only has one change so that you can pinpoint whether the new tactic makes an impact on your performance.
2. Multivariate testing
Multivariate testing lets you test multiple variables, with the goal of understanding which combination performs best.
For instance, a brand could create 4 versions of its homepage to test a different headline and a new image. Through the test, they can pinpoint which combination of the headline and image works better.
3. Multi-page testing
When running multi-page tests, you can test changes to a specific element across multiple pages. A brand running a multi-page test could place testimonials or trust badges on different pages of the store to understand if it boosts conversions.
What can you test on your eCommerce store?
The short answer? Every single element on your website!
But, let’s get specific. Here are some ideas on the different elements you can run eCommerce A/B tests on:
Copy
Copy tests let you validate your phrasing and how you illustrate the value of your products. You can test:
- Different value propositions for the headline.
- Length, format, and placement of your product description.
- Type of language you use.
- Use of pronouns across your site.
- Different language styles like to build trust, increase urgency, etc.
Visuals
The images and videos you use on your site play a huge role in how your shoppers convert. Optimizing your visuals through A/B tests could look like:
- Testing images with products only versus images showing products being used by a real human.
- Showing before and after images.
- Trying different types of videos like a how-to or feature explainers.
- Number of images you place on your product page.
Buttons
You can systematically optimize your buttons by focusing on these 3 aspects of the button:
- Text: Trying different tactics like using urgency words.
- Placement: Placing the button on different parts of your webpage.
- Number of buttons: Understanding whether having more buttons engages shoppers better.
Placement of widgets
If you have product recommendations or bestseller sections on your website, you can test different placements for the widget to increase its visibility and engagement.
Pricing and offers
Test and validate new pricing and discount strategies:
- Test different price points for your products.
- Try different offers, like discounts, free shipping, BOGO, etc. to identify the most effective strategy.
- Try different ways to calculate or include shipping costs, like providing free shipping and including the cost in the product price instead.
New tactics
Instead of launching a new tactic directly onto your site, like a countdown timer or a top bar, you can test it first to validate it. This way, you can avoid the risk of the tactic lowering your performance in case it doesn't work as well as you expected.
If you're using Shoplift, you can add dynamic sections across your online store with Lift Assist.
Lift Assist provides pre-made templates like a countdown timer, benefits bar, or direct response hero sections, and lets you add them on any page on your Shopify store. You can set up these templates with the copy and visual you prefer as well as your brand style, without any custom design needed!
How to A/B test effectively from start to success
1. Before you create your test, identify what you want to test and why
Before you start running A/B tests, you need a plan. Here are a few ways to figure out what you want to test:
- Identify problems you already face, like high drop-offs on specific points of the page or low engagement.
- Audit your site through heatmaps and user sessions to identify friction points in your user journey.
- Is there a new tactic you want to test based on your hypothesis?
2. Use the right A/B testing tool
Before you can start running A/B tests, you need a tool that is compatible with your brand.
Here are 3 quick tips when you’re evaluating your options:
- Identify your goals and requirements from the tool. You can then look at the features that your shortlisted tools have to pick the one that fits your needs.
- Prioritize user interface and compatibility with your tech stack. If the A/B testing tool has native integration with your core platform (like Shopify), you’d be able to run A/B tests more efficiently.
- Get an honest look at the tools that you are considering by reading customer reviews.
Need an A/B testing tool built for Shopify? Shoplift lets you create test variants through the native theme editor, provides a clean user interface, and gives you a powerful analytics dashboard for easy evaluation.
3. Define your goal
Set an expected goal for your test so that you can easily analyze your results once it ends. The Shoplift dashboard lets you choose a goal— average order value, conversion rate, and revenue per session— and tracks the success of your test against this defined goal.
4. Create the test variant and set it live!
When creating the test variant, be clear on the reason why you’ve edited the variant with the specific changes. This way, you won’t run the risk of needing to make changes once you set the test live.
Once you’ve created the variant, you’re ready to set your test live!
Note: For accurate results, it's best to avoid making any changes after setting the test live.
5. Let your test reach significance
An A/B test needs to run for a specific period of time before you can evaluate its results. According to experts, a good time period for an A/B test is at least 2 weeks.
The A/B testing tool that you use will measure your test's significance based on whether the data is accurate and let you know if the results are credible enough to validate.
6. Once the test ends, analyze its results
Once your test ends, you can evaluate how it performed. Nuanced metrics like orders, AOV, conversion rate, etc. would give you specific insights into the test.
For instance, you may notice that while one test version has higher orders, the other version has a higher AOV. Such a comparative study can help you decide which version to set live.
7. Set the successful test live
Was your test variant successful? You can launch the winning version of the page on your site.
If you use Shoplift for A/B testing, you can set the variant live directly, without having to spend time designing and developing it!
8. Reiterate on negative or low-impact tests
If your test variant performed poorly, it could just mean that the original version of the page was the most optimized for your visitors. In such cases, you can just revert back to the original version.
But, if you were solving a problem (like trying to lower drop-offs) and the test was unsuccessful, it's best to reiterate and test other tactics.
Best practices when running A/B tests
1. Only test one variant at a time
While you may have multiple changes that you want to test out, it's best to test one variable at a time. This way, you can accurately determine if the change you made was effective or not. This also means running only one test on a page at a time.
Not sure which change you should prioritize testing? We recommend picking the one with the most impact on your goal.
2. Identify potential, not just problems
You don’t need to have a problem to solve when running A/B tests. When planning new tests to run, you can also look at potential opportunities, like increasing trust for your brand or building a better rapport with store visitors.
3. Use test insights on other pages to replicate results
Learnings from your test can help you make improvements on other parts of your Shopify store. When analyzing your test results, you can also consider ways you can implement the new tactic you tried on other pages on-site, especially if visitors on that page showed similar behavior.
Ready to optimize every part of your eCommerce store?
A/B testing lets you set up an online store experience that is proven to work. We hope this quick primer on eCommerce A/B testing helps you get started.
The right A/B testing tool makes the entire process simpler. Shoplift lets you run A/B tests on your Shopify app. The clean user interface and power-packed analytics dashboard make it easy for you to test new tactics and optimize your online store.
