7 A/B Testing Ideas to Boost Conversions

April 22, 2019

9

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Online store owners seek how to increase the flow of visitors to their sites, to turn potential customers into valid ones, and, accordingly, to increase their sales. In this review, we will show you how helpful A/B testing can be in this case.

The most important goal of landing page A/B testing is to give you understand if it is convenient for a user to deal with your online store. Basing on the test results, you will see the weaknesses of your site and figure out what needs to be improved that it worked better.

Before experimenting with your online store, make sure that Google Analytics can track your conversions and that Google Tag Manager is properly configured and tracks the events and actions you need.

What is A/B testing?

A/B tests also known as split testing or bucket testing are the way to test hypotheses for improving a page, attracting and retaining customers.

You can achieve the following results:

  • improvement of your online store usability;
  • smaller numbers of users who leave your site;
  • acceleration of the process of making purchasing decisions.

How to conduct a split test or A/B testing?

The idea of type a or b personality test is very simple. The site users are randomly divided into segments. One of the segments remains unchanged - this is the “A” control segment; we assess the effect of the changes made on the basis of the data for this segment. Users from the “B” segment are shown the modified version of the site. After we compare the results and analyze the data obtained. It's simple, isn’t it? Let's analyze the details of this process.

A/B Testing Ideas to Boost Conversions

There are several options for testing the hypothesis.

1. AB testing - there are 2 versions of this page: Checklist and Modified version. We can correct the page in simple editors such as VWO, Optimizely, Google Optimize.

2. Multivariate test - there are several options for the control page.

3. Split test -  it is a completely different page design, which is valid on page/v2.

How and where do we work with A/B tests on Shopify:

  • first of all, we determine the user traffic and conversion rate. Then, using a special calculator, we look for how long we need to conduct the experiment. At this link, you can find more information about the calculator: https://cxl.com/ab-test-calculator/;
  • next, we use ab testing website optimizer such as Google Optimize, or Visual Website Optimizer (but it is on a fee basis, so most often it uses Google), we create a test;
  • we check the results using a Chi-square calculator. If the value of p <0.05, then with 95% confidence we can say that thanks to these changes, sales or user involvement have grown. The greater the value is, the more difficult it is to determine the reason for the victory of one or another option.

Most importantly, the A/B testing allows you to validate the hypotheses and reduces the risk of financial losses spent on a redesign.

Which elements can you include in ab testing process?

1. Site Navigation

Navigation is one of the key parts of the site. It largely defines how the visitors will use your site. Here we are testing the menu, mega menu, brand selection, adding tabs, bread crumbs - if not, then they are required. You can test their size and content, products catalogization - whether the goods are located in the collections where users expect to see them.

What for? Depending on your audience, you need to decide how it is more convenient for them to choose and find a product, and what they do - as soon as they come to your website, where they are looking for, where they find it, and where they don’t. Perhaps it will be more convenient for them to search through visual content, won’t it?

Try to resize the search bar to improve the usability of your online store.

Check the navigation bar display. Do site visitors prefer horizontal or vertical orientation?

2. Text content

The text content of an online store includes headlines, subheadings, product descriptions, a list of customer benefits, reviews and more. Using these elements you give your client the most important information that influences his subsequent decisions. That is why text elements can and should be tested.

We are testing options for presenting information, for example, on the product card - tabs or dropdowns, how it is better to make a description and where to place it.

What for? Perhaps most of your users do not like to read long descriptions, they are only interested in brief product specifications, as well as the terms of shipment and payment. An equally important component is the sequence of content. You can get that info through A/B tests, sometimes adding a few lines to the description or reducing redundant text may increase your conversions.

3. Visual content

Visual content attracts the attention of visitors much more than the textual one. Therefore, it makes sense to experiment with different photos, try descriptive videos, 3D models.

What for? Perhaps you have a problem in the presentation of visual content. It doesn’t have much to do with your product or doesn’t fully disclose it, the quality of the image and video is very bad - it affects the credibility of your site and product.

You tried the video instead of the banner - but it doesn't work, why? Most likely your users feel uncomfortable to watch the video at a certain moment of the day. Here are some tips about video content: of course, everyone says that the video is the future of effective sales and advertising. However, this will work effectively only if your video is loaded quickly when a client is connected to Wi-Fi and when he uses his mobile Internet. Take care of the content downloading speed, and optimize it. Slow content loading annoys your users and forces them to leave your page.

Test different versions of the product image on the product page. Change the size of the product photo, it's location and targeting format. If the product picture is too small, the user will not consider all its features and will go to your competitors’ site to look for better visualization. Remember that each user is 30-50% skeptical of you, and he also heard from his friends that the goods they received did not correspond to reality.

4. СТА-blocks

The CTA button is a call-to-action button. Such elements are on almost every site. They are one of the most important in the sales funnel: they click them to go from one stage to another.

It also happens that among many other elements the CTA button is not particularly visible to the user - try to specify it so that it is focused. Try different colors, shapes, and sizes of CTA buttons on your site. Note that the text on the button is well read against the background.

Test the various states of CTA guidance so that it is more obvious that the buttons are pressed and they create a feeling of interactivity on the page.

Try to reposition the CTA buttons to make some CTAs more visible than others. If the button is located at the bottom of the page, place it in the part of the screen that is visible at once, because many users do not get to the end of the page.

Change the call-to-action text on your buttons to see which word or phrase converts more visitors. Instead of “Order now” try “Buy now”, instead of “Download” - “Get it for free”. In this case, note that the button text must correspond to the result that the user will receive after he clicks it.

Your website allows customers to perform just targeted actions: to buy, to register, to download, to subscribe, to share, etc. The user will do what you ask for. However, before you motivate a client to take an action, check the correctness of your calls to action.

One more useful advice: if you advertise your products only with the help of Facebook advertising, check that the Facebook pixel on your site is working correctly. This is important since you need to know which CTA units motivate you to perform a targeted action, and which exist for nice design only. Also, if this tool is installed correctly, you are able to display the ads to the users who click the button you need.

5. Goods and filters sorting

Try different types of sorting for different types of visitors. See if the conversion increases the sorting by popularity for new visitors and by new arrivals for regular customers.

Try to sort by ascending prices for visitors referenced from the adds where you mentioned "low prices".

It also makes sense to test and filter. Make all filters minimized by default. Try to detail only the most important ones, the rest should be closed. Change the order of output filters, display only the most important ones at the top.

6. Registration form

You know perfectly well that few people like to go through the registration process, often users don’t want to enter any data, they are afraid of long forms that need to be filled out. Try to reduce the number of fields, or make a multi-step registration.

Test the layout of this form, perhaps you are too aggressively trying to collect the leads. If the registration form is the first thing that the user sees on the site, then this may scare him. But placing the form after the feedback and the list of benefits is a more rational option for the client, as it will increase the conversion rate.

No one likes spam. Try adding a few words that you will not fill up the emails of your users with useless information. You can say that you will not send them letters more than 1-2 times a week. Please note that this kind of message must be convincing.

Try increasing individual form fields. Large fields subconsciously seem friendlier than others.

Add a description to each field. Perhaps the visitors do not fill out the form completely, because they simply do not understand what exactly to write there and how to do it correctly.

You can simplify the process of filling out a form due to the automatic filling of the fields. For example, you can automatically track a person’s geographic location, time zone, national currency, etc. Therefore you should not ask him to fill in all this information.

Try to place a button with the possibility of registering/entering your store through social networks. Check how the user finds it more convenient to go to your site.

7. The process of registration and payment for the order

Uncertainty scares - the user needs to feel that he is in control of the process. Create a visually visible and clear progress indicator during checkout. A progress bar will help users see how much is left before the process is complete.

At the same time, it is worth testing the payment page i.e. the convenience of the fields, the possible arrangement and order of the elements. What for? Faster checkout contributes to less loss of users at every step, the main thing is that there is enough information necessary for the purchase and various methods of payment and delivery.

A growing number of customers are concerned about the theft of credit card information. Test your payment expansion and check its effect on the conversion.

Add security icons to the form of payment for goods right next to the "Confirm" button. As practice shows, many people find such elements of large importance. It also increases the credibility of potential customers.

Conclusions

Before landing page A/B testing, there is still a long process of analyzing and working with your customer, on the basis of which hypotheses are worked out and they grow into successful solutions.

A/B testing is carried out in order to understand the needs of your users and to make your website more attractive and more convenient for them. With the help of testing, you will increase the achievement of target actions, increase conversion and get more profit.

And if you need help or advice of an expert in this matter, please contact our MakeBeCool company. We will be pleased to help you find the right solution.

Meet Author.
Andrey Gadashevich

In 2010, Andrey founded MakeBeCool initially as a website development agency, but a discovery of the e-commerce world led to a complete retraining. With a newfound passion, he started collecting brand stories and case studies to empower e-commerce success. Beyond work, Andrey is a Lego Technic collector, a passionate snowboarder, runner, and fitness enthusiast. His active lifestyle extends to family time, where he shares his hobbies with his daughters.

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