Ever read those articles that say company X increased their profits a million percent by changing a font color?
That doesn’t usually happen.
A/B Testing, or split testing, is a great way to optimize your shop and increase your profits, but there’s no magic button color that’s going to quadruple your profits.
Here at Neat A/B Testing, we’ve run thousands of tests for merchants. We’ve seen lots of tests that provided awesome results and improved profitability for Shopify store owners.
Let’s look at eight tests we’ve seen work for Shopify merchants to improve their conversions and profitability. You can work these into your own testing plan to really dial in the conversions on your shop.
1. Raise your prices
If you haven’t done extensive price testing yet, you’re leaving money on the table. The easiest way to start? Raise your prices. Try starting with 10% or $5, whichever is higher.
We looked at 150 recent tests run in Neat A/B Testing where the test price was higher than control. 32% of the time, raising prices led directly to an increase in revenue.
But even when raising your prices doesn’t lead directly to more revenue, it can still increase your profits. For example, selling fewer items at a higher price can reduce your costs enough to put more money in your pocket.
Say it costs you $10 to purchase a product wholesale, and you retail it for $20. If you sell 100, you’ve made $1,000 profit. If you sell 85 at $25, you’ve made $1,125 profit.
Price tests are simple, fast and can show huge opportunities you’re missing with your store right now.
Will your customers care?
Some business owners get a little nervous when they’re considering testing price. What if a potential customer visits multiple times before they make a purchase decision and they see different prices?
Look no further than CamelCamelCamel.
This graph shows the price fluctuations of an item on Amazon over a 3 month period. The big retailers are all testing their prices and fluctuating the prices of their items, sometimes on an hourly basis. We can see changes by as much as 20% for this item.
It’s not uncommon for prices to change, so don’t let that stop you from testing your prices.
2. Use the number “9”
There’s a great study here that talks about the effect of ending your prices in “9”. It showed that products with prices ending in 9, like $39, consistently sold more than prices ending in other numbers even when the other price was lower.
You can combine this with raising your prices. If you’re selling an item for $35 right now try pricing it at $39, for example.
Don’t forget that, as a retailer, psychology is important. Position your shop, products, and prices in ways that will be the most appealing to your visitors.
If you want to learn more about finding the perfect product pricing for your shop, check out our article here.
3. Experiment with your compare-at prices
Consider if your sale prices match your shop’s positioning. If you emphasize value and discounts, showing deep sale prices on many items may entice more visitors to buy.
LootVault is positioned as a place to get geeky toys for cheap. Fitting with that message, they display sale pricing and discounts on nearly all of their items. If you need Freddy Krueger chopsticks, you’re not likely to find them cheaper than this site.
If, on the other hand, you sell luxury goods at a premium, like Burberry, smaller and fewer discounts may do the trick. You’re unlikely to find sale pricing on Burberry because they’re not targeting consumers looking for a good deal. They’re aimed at people who don’t mind paying for quality.
Keep your customers in mind and design your compare-at pricing to match your message. There are a few things worth testing with your compare-at pricing.
- Do your collections do better if you have no, few or many sale prices showing?
- Do deeper discounts motivate your customers, or smaller?
- Do occasional sales drive purchases, or do consistent low prices?
4. Sell your benefits first
Are you taking the time to sell your product’s benefits first? Try either moving your benefits further up in your product description, or write out a short paragraph as the first piece of your description. Consider highlighting the true value to your customer.
If you sell comfortable shoes, for example, don’t start your description by listing the material, start by talking about how their feet will still feel great after standing all day.
Check out our article on writing killer product descriptions for some ways to improve your product descriptions quickly. And remember to test as you iterate.
5. Lifestyle vs product photos
This is highly variable by store, but if you have product images and images of people using the product, try both and see which perform better.
6. Test your apps
This is a great trick for product page layout tests. Do you have pop-ups, social proof, contests, newsletter signups, and live chat all competing for space on your product page?
These apps can bring a ton of value to your shop, but it’s important to test them.
You can test a version of your product page with and without one or more of these apps and figure out quickly which are really bringing you the most value and which might be annoying your potential customers.
Test a version of your product page with none of these apps running. Then gradually add them back in to find the optimal app mix.
If an app isn’t bringing you value, get rid of it.
This is also great for budgeting if your app costs have gotten a little out of control. A conversion app should bring in more money each month than it costs.
7. Use cues and social proof in your product titles
This is an easy one. Look at the products on your homepage and choose one or two to highlight by putting some keywords into the product title. Try phrases like “Customer favorite”, or “trending”. These can catch a customer’s eye and lead to more sales.
8. Move your add to cart button higher
This can depend heavily on your theme. But for many shops, moving the add to cart button above the description can show great results. This is another good use for a product page layout test.
When it comes to UX for e-commerce, one of the simplest ways to make continual improvements to your shop is to look for anything that could slow a potential customer down on the way to checkout. When you find these elements, test small tweaks to make the customer journey just a little easier.
Start testing
We’ve seen all these tests make positive revenue impacts for Shopify stores. But your shop is unique. What works for one shop may not work for yours, so it’s important to test.
We happen to have a Shopify app that makes all of this easy, called Neat A/B Testing. It comes with a free 14-day trial, and it’s simple enough to use that you could have your first test running in less than 10 minutes. If you want to get started optimizing your shop right away, give it a shot!