Boost Ecommerce Conversions: A Step-by-Step Guide to A/B Testing

Let’s start with the good news.

You’re running a fairly successful ecommerce site. You’re making a decent amount of revenue and things are chugging along nicely.

But it’s not all bubblegum and roses.

Frankly, you’re having challenges.

• Your store’s ecommerce conversion rate – and thus your conversion funnel – isn’t that great.
• Carts get abandoned more than you’d like.
• And your return on ad spend is only average.

You know things could be better, but you’re not sure what steps to take.

We’ve got some good news for you, and it’s called A/B testing.

You’re probably familiar with the term.

You’ve heard about the simplest examples of A/B testing like changing button colors and calls to action. But most ecommerce businesses don’t know how to do it effectively.

This is unfortunate, given that, when done well, A/B testing – or split testing – is one of the most powerful ways to improve some of the most important metrics in your business.

That’s what this article is all about.

We’re going to give you a detailed look at A/B testing, why you should do it, some examples, how it works, what you can test with it, when to use it, and much more.

This is your detailed roadmap to A/B testing.

Paige Gerber, Director of Content Experience, UberFlip

What Is A/B Testing?

Let’s start by making sure we’re all on the same page.

Most people think of A/B testing only in terms of small tweaks to button colors or calls-to-action or headlines, but it’s much deeper than that.

So what is A/B testing? Put simply…

For example, it can involve:

• Testing two different content layouts for the same product to see which layout produces more sales.
• Or different product taxonomies for your site to see which one makes it easiest for customers to purchase from you.
• Or moving navigation items around to see which results in more sales.

But here’s the thing…

A/B testing isn’t a one-time deal. It’s not one and done, like a college basketball player going pro.

Effective A/B testing ideally involves repeatedly testing improvements until you get the best possible version.

It’s an iterative process with each test building upon the results of the previous tests.

Like physical fitness, when A/B testing is done consistently and with focus, it allows you to incrementally improve your overall website design to better align with your consumer behavior and business goals.

When you start, you may not see massive gains; however, when you look back after several months, you’ll be amazed at the overall improvements.