Split testing is an incredible way to evaluate and measure the performance of an online store. It allows you to create two store versions and evaluate your customers’ reactions.
For this purpose, you can set up different features or pages. Then monitor and analyze how customers interact with these revised designs to identify which setup works best. This can help improve user experience, increase sales, lower bounce rates, and more.
To get the best-split testing results, Shopify is the best platform. Let’s explore how you can leverage Shopify split testing to maximize your store’s performance.
7 Ways You Can Improve Your Online Store’s Performance with Shopify Split Testing
Are you ready to take advantage of the power of Shopify split testing solutions like Trident AB?
These seven tips will help you get started:
1. Establish Your Baseline First
First, you must establish a baseline before starting Shopify split testing. This involves understanding the existing performance of your store and defining the elements in your store you want to test.
Additionally, you can measure visitor behavior using metrics such as download rates or conversion rates of products for your current version. Documenting this will allow you to benchmark improvements from further tests accurately.
Then, collect all the data you need for setting up different experiments. Make sure your track, monitor, monitor, and report everything consistently. This way, you can draw clear conclusions when you analyze your results.
2. Understand the Purpose and Target Audience
Understanding your purpose and target audience helps you find the right messages, images, and visuals to influence customer behavior during testing.
It also provides insight into the following:
- How customers may interact with your store
- What features are they interested in
- What products are they more likely to buy
- How long do they spend on certain pages
Additionally, you must take cultural considerations into account. For instance, different countries have diverse expectations and norms about online buying experiences. Thus these nations may require different UI/UX changes or product offerings for optimal performance in your store.
Also read: What is Shopify Automated A/B Testing – A Detailed Guide
3. Choose a Metric for Success
To measure the success of your experiments, you should set metrics for success. These can include goals like increasing visits and orders from existing customers, gaining more active users, or introducing new products.
Moreover, you must consider qualitative factors such as customer feedback when deciding whether your split test has succeeded. Qualitative data like this can further help identify where improvements are needed, what changes led to increased customer satisfaction, and, in turn, higher sales, etc.
Without following this step, you may miss valuable insights that could enhance future tests with similar results.
4. Decide on the Length and Type of Test
Before running a Shopify split test, decide on the length and type of test you will run. That’s because ending your experiment too soon may not provide enough time to yield maximum insights. In contrast, running a test for too long can make your experiment unnecessarily complex and expensive.
A/B testing is the most commonly used example of split tests on Shopify. It consists of having two versions of a page or product feature
- The ‘A’ version represents the original design before making any changes
- The ‘B’ version represents where changes have been introduced to gauge their effect
After you choose your variables, set up different variants to create an experiment. Additionally, you should not assume that only drastic real-time changes will give you suitable results. That’s because small, subtle alterations may also have an impact compared to larger, more obvious ones, like increasing font sizes or adding buttons, etc.
Moreover, you should test multiple variations to get detailed information about their effects on customer behavior, sales figures, etc., across different devices and platforms. This way, you can have more accurate and reliable results.
5. Monitor the Tests and Collect Data Regularly
After setting up an experiment, you should monitor it to collect data regularly. This is especially important when running Shopify split tests. That’s because you need to capture customer behavior and evaluate any changes made to the store in real time.
Aside from just tracking page visits and interactions like clicks and scrolls, you should also measure performance objectives. These include conversion rates and other related metrics that may impact your results.
6. Analyze the Results
After collecting the necessary data from a Shopify split test experiment, it is time to analyze and act upon the results. Compare the performance of your experiments across key metrics such as conversion rates, bounce rate, number of page visits, and other metrics. This will allow you to identify what setup works better over another.
Moreover, you must draw insights from customer segments by comparing changes in behavior between new users, repeat customers, or different age groups. This will help you understand your audiences better.
Additionally, with accurate analysis, you can make better decisions on versions that work best on multiple devices and platforms. You can also efficiently measure overall success in terms of revenue generated.
7. Think About Moving Beyond A/B Testing
A/B testing is undoubtedly a popular type of Shopify split testing. However, you can also use other advanced types of experiments which generally involve more complex setups and targeted test groups.
For instance, Multivariate Testing (MVT) and large-scale optimization projects can give you a deeper understanding of customer preferences and overall store performance. MVT tests multiple conditions at once, while the optimization projects look for patterns and changes in the store’s entire performance.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise hoping to gain insights into customer behavior, Shopify split testing can optimize your store and maximize success.
By understanding objectives, determining metrics for success, and choosing the right type of test, you can benefit from how this powerful tool works.
Additionally, with the right data analysis and refinement, Shopify split test results will help you identify any areas that require further optimization. Thus, you can ensure your store stands out above the rest.
Also read: What Works Best For Your Shopify Store? Here Are Some Tips!