Product designers, developers, and marketers all use A/B testing on Shopify to find the impact of any change to the status quo.
Today, if you ask why A/B testing is important, we could list a hundred reasons that back up the methodology’s benefits. However, the most obvious benefits of A/B testing are that it gives you more conversions, thereby increasing sales.
The more you learn about its usability, how it works, and how it can help you achieve your bottom line, the more it is likely to work for your business.
- What is A/B Testing?
- Why Consider A/B Testing?
- How A/B Testing Works
- A/B Testing on Shopify – Methodology
- Challenges of A/B Testing on Shopify
What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing is a simple scientific approach to optimizing and making logical marketing decisions. The reason why it’s a good practice is that there are no forecasts, guesses, or projections for the business in this model.
Facts and figures back all work, so there’s less risk involved, and you get a solid ground to make important decisions.
Another term for the same is ‘Split testing’ and ‘bucket testing.’ The method involves using two variables – A and B – which are tested against each other to see the effect on the model. Variable A is the ‘control variable,’ and variable B is the ‘Variation variable.’
We will discuss how these work concerning each other in the methodology, but for now, consider A/B testing on Shopify as part of the Conversion rate optimization where you assess user insight.
Why Consider A/B Testing?
Whether your business is B2B or B2C, conversion is the most common challenge these days. You may put up extensive marketing campaigns and spend tons on promotions, but the actual customer conversion rate stays zero.
People leave their carts abandoned, with less engagement and more drop-offs along the route to checkout. If we know the core issue and try to fix it, it may lead to a smooth customer service experience where the attention gets through to getting the customer to act.
Through A/B testing, you can learn about the factors affecting user experience and behavior. As a result, you can improvise your processes and achieve the organization’s goals more efficiently.
The methodology involves studying the impact of each variable at a time so that the exact issue can be highlighted and fixed. That way, you can save considerable money on marketing and streamline the whole system.
How A/B Testing Works
A/B testing on Shopify works by a simple mechanism: there are two versions of the same page that is created for a different audience. So, one customer sees a different version while another logs on the same site and gets the same old page.
This way, the effect of various variables is studied to see how one impacts the other. In the end, the version that leads to the most conversions and gets you sales wins!
Let’s look at how A/B testing on Shopify can open up a vast horizon for you and your business.
Resolves Customer Problems
Customers visit a page for various reasons. Some may be looking to buy a product, some may just be there for gathering info, others may drag in due to something of interest, and others may have no idea what they are doing there.
While doing so, customers may have trouble navigating through the page or finding CTA. That leads to a bad customer experience and often is why people abandon carts or lose conversions.
A/B testing on Shopify enables users to get to the core issue and fix it. With data analysis, you can find these annoying factors and then work your way up to remove the bottlenecks and make the process smooth.
Get Better Returns on Existing Traffic
One of the key advantages of A/B testing on Shopify is that instead of dragging in more leads to your page, it helps bring in a target audience that has a high conversion rate. So there’s a more efficient flow on your page and better chances of meeting your goals.
Lower Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is one factor that significantly affects your sales. Often there is customer engagement, but just before they check out, they bounce off the site. A/B testing on Shopify helps you know why that happens.
Are you offering so many products that it gets confusing for the buyers? Is there a gap between the actual product or service and customer expectation? Is the webpage user-friendly or too techy?
Usually, these are the reasons why the customers take off before payment. A/B testing helps you pinpoint the key issue and get to the bottom.
Modify the Specific Segments
Sometimes you may have to change certain parts or sections of your page. Instead of revamping the entire outlook, it is best to find the areas of concern and change them only. If you change the whole theme, it may become hard for existing customers to find or even relate to you.
A/B testing gives you that it finds the red areas so you can work on making them more exciting and eye-catching for your visitors.
A/B Testing on Shopify – Methodology
As discussed, A/B testing is the way to know what works and doesn’t for your business. Since the ultimate goal is sales, it is best to provide the customers with excellent service and a smooth process to lead them to the final checkout point.
If you put in the right A/B testing method, you can optimize your marketing efforts and give them more structure. So a process must be followed with A/B testing on Shopify. Here are the steps for thorough A/B testing to take place.
1. Research
The first step is to know how the process for conversion is in place. So, you need to have the data about all the users being driven to your site, the pages with the most leads, and the conversion goals for each page.
A/B testing tools available on platforms like Trident A/B testing suite can help you analyze the data collected to find important information. Like you can find out the number of pages with the most traffic or the pages where the visitors spend most of their time.
Trident A/B store helps marketers to improve engagement and conversion rates and ensures the customers get a smooth, seamless experience on your page.
The details like the kind of audience you have and what areas they like to spend time on can help you know what is right for your business. Also, this way, you can find the problem areas from the data assessed and then resolve them.
Another way to collect data is via online survey forms. You can get direct customer information through these forms and often find interesting facts that may miss in the data collected via the software.
Still another effective way to collect this data is via session recording tools. These highlight areas where customers slowed down or bounced off the page. At times, combining all these data collection methods yield the most effective results.
2. Form a Hypothesis
Get these observations in one place and come up with the hypothesis. Remember, whatever hypothesis you formulate must target increasing the conversion rate. This is the key step for analyzing the data and forming a correct statement with the most important variables to yield sales.
You need a specific goal and can easily set a hypothesis to test whether it helps you achieve that goal.
Next, you need to test this hypothesis. The common practice is to test it against certain parameters like its effect on the company’s goals, the ease of setting it up, how effective it will be for your marketing campaign, etc.
3. Form Variations
Next, you need to create variation. This needs to be based on the hypothesis to be tested here. In simple words, the variation should be another version of the existing page structure you want to test.
So you can incorporate all the changes you want in this version and conduct the tests against the control variable to see which works best for your products.
4. Run the Test
Now you need to decide on the testing method or approach you will take to put the hypothesis to test. Again, this should be based on your ultimate business goals and your product’s unique needs.
Then, wait for the results. It will take some time to get the final results of the impact.
There are various benchmarks that must be tested here, like the changes in conversion rate, the number of visitors, people who take part in the survey, etc.
5. Analyze the Results
The final and most crucial step is analyzing the findings. Since there’s nonstop data gathering and analysis, you need to deduce the results of all the hard work.
So here, you need to look into the percentage change in conversions, the impact of the variables on the other performance measures, the confidence level, etc. Then, if your new version has achieved the goals, go forth with it. Else, get the insights from the findings and conduct a retest with the other variables.
Challenges of A/B Testing on Shopify
While the A/B testing methodology is quite effective for achieving the end goals at the least cost, it does come with a few drawbacks:
- One Hypothesis at a Time: Unfortunately, you can only assess one hypothesis or the effect of one variable on the other at one point. Running too many versions simultaneously will lead to confusion, and the results will be impossible to assess.
- External Factors: You must conduct subsequent tests during similar periods to get meaningful results. Running one test during peak season and the other when the sales are low will not give you an accurate result. So consider all holidays, days when the sales will rocket or die, and then conduct the tests during the same time frame.
- Use the Right Variables: Always consider your business goals when deciding the variables. A combination of the website and visitor data must be used to test the correct variables.
- Hypothesis: Coming up with the right hypothesis is crucial for the A/B methodology to succeed. The data in your hand is the key to formulating the hypothesis. This data will highlight the problem areas so you can create and test the hypothesis on those lines.
- Sample Size: Often, being pressed for time gives you inaccurate findings and hence results. Once you put the version to the test, you must wait until you have gotten the required sample size for assessment.
- Maintain Tests: One important thing is that this is not a one-time thing. Therefore, you need to keep testing your website along these attributes regularly if you are to get any fruitful results.
Verdict
Even after the challenges, A/B testing on Shopify can get you a great return on your investment. It takes out all the forecasts and guesses from your business plan and gives you actual hard-core facts on which to base your decisions.
This is crucial to your business success. So get started with A/B testing today and make your business a success.