Brand Limits Navigation Options and Increases Conversions

Are you thinking about A/B testing on your digital channels, or have you been running an A/B testing program but are interested in learning more? You’ve come to the right place. Think of this blog series as a catalogue of optimization A/B tests, where you can learn about what went right, what went wrong, and where you might be able to A/B test your sites for optimal engagement and risk mitigation.

The Organization

A major discount retail chain with a large ecommerce component.

The Project

The brand sells several hundred thousand products across 25 categories on their website. The optimization team hypothesized that site visitors were presented with too many products and category options which ultimately made it hard to make a decision and proceed to checkout. Data from previous A/B testing highlighted that visitors were “aimlessly” visiting multiple categories which they suspected created some friction in the path to purchase. The team believed that if they personalized the navigation menu of the site based on frequency of category browse behaviors, customers would more easily find what they came for and be more likely to proceed towards completing a purchase.

The A/B Test

In order to personalize site navigation, the team collected in-visit and previous-visit category behavioral data which was used to determine category affinity. Using the category affinity data, they highlighted categories in which visitors were most likely to find relevant products.

Results and Next Steps

Personalizing navigation on the site ended up producing a variation with 5.45% increase in conversion, and a daily revenue increase of over $900,000. Using SiteSpect, they rolled out the personalized version to all site visitors.