Testing Ecommerce A/B Effectively: How to Do It?

Customer experience is everything when it comes to online shopping. You need more than intuition to create a quality user experience – you need to know your target audience’s actual expectations in order to engage and convert them.

Introducing A/B Testing

You can conduct A/B testing on your website to determine which design, content, or functionality gets the best response from your visitors. By testing variations or elements of your page, you can learn how they affect your customers’ behavior.

Many e-commerce businesses don’t understand how to perform A/B testing effectively. A/B testing involves changing button colors and call-to-action copy.

By using A/B testing to improve your business’s most important metrics, you can improve your bottom line effectively. The following is a guide to the first time you implement A/B testing.

How and why do A/B Tests Matter?

Split testing (aka A/B testing) can contribute to improved conversion rates, increased loyalty, and better conversion rates for your customers when executed correctly. 

Regardless of whether it’s messaging, SEO strategies by an SEO company, or the checkout process, your e-commerce site will change in the future. The best way to uncover insights and guide you in the right direction is through A/B testing if you want to make the right changes and convert more of your existing traffic.

An Overview of A/B Testing

Client-side and server-side A/B testing are the two most common types of A/B testing.

1. During client-side testing, a web page is sent to every visitor in exactly the same iteration, and JavaScript is then used to make changes within the visitor’s browser before showing the finished product.
2. Tests on the server side are performed by showing visitors different variations of your website, which are altered on the server before they are sent to the visitor’s browser. In the browser, no changes are being made to the page.

Once you’ve collected data for each page variation, determine which performs better in terms of a particular goal (conversion), be it sales, email sign-ups, click-through rates, etc.

Invest in paid advertising or search engine optimization to increase traffic to your website if you don’t generate enough traffic. The benefits of A/B testing can be seen as soon as you generate the necessary amount of traffic.

Can You Test a Variety of Things?

Consumer pain points are removed through A/B testing. Shoppers are more likely to convert when friction is removed from the shopping process. 

A number of A/B testing suggestions are available for you to use on your online store:

• Pages with different layouts.
• Page landing and homepage.
• Pages describing products, categories, and products.
• Using social media.
• Testimonials and reviews provide social proof.
• In-app purchases. 
• Click the CTA button and copy the text.
• Images for websites and products.
• By push notification, you’ll be notified.
• Keyword volume and meta descriptions are two SEO tactics.

In Conclusion

It goes without saying that A/B testing is one of the best ways to grow your SEO services. Instead of guessing what your audience actually wants, A/B testing offers tangible insight into what they actually want – allowing you to stop guessing.

Fortunately, Big Commerce merchants have access to A/B tests and CRO tools such as Shogun Page Builder and VWO to improve conversions and make their existing traffic more profitable.