What counts as navigation menus
This collection covers desktop mega menus, mobile slide-out and full-screen menus, search inside the menu, category sliders used as navigation, and strips placed directly under the navbar. A few tests changed the menu as part of a larger redesign, such as Kasper Dolk's long-form landing page flow (+259.7% revenue), so the menu's own share of that result is unknown.
The win/loss record
18 results, 18 marked won, 0 losses. Every result reported revenue or conversion gains, but several are monthly revenue forecasts without conversion rates or confidence levels attached. Treat the size of each number with care and the direction of the pattern with more confidence.
Where menus were tested
- Navigation and menu: 14
- Site-wide (strips under the navbar): 2
- Collection page: 1
- Landing page: 1
Biggest wins and their numbers
Merchandise the menu by revenue
Oliver Kenyon's garden furniture mobile menu put search at the top and moved Clearance to first place with a 60% off label and no dropdown: +$92,000/month. In the same vein, a Trending Now best-seller block with clearer category links added +$106,886/month, and reordering the mobile menu by revenue per session with a Best Sellers slider added +$48,607/month.
Want results like this on your store?
Oliver Kenyon at Conversionwise. Oliver co-founded Conversionwise and has spent 13 years helping ecommerce brands turn clicks into customers.
Words sometimes beat pictures
In the tennis gear test, Oliver tested three menu versions. The version with a line of spec under each category and no images beat the thumbnail version, at +$151,192/month. Oliver's reading: images help when products are visual and names are vague, and descriptions help when shoppers choose on spec. Other tests did win with images, such as a visual panel with category images (+$13,192/month) and category icons plus a Best Sellers section (+$42,736/month).
Search inside the menu
A search bar inside the mega menu added +$81,050/month (Oliver Kenyon). Kasper Dolk's optimised site-wide navigation showed +€127,112 revenue across 451,943 visitors, at 90% confidence, which is below the usual 95% bar.
Remove exits
Peter Christensen's Track Order removal (+30% RPV, +24% CVR, 98% significance) was only 6 days in when shared. Oliver's removal of off-site social icons added +$14,598.60/month.
Tests that lost or were flat
None were shared. That reflects what practitioners chose to post, not proof that menu changes always win.
Design patterns that won
- Best sellers or trending products as the first thing in the menu.
- Categories ordered by revenue per session, not alphabet or taxonomy.
- The strongest offer one tap away, with no dropdown in between.
- Search at the top of the menu.
- Delivery, returns and contact links shrunk and moved down; Track Order and social icons removed.
- On mobile, full-screen menus with larger tap targets (+$50,568/month in a test by Oliver Kenyon).
Ideas not yet tested
The ideas in the grid push the same direction. Dave Diederen suggests a featured products section and visual merchandising tiles in the mobile menu. Kasper Dolk suggests grouping collections by problem solved or body part, and adding a dedicated Bestsellers block. Josh Thompson's menu claims come without test data.
How to add or change navigation menus on Shopify
Menu links live under Online Store, Navigation. Mega menu layouts, featured products and in-menu search depend on your theme or a menu app. Pull revenue per session by collection from analytics before you reorder anything.
How to test it on your store
Hypothesis: putting the top revenue collections and search first, and removing exit links, will raise revenue per visitor. Test mobile separately, use revenue per visitor as the main metric, and size the test with the sample size calculator.
Questions
Do mega menus increase conversions?
All 18 menu tests here were recorded as wins. The best results came from changing what the menu showed and in what order, such as Oliver Kenyon's Trending Now best-seller block (+$106,886/month), rather than from adding a mega menu for its own sake.
Should a mega menu have product images?
It depends on the products. In Oliver Kenyon's tennis gear test, one-line category descriptions with no images won at +$151,192/month, while visual panels won in other tests. Test both if your shoppers choose on specs.
What should go first in a mobile menu?
In the winning tests: search, best sellers and the strongest offer. Oliver Kenyon's garden furniture menu put Clearance first with a 60% off label and no dropdown, worth +$92,000/month.