# Recent-buyer count instead of empty reviews: +4.3% conversion rate

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Social proof, authority & press, Reviews & star ratings
- Test run by: [Visually](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/visually/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://visually.io/public/case-studies/branch
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/branch-new-product-recent-buyers-instead-of-reviews/

On new product pages, hiding a thin review widget and showing how many shoppers bought in the past week lifted conversion rate by 4.3%. Visually ran this test for Branch Furniture, an office furniture brand, and published it as a Visually case study.

## Result

**+4.3% conversion rate**

- Conversion rate: +4.3% on new product pages.
- No sample size, duration or revenue figures were shared.

## Control

New product pages showed the standard review widget, which had few or no reviews yet.

## Variant

The review widget was hidden. In its place, the page showed how many shoppers had bought the product in the past week.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- An empty or thin review widget can look like a warning. Removing it takes away a reason to doubt.
- A recent-buyer count still gives social proof, even when there are no written reviews yet.
- 'Bought this week' feels current, which suggests the product is in demand now.

## Caveats

This is vendor marketing, and sample size and significance were not shared. The lift is small, so a test on your own traffic matters.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we replace an empty review widget on new products with a count of recent buyers, then more shoppers will buy because they see proof of demand instead of a blank.
- Primary metric: Product page conversion rate on new products
- Guardrail: Add-to-cart rate
- Guardrail: Return rate on new products
- Guardrail: Review submission rate
- Who should test it: Stores that launch new products often and have enough weekly sales to show a real buyer count. It won't work if weekly sales are tiny, since a low number can hurt trust.

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Credit: Visually ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/branch-new-product-recent-buyers-instead-of-reviews/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.