# Category link on product pages: +8.7% clicks, no change in sales

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Navigation & mega menus
- Test run by: [Clean Commit](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/clean-commit/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://cleancommit.io/ab-tests/adding-category-links-on-product-pages/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-adding-category-links-on-product-pages/

Adding a link from each product page to its category listing raised click-through rate by 8.7%, but conversion rate (-1.1%) and revenue per visitor (-0.3%) did not change. Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library. We count it as inconclusive for sales: shoppers browsed more but did not buy more.

## Result

**+8.7% clicks, no change in sales**

- Click-through rate: +8.7%, a statistically clear lift on the metric the test was built to measure.
- Bounce rate: -5.8%, so more visitors kept browsing.
- Conversion rate: -1.1%, and revenue per visitor: -0.3%. Flat: no clear difference in sales.
- Add-to-cart rate: +1.3%, also too small to call.

## Control

The product page had no link to the category the product belongs to.

## Variant

A link on the product page sent shoppers to a listing of similar products in the same category.

## Why it likely came out this way (our reading)

- The link gave shoppers an easy way to see more options, so they used it.
- Seeing more products did not give them a new reason to buy; most were likely already deciding on the product in front of them.
- Sending shoppers away from a product page can spread their attention, which may cancel out any discovery gain.

## Caveats

Run on 66,172 visitors; test duration was not shared. The sales metrics showed no clear difference, so the click lift should not be read as a revenue win.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we link each product page to its category listing, then shoppers will find a better-fitting product and buy more often because many don't know the full range exists.
- Primary metric: Conversion rate
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Bounce rate
- Guardrail: Add-to-cart rate
- Who should test it: Stores with large ranges where shoppers often land on a product that isn't quite right for them, for example from ads. For small catalogs, expect more clicks but little change in sales.

---

Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-adding-category-links-on-product-pages/).
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.