Customer photo and video carousel on homepage: +6.1% conversion, mixed
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a carousel of curated customer photos, videos and social posts to the homepage raised conversion rate by 6.1%, but revenue per visitor fell 10.3%.
Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library.
The result is inconclusive: the sample was small and the two main metrics moved in opposite directions.
- Conversion rate: +6.1%, with a 69% probability of beating the original, far from significant.
- Revenue per visitor: -10.3%, a negative result, and -19.2% on mobile.
- Average order value: -14.7%, a negative result.
- Add-to-cart rate: +3.8%, and bounce rate -10.5% (-17.8% on mobile).
The change
The homepage gains a swipeable carousel of customer photos, videos and posts.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The homepage with no customer content.
Variant
A carousel of curated customer lifestyle photos, videos and social media screenshots, swipeable on mobile and click-to-scroll on desktop.
Why it likely came out this way
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Real customers using the product can build trust and keep visitors on the page.
- The featured content may have pointed shoppers to cheaper items, which would fit the lower order value.
- With 2,834 visitors, moves of this size can easily be chance.
Caveats: Small sample: 2,834 visitors over 23 days, with no metric near significance. Conversion and revenue moved in opposite directions.
Who ran it
Clean Commit ran this test for a Shopify store (anonymized) and published the results (Clean Commit A/B test library). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Clean Commit →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show curated customer photos and videos on the homepage, then conversion rate will rise because real-life context builds trust and helps shoppers picture using the product.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per visitor
- Guardrails
- Average order value
- Conversion rate
- Mobile page speed
- Who should test it
- Brands with a good supply of customer photos and videos and enough homepage traffic for a clear read. If you have few visitors, expect a noisy result like this one.
Questions
Does user-generated content on the homepage increase sales?
In this test it raised conversion 6.1% but lowered revenue per visitor 10.3%, so the net effect is unclear.
How many visitors do I need for a homepage UGC test?
More than 2,834, the sample here, which left every metric far from significance.
A sample-size calculator for your baseline rate gives a better target.
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