Percent-off on sale product cards: +1.0% CR, inconclusive
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsShowing the percentage off next to the price on sale product cards moved conversion rate by just 1.0%, an inconclusive result.
Clean Commit ran this test for a Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library.
Across 8,260 visitors in 19 days, the variant had a 53.2% chance of beating the original.
- Conversion rate: +1.0%, with a 53.2% probability of beating the original. Inconclusive.
- Revenue per visitor: +7.5%, and average order value +6.4%, led by desktop. Both are within normal variation.
- Orders: +2.4%.
- Mobile conversion rate dipped 2.4%, so any effect may differ by device.
The change
Sale cards gain a percent-off label beside the price
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Sale items on collection pages showed their prices without stating the percentage discount.
Variant
Sale items showed the percentage price reduction next to the price on the product card. Products not on sale were unchanged.
Why it likely came out this way
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The sale price was likely already visible as a markdown, so the percentage added little new information.
- Only sale items changed, so the share of traffic exposed to the new label was limited.
- Shoppers may judge a deal by the final price more than by the percentage.
Caveats: The test ran 19 days on 8,260 visitors and did not reach significance. The revenue gains are within normal variation.
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 the percentage off on sale product cards, then more shoppers will click into and buy discounted items because the size of the saving is clear at a glance.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Product card click-through rate
- Average order value
- Who should test it
- Stores that run frequent or deep sales and whose collection pages mix sale and full-price items. It probably won't help if your markdowns are small or your sale prices already show a clear strike-through.
Questions
Should I show percent off or dollar amount on sale items?
This test only compared percent off against no label, and found no clear difference.
A percent versus amount test would need its own run.
Do discount badges on product cards increase sales?
Here, adding the percentage moved conversion by 1.0%, which was not a clear result.
If your sale prices are already obvious, the label may add little.
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