# Live search with category links: +13.7% conversion, not significant

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Navigation & menu (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Filters, sorting & site search
- 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/enhanced-search-results-with-clickable-categories-increase-user-engagement-and-conversions/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-enhanced-search-results-with-clickable-categories-increase-user-eng/

Adding live predictive search with clickable category links and product previews came with a 13.7% rise in conversion rate and a 14.7% rise in revenue per visitor. Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify apparel store and published it in its A/B test library. The metric the test was built to move, click-through rate, rose only 1.2% and fell short of significance, so we treat the result as inconclusive.

## Result

**+13.7% conversion, not significant**

- Click-through rate, the primary metric: +1.2%, with a 93.0% probability of beating the original. Not significant.
- Conversion rate: +13.7%, with gains on both mobile and desktop.
- Revenue per visitor: +14.7%, and orders: +11.3%.
- Add-to-cart rate: +5.4%.

## Control

The store's original search, without category suggestions or live product previews.

## Variant

Search updated as shoppers typed, showing matching category links above up to six product previews with image, name, price and availability. It opened as a dropdown on desktop and full screen on mobile.

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

- Category links give shoppers a quick path to a whole collection when a broad term like 'jackets' is typed.
- Live previews with price and availability let people judge products without opening each one.
- A full-screen layout on mobile gives search results room to be read and tapped.

## Caveats

The test ran for 15 days with 53,622 visitors but did not reach statistical significance. The conversion gains were not the metric the test was built to measure.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we add live search with category links and product previews, then click-through rate from search will rise because shoppers find the right products and collections faster.
- Primary metric: Conversion rate of visitors who use search
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Site speed on mobile
- Who should test it: Stores with large catalogs and many category pages, where search is a common route to products. Small catalogs that fit on one page will see little difference.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-enhanced-search-results-with-clickable-categories-increase-user-eng/).
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.