Cross-sell pop-up for a complementary item: +13% AOV, inconclusive
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsShowing a pop-up that suggested a complementary product came with a 13.0% rise in average order value and a 29.0% rise in revenue per visitor.
Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library.
With a 75.6% probability of winning on order value and no significant results, we treat it as inconclusive.
- Average order value, the primary metric: +13.0%, with a 75.6% probability of beating the original. Not significant.
- Revenue per visitor: +29.0%, from both more orders and bigger ones.
- Orders: +15.4%, and conversion rate: +6.5%, so the pop-up did not appear to put buyers off.
- Add-to-cart rate: +7.0%.
The change
The variant adds a pop-up suggesting a complementary product.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Shoppers saw no prompt to add a second, related product.
Variant
A pop-up suggested a complementary product and invited shoppers to add it to their cart.
Why it likely came out this way
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A well-matched add-on reminds shoppers of something they may need with their main item.
- A pop-up is hard to miss, unlike a cross-sell row lower on the page.
- Nearly all visitors were on desktop, where a pop-up is less disruptive than on a phone.
Caveats: The test ran for 62 days but had only 5,921 visitors, almost all on desktop, and no metric reached significance. Mobile results may differ.
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 suggest a complementary product in a pop-up, then average order value will rise because shoppers add an item that goes with what they are buying.
- Primary metric
- Average order value
- Guardrails
- Conversion rate
- Mobile bounce rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with clear add-ons, such as accessories, refills or matching items. If products don't pair naturally, a pop-up is likely to annoy more than help.
Questions
Do cross-sell pop-ups increase order value?
In this test, a complementary product pop-up came with a 13.0% rise in average order value.
The result was not significant, so treat it as a signal.
Do cross-sell pop-ups hurt conversion rate?
Not here. Conversion rate rose 6.5%, but almost all visitors were on desktop, where pop-ups are less intrusive.
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