Advertising free socks with shoes: -0.6% conversion, no effect
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsTelling shoppers that every shoe order comes with free socks, and adding the socks to the cart automatically, made no clear difference: conversion rate moved -0.6%.
Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify shoe store and published it in its A/B test library.
The variant had a 46.7% probability of beating the original, which is close to a coin flip.
- Conversion rate: -0.6%, flat. The difference is well within normal variation.
- Revenue per visitor: -0.6%, and orders: -0.8%. Average order value did not change.
- Probability to beat control: 46.7%, about a coin flip.
- Desktop conversion rose 5.1% and mobile fell 2.2%, but neither split is reliable on its own.
The change
The variant announces free socks by add to cart and auto-adds them.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Every shoe order already included a free pair of socks, but the product page did not mention it.
Variant
A message by the add-to-cart button said every shoe purchase includes free socks. When a shopper added shoes, socks in the matching size went into the cart automatically.
Why it likely came out this way
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A pair of socks is a small extra next to the price of shoes. It may not be enough to change a decision that rests on fit, style and price.
- Shoppers ready to buy shoes were likely going to buy anyway. Those who weren't probably had bigger doubts than a missing freebie.
- An item appearing in the cart unasked may confuse some shoppers, which could cancel out any gain.
Caveats: Sample size and test duration were not shared.
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 tell shoppers about the free gift included with their purchase, then more will buy because the order feels like better value.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Cart abandonment rate
- Gift fulfilment cost per order
- Who should test it
- Stores that already include a gift and want to know if promoting it helps. It is more likely to matter when the gift is valuable compared with the main product; a low-cost add-on to a pricey item may not move anyone.
Questions
Does a free gift with purchase increase conversion?
Not always. In this test, promoting free socks with shoes made no measurable difference.
Should I auto-add a free gift to the cart?
It saves shoppers a step, but it can surprise them.
Test it, and watch cart abandonment as well as conversion.
What kind of free gift is most likely to work?
One that feels worth something next to the main product.
A small add-on to an expensive item may go unnoticed in the decision.
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