# Advertising free socks with shoes: -0.6% conversion, no effect

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Free gifts & gift with purchase
- 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/free-socks-promotion/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-free-socks-promotion/

Telling 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.

## Result

**-0.6% conversion, no effect**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Cart abandonment rate
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-free-socks-promotion/).
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.