Sales carousel replaced a trust-focused hero: -46.2% conversions
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsSwapping a trust-focused homepage hero for a carousel promoting sales and high-value products cut conversion rate by 46.2% and revenue per visitor by 87.6%.
Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library.
The sample was small, at 1,082 visitors over 26 days, so the exact size of the drop is uncertain.
- Conversion rate: -46.2%, a negative result. The original had a 97.1% probability of performing better.
- Revenue per visitor: -87.6%, and orders: -48.0%.
- Average order value: -76.9%, so the carousel did not even push buyers toward the pricier products it featured.
- The test ran on 1,082 visitors over 26 days, so these figures could swing a lot with more traffic.
The change
A rotating sales carousel takes the place of the trust-focused hero.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A homepage hero focused on building trust in the store.
Variant
A carousel banner in the hero that promoted current sales and the store's highest-value products.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The trust message likely did real work for first-time visitors, and removing it cost more than the promotions gained.
- Rotating slides are easy to ignore, and each message only shows for a moment.
- Leading with sales may make a store look less established, which can hurt trust.
Caveats: The sample was small, at 1,082 visitors over 26 days, so the size of the drop is uncertain even though the direction looks clear.
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 replace our homepage hero with a carousel of sales and flagship products, then sales will rise because the homepage gets a large share of traffic and shoppers want to see those products.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Average order value
- Who should test it
- Stores thinking about trading a trust or brand message for promotions in the hero. Be cautious if most visitors are new to your brand, since trust may matter more to them than deals.
Questions
Are homepage carousels bad for conversions?
In this test, a sales carousel in place of a trust-focused hero cut conversion rate by 46.2%.
The sample was small, but the direction was clear.
Should the homepage hero promote sales or build trust?
For this store, trust won by a wide margin.
Test it on your own traffic before swapping a working hero for promotions.
Similar tests
@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon
@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen