# Sticky desktop navigation bar: +15.3% conversion rate, not significant

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Navigation & menu (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Navigation & mega menus
- 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/implementing-a-sticky-navbar/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-implementing-a-sticky-navbar/

Fixing the desktop navigation bar to the top of the screen showed a 15.3% rise in conversion rate and 14.0% more orders. Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library. We count it as inconclusive: click-through rate, the metric the test targeted, rose only 0.5%, with a 69.5% probability of beating the original.

## Result

**+15.3% conversion rate, not significant**

- Conversion rate: +15.3%, and orders: +14.0%, across 19,934 desktop visitors. Directional, not significant.
- Click-through rate: +0.5%, with a 69.5% probability of beating the original. This was the primary metric, and it barely moved.
- Average order value: -5.0%, a negative result.
- Revenue per visitor: +9.6%, smaller than the conversion lift because of the order value drop.

## Control

A desktop navigation bar that scrolled out of view as visitors moved down the page.

## Variant

The desktop navigation bar stayed fixed at the top while scrolling, with the logo, menu, search and cart still working.

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

- Keeping the cart and search in view may have made it easier to check out at any point on the page.
- Clicks didn't change, so the nav may not have changed browsing much, which makes the conversion lift harder to explain.
- An 11-day run is short, and the lift may shrink with more data.

## Caveats

The test ran 11 days on desktop only and did not reach significance on its primary metric. Other sticky nav tests have gone the other way, so results vary by store.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we keep the desktop navigation bar fixed while visitors scroll, then click-through and conversion rate will rise because the menu, search and cart are always one click away.
- Primary metric: Click-through rate
- Guardrail: Conversion rate
- Guardrail: Average order value
- Guardrail: Bounce rate
- Who should test it: Stores with long desktop pages and big catalogs where shoppers browse between categories. On short pages or with a slim catalog, a sticky bar may just take up screen space.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-implementing-a-sticky-navbar/).
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.