# Lighter background on collection pages: -15.1% revenue per visitor

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Collection page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Layout, fonts & visual design
- 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/lighter-background-on-collection-pages/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-lighter-background-on-collection-pages/

Lightening the collection page background cut revenue per visitor by 15.1% and conversion rate by 3.2%. Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library. Clicks to products, the metric the test aimed at, barely moved.

## Result

**-15.1% revenue per visitor**

- Click-through rate: -0.7%, close to flat. The extra contrast did not bring more product clicks.
- Conversion rate: -3.2%, a negative result.
- Revenue per visitor: -15.1%, driven by a 12.3% drop in average order value.
- Mobile took most of the loss, with revenue per visitor down 19.4%. Desktop was near flat at -0.7%.
- Add-to-cart rate: -5.4%. None of the moves reached significance, but every sales metric fell together.

## Control

Collection pages used the store's original background color behind the product grid.

## Variant

The background was made lighter to give the product images more contrast.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- The original background may have been part of the brand look, and a lighter one may have made the store feel less polished.
- More contrast does not help if shoppers could already see the products clearly.
- On small screens, a brighter page can make the grid feel busier, which may explain the mobile drop.

## Caveats

No single metric reached significance, and sample size and duration were not shared. The losses were consistent across sales metrics, so the agency treated it as a loss avoided.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we lighten the collection page background, then more shoppers will click into products because the images will stand out more.
- Primary metric: Click-through rate from collection page to product page
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Average order value
- Guardrail: Mobile conversion rate
- Who should test it: Stores with a dark or busy background where product photos are hard to see. If your grid already reads clearly, a color change is unlikely to help and may hurt brand feel.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cc-lighter-background-on-collection-pages/).
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.