# Compact navigation bar redesign: no clear change (-0.3%)

- 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/navigation-bar-redesigned/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-navigation-bar-redesigned/

A more compact navigation bar with clearer category grouping made no clear difference overall: conversion rate moved -0.3% across 31,434 visitors. Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library. Desktop leaned strongly positive, but a mobile dip cancelled it out.

## Result

**no clear change (-0.3%)**

- Conversion rate: -0.3% overall, within normal variation. Flat.
- Revenue per visitor: +4.9%, on a 5.3% higher average order value, with orders down 2.0%.
- Desktop: conversion rate +23.9% and revenue per visitor +49.6% on 7,288 visitors. Promising, but a small segment.
- Mobile: conversion rate -4.7%, which cancelled out the desktop gain.

## Control

The store's original navigation bar.

## Variant

A more compact navigation bar that takes less vertical space, with clearer category groups and cart, search and account kept close at hand. It looked the same on desktop and mobile.

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

- The space saved was largest on desktop, which is where the gain appeared.
- On mobile there was less room to save, so the change may have added little or made categories harder to reach.
- Using one design across devices can help one and hurt the other.

## Caveats

31,434 visitors overall; the desktop lift came from only 7,288 visitors and was not confirmed. Test duration was not shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we make the desktop navigation more compact with clearer category groups, then desktop shoppers will buy more because they find products faster and see more of the page.
- Primary metric: Desktop conversion rate
- Guardrail: Mobile conversion rate
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Who should test it: Stores with a tall or cluttered desktop header and a meaningful share of desktop traffic. Mostly-mobile stores should test mobile navigation separately rather than share one design.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-navigation-bar-redesigned/).
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.