One price-aware free shipping message: +7.1% conversion, flat
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReplacing two overlapping free shipping messages with one price-aware message on product pages raised conversion rate by 7.1% and orders by 5.9%, but the result was not statistically significant.
Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library.
We count it as inconclusive, though the signal leans positive.
- Conversion rate: +7.1%, with an 80.6% probability of beating the original. Not significant.
- Orders: +5.9%.
- Revenue per visitor: +2.6%, held back by a 3.4% dip in average order value.
- Desktop conversion rate rose 28.8%, mobile 3.4%.
The change
Two overlapping shipping lines become one message tied to the product's price.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Product pages showed two similar free shipping messages that overlapped each other.
Variant
Each product page showed one message based on its price. Items under the free shipping threshold showed the order total needed to qualify. Items at or above it said they ship free.
Why it likely came out this way
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Two competing messages can confuse shoppers. One clear line is easier to trust.
- Telling shoppers an item already ships free removes a cost worry at the right moment.
- Order value dipped slightly, perhaps because shoppers buying above-threshold items had no reason to add more.
Caveats: 24,464 visitors, and the result did not reach significance. Duration was not shared.
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 overlapping shipping messages with one message based on the product's price, then conversion rate will rise because shoppers understand the shipping benefit at a glance.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Average order value
- Revenue per visitor
- Who should test it
- Stores with a free shipping threshold and products priced on both sides of it. If all products clear the threshold or shipping is always free, a simple fixed message is enough.
Questions
How should I show a free shipping threshold on product pages?
Tie the message to the product. Say it ships free if it clears the threshold, or say what order total is needed if it does not.
Can free shipping messages lower order value?
They can. In this test order value dipped 3.4%, so watch it alongside conversion rate.
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