# 'High demand' scarcity message in cart: +2.7% CR, not significant

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Cart (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Low-stock & scarcity messaging, Sales, urgency & limited-time offers
- 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/scarcity-message-boosts-cart-conversion/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-scarcity-message-boosts-cart-conversion/

A cart message saying the items were in high demand and could not be reserved lifted conversion rate 2.7% and orders 3.1%. Clean Commit ran this 18-day test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library. We count it as inconclusive: even with 141,998 visitors, the result did not reach statistical significance.

## Result

**+2.7% CR, not significant**

- Conversion rate: +2.7%, with an 83.1% probability of beating the original. Not significant.
- Revenue per visitor: +2.8%, and orders +3.1%.
- Average order value: +0.1%, flat. The message changed whether people bought, not how much.
- Mobile responded more, with conversion up 3.2% against 0.9% on desktop.

## Control

The cart showed the shopper's items with no urgency or scarcity message.

## Variant

The cart added a message saying the products were in high demand and that items in the cart could not be reserved and might sell out.

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

- Telling shoppers their items are not held gives them a reason to check out now rather than later.
- The cart is late in the journey, so most visitors there already want to buy. A nudge can only move a small share.
- Many shoppers have seen this kind of message before, which may blunt its effect.
- The small lift on a very large sample suggests any real effect is modest.

## Caveats

Not statistically significant after 18 days and 141,998 visitors. Results are reported by the agency that ran the test.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we tell shoppers their cart items are in high demand and not reserved, then conversion will rise because they act before the items sell out.
- Primary metric: Conversion rate
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Cart abandonment rate
- Guardrail: Customer complaints
- Who should test it: Stores with real stock limits, such as small batches or popular sizes. If stock is plentiful, the claim may be untrue and can harm trust.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-scarcity-message-boosts-cart-conversion/).
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.