# Prominent, guided search with suggestions: -12.0% conversion rate

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Navigation & menu (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Filters, sorting & site search
- 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/search-made-more-prominent-and-guided/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-search-made-more-prominent-and-guided/

Making the search bar more prominent and opening it with examples, product previews and suggested collections lowered conversion rate by 12.0% and orders by 11.3%. Clean Commit ran this 22-day test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library. The drop was not statistically significant, and a rise in order value kept revenue per visitor close to flat.

## Result

**-12.0% conversion rate**

- Conversion rate: -12.0%. The original had an 83.4% probability of performing better.
- Orders: -11.3%.
- Average order value: +11.5%, which kept revenue per visitor nearly flat at -1.6%.
- Add-to-cart rate rose 3.8%, but the extra adds did not turn into orders.
- Flag: not statistically significant after 22 days.

## Control

The store used its original, standard search bar.

## Variant

The search bar was highlighted and opened with search examples, product cards, suggested collections and a 'Customize Your Own' banner linking to that collection.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- A search panel full of suggestions can feel busy and pull shoppers into browsing instead of buying.
- The 'Customize Your Own' banner may have sent people toward a slower, higher-priced path. That fits the rise in order value and fall in orders.
- Several changes shipped in one variant, so it is hard to say which part caused the drop.

## Caveats

Not statistically significant after 22 days, and sample size was not shared. Several search changes were tested together as one variant.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we make search more prominent and show suggestions when it opens, then conversion will rise because shoppers reach high-intent products faster.
- Primary metric: Conversion rate
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Average order value
- Guardrail: Search exit rate
- Who should test it: Stores with large catalogs where many visitors use search. Test each addition on its own, since a crowded search panel can distract shoppers.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-search-made-more-prominent-and-guided/).
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.