Shop by Category moved under the homepage hero: -6.2% conversion
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsMoving the Shop by Category section up to sit directly under the homepage hero cut conversion rate 6.2% and revenue per visitor 7.6%.
Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library.
The drop was not significant, but it was enough to keep the change from shipping.
- Conversion rate: -6.2%. Negative, but not statistically significant.
- Revenue per visitor: -7.6%, and orders fell 6.4%.
- Add-to-cart rate: -11.0%, the largest drop.
- Click-through rate, the goal metric: flat at -0.1%. By device, mobile conversion fell 13.6% while desktop rose 8.8%.
The change
The variant moves Shop by Category up to sit directly under the hero.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The Shop by Category section sat lower down the homepage.
Variant
The Shop by Category section moved up to sit directly beneath the hero, putting category links earlier on the page.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The section it pushed down may have done more selling, such as featured products or offers.
- On mobile, category tiles under the hero take up the whole screen, which may have delayed shoppers from seeing products.
- Visitors who wanted categories could likely already reach them through the menu, so moving the section added little.
Caveats: 11,001 visitors over 18 days, a small sample, and the drop was not significant. Mobile and desktop moved in opposite directions.
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 move Shop by Category directly under the hero, then more visitors will click into categories because the links are seen sooner.
- Primary metric
- Category click-through rate
- Guardrails
- Conversion rate
- Add-to-cart rate
- Mobile revenue per visitor
- Who should test it
- Stores with broad catalogs where many visitors arrive unsure what to buy. If your homepage already sells through featured products, moving them down may cost you, as it did here.
Questions
Should category links go right under the homepage hero?
Not always. Here it cut conversion 6.2% without raising category clicks, so test it before you commit.
Why did mobile and desktop react differently?
Mobile conversion fell 13.6% while desktop rose 8.8%.
On small screens, a category block can push products far down the page.
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