Yellow to green buttons sitewide: +4.6% conversion, not significant
Test run byClean CommitCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsSwitching every primary button from yellow to green lifted conversion rate 4.6% and add-to-cart rate 5.0%, but the conversion gain was not significant.
Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library.
Green clearly won on clicks, yet revenue per visitor rose only 1.7%, so we count it as inconclusive.
- Click-through rate: green had a 98.2% probability of beating yellow, the clearest result.
- Conversion rate: +4.6%, and add-to-cart rate: +5.0%. Neither was significant.
- Revenue per visitor: +1.7% only, because average order value fell 2.2%.
- Mobile conversion rose 7.3%, but desktop fell 6.8%, a negative signal.
The change
Primary buttons switch from yellow to green; shown here on the product page.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Yellow primary buttons across the site, including add to cart, view all and checkout.
Variant
Green primary buttons with white or black text chosen for contrast and matching hover states. Secondary buttons stayed the same.
Why it likely came out this way
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Better contrast makes buttons easier to spot, which explains the click gain.
- More clicks do not always mean more orders, so the effect faded further down the funnel.
- Mobile and desktop moved in opposite directions, which suggests the color matters less than how it sits in each layout.
Caveats: The conversion gain was not significant, desktop conversion fell, and sample size and duration were 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 change primary buttons to a higher-contrast color, then click-through will rise because buttons are easier to see.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Desktop conversion rate
- Average order value
- Who should test it
- Stores whose main buttons blend into the page or fail contrast checks. If your buttons already stand out, a color change is unlikely to move orders.
Questions
What is the best button color for conversion?
There isn't one. What matters is contrast with the rest of the page, so the main button stands out and its text is easy to read.
Why did more clicks not lead to more revenue?
Clicks are an early step. In this test order value dipped, so revenue per visitor barely moved.
Should I change button colors sitewide or one page at a time?
Sitewide keeps the design consistent, as here. Check each device separately, because results can differ.
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