# Free shipping progress in the mini cart: -5.9% conversion, +9.2% AOV

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Cart (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Free shipping thresholds & shipping price, Cart drawers & slide carts
- 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/visual-free-shipping-progress-indicator/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-visual-free-shipping-progress-indicator/

Adding a free shipping progress message to the mini cart cut conversion rate 5.9% but lifted average order value 9.2%. Clean Commit ran this test for an anonymized Shopify store and published it in its A/B test library. We treat it as inconclusive: the conversion drop wasn't significant, and revenue per visitor rose 3.2%.

## Result

**-5.9% conversion, +9.2% AOV**

- Conversion rate: -5.9%. Not significant: the original had a 73.7% probability of performing better.
- Orders: -7.0%, and add-to-cart rate fell 3.3%. Negative.
- Average order value: +9.2%, so some shoppers likely added items to reach the threshold.
- Revenue per visitor: +3.2%. Mixed overall, with fewer but larger orders.

## Control

The mini cart showed the cart items and checkout button, with no free shipping progress.

## Variant

A message above the checkout button showed how much more the shopper needed to spend for free shipping. Once the cart qualified, it switched to a confirmation.

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

- Seeing a shortfall right above the checkout button may have made shipping costs feel bigger, so some shoppers left.
- Others added items to unlock free shipping, which raised order value.
- The two effects roughly cancelled out, leaving revenue per visitor close to flat.

## Caveats

No metric reached significance, and the source did not share the total sample or duration. Desktop conversion fell 21.0%, but on only 1,711 visitors, too few to rely on.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we show free shipping progress in the mini cart, then average order value will rise because shoppers will add items to reach a visible reward.
- Primary metric: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Conversion rate
- Guardrail: Orders
- Guardrail: Gross margin per order
- Who should test it: Stores with a free shipping threshold just above their typical order value. If most carts are far below the threshold, the message may mainly remind shoppers of a cost.

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Credit: Clean Commit ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/cleancommit-visual-free-shipping-progress-indicator/).
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.