Brand drop-down replaced with buttons: +33.4% conversions
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReplacing a brand drop-down with a list of green buttons raised purchases by 33.4% for Dachfenster-rollo.de.
The agency ClickValue ran this test for the German window-blind shop, and it was published as a VWO case study.
A second variant, with brand names as orange text, rose 18.1% but did not reach significance.
- Variant 2 (green buttons): +33.4% conversions, reported as statistically significant after 53 days.
- Variant 1 (orange text list): +18.1% conversions, but at only 86% confidence, so treat it as unproven.
- The goal tracked was the final purchase, not just clicks to the next step.
The change
The brand drop-down is replaced by one green button per brand.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
On the page where shoppers pick the brand of their window, they had to open a drop-down list to see the brands. They then chose size, material and type on the next page.
Variant
Variant 2 showed each brand as its own green button, stacked like a list. Variant 1 listed all brand names as orange text with no drop-down.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A drop-down hides the options. Shoppers who aren't sure which brand they have can't scan the list.
- Showing every brand at once removes a click and lets shoppers spot their window brand fast.
- Buttons look clickable, so the next step is obvious, which may explain why they beat plain text.
Caveats: Small test: about 2,000 visitors split across three versions over 50-53 days, so the lift is likely overstated. The variant 1 result is not significant.
Who ran it
ClickValue ran this test for Dachfenster-rollo.de and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on ClickValue →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show options as visible buttons instead of a drop-down, then more shoppers will move through the configurator and buy, because they can see and pick their option in one tap.
- Primary metric
- Purchase conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Progression to the next configurator step
- Wrong-selection returns
- Average order value
- Who should test it
- Stores with a short list of choices hidden in a drop-down, especially in product configurators. With dozens of options, a full button list can get long, so a search or grouped list may work better.
Questions
Are buttons better than drop-downs for product options?
For short lists, often yes. At Dachfenster-rollo.de, green brand buttons beat the drop-down by 33.4% in a small test.
When should I keep a drop-down?
When there are many options and listing them all would push the rest of the page down too far.
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