Recent product views line under reviews: +2.4% transactions
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsOne line under the review stars showing how many shoppers had recently viewed a product lifted transactions by 2.4% and revenue by 1.3%.
Decathlon UK ran this test on 400 product pages, and it was published as a VWO case study.
Returning visitors and products under 10 pounds responded best.
- All visitors: add-to-cart clicks +1.5%, transactions +2.4%, revenue +1.3%.
- Returning visitors: add-to-cart clicks +2.8%, transactions +3.3%, revenue +2.8%.
- The message worked better on items under 10 pounds than on expensive items such as bikes or skis. Exact figures by price were not shared.
The change
A line showing recent product views sits between the review stars and the description.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Product pages showed review stars and then the product description, with no view-count message.
Variant
A single line under the review stars showed how many times other shoppers had viewed the product recently. It only appeared once a product passed 20 views.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A view count tells shoppers others are interested, which reassures them when they are unsure.
- Returning visitors already trust the brand, so they may put more weight on what other shoppers do.
- For cheap items a small nudge can tip the decision. Big purchases need more than popularity to justify them.
- The 20-view minimum kept the message from showing weak numbers on less popular products.
Caveats: The test used AB Tasty's social proof widget. No sample size, duration or confidence level was shared, and segment results came from analysis after the test.
Who ran it
Decathlon UK ran this test for Decathlon 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 Decathlon UK →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show how many shoppers recently viewed a product, just under the review stars, then more visitors will add to cart and buy because they see that others are interested.
- Primary metric
- Transactions per visitor on product pages
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Add-to-cart rate
- Return rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with enough traffic for real view counts and many lower-priced items. Low-traffic stores would show small numbers or nothing, and for high-ticket items the effect may be weak.
Questions
Does showing product view counts increase sales?
In Decathlon UK's test, transactions rose 2.4% across all visitors and 3.3% for returning visitors.
Should I show view counts on every product?
Decathlon set a minimum of 20 views before the message appeared.
A low number can signal that nobody wants the item.
Does it work for expensive products?
Less well, in this test. The message worked better on items under 10 pounds than on investment purchases like bikes.
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