Category images in the mobile menu: +7.75% revenue per visitor
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding category images throughout the mobile menu raised revenue per visitor by 7.75% for Fame, an apparel brand.
Average order value rose 6.61% and conversion rate rose 1.07%.
Blend Commerce ran this mobile A/B test in Intelligems.
- Revenue per visitor: +7.75%. This is the main metric.
- Average order value: +6.61%.
- Conversion rate: +1.07%. A small gain.
- Checkout starts: +5.92%, and product page views: +1.12%. Collection page views fell 1.26%.
- Intelligems estimated about seven extra orders a month, so the absolute impact was modest.
The change
Category images added throughout the mobile menu, including subcategories.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Fame's original mobile menu listed categories by name, with little visual context.
Variant
The menu showed images for categories, subcategories and the shop-by-style and occasion sections. Fame's team could swap the images without a developer.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- First-time shoppers use the menu to learn what the brand sells. Pictures show that faster than names alone.
- Seeing the product type may have sent shoppers straight to the right items, skipping extra collection pages.
- Style and occasion sections with images help shoppers who don't know which category they want.
Caveats: No confidence level or sample size was shared, so treat the gains as directional. A checkout test briefly overlapped this one, which muddies the checkout numbers.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for Fame and published the results (Blend Commerce A/B test). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Blend Commerce →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we add category images to the mobile menu, then revenue per visitor will rise because shoppers can see the range and reach the right products with less effort.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per visitor
- Guardrails
- Conversion rate
- Checkout start rate
- Menu load speed
- Who should test it
- Apparel and other visual stores with many categories and lots of mobile traffic. It may add little if your range is small or your category names already say it all.
Questions
Should a mobile menu have images?
In this test, images lifted revenue per visitor 7.75% for an apparel brand.
An earlier test by the same agency also found gains.
Will images slow down the mobile menu?
They can if they aren't compressed or lazy-loaded.
Check load speed as part of the test.
How do I keep menu images up to date?
Build it so your team can swap images without a developer, as Fame did. Stale images can mislead shoppers.
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