# Category links with product photos: +13.5% proceed to checkout

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Collection page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Product images & gallery, Navigation & mega menus
- Test run by: [GrowthRock](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/growthrock/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://growthrock.co/visual-consistency-in-ecommerce-ux-the-right-photos-turn-no-difference-into-a-13-increase-in-proceeding-to-checkout-case-study/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/growthrock-electronics-category-links-product-vs-lifestyle-photos/

Adding a 'Discover More' block of links to other categories, shown with plain product photos, lifted proceed-to-checkout by 13.5% for an electronics ecommerce site. GrowthRock ran this A/B/C test for three weeks. The same block with lifestyle photos showed no significant difference.

## Result

**+13.5% proceed to checkout**

- Product photo version: +13.5% proceed to checkout at 97% statistical significance.
- Product photo version: +23% transactions, but only at 89% significance, below the usual 95% bar.
- Lifestyle photo version: no significant difference on any key metric, and none above 50% significance.
- Both the agency and the client's designers preferred the lifestyle version before the test.

## Control

Category pages ended with no links to other categories.

## Variant

A 'Discover More' section at the bottom of category pages linked to other categories. One version used plain product photos and another used lifestyle photos.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Product photos matched the rest of the page, so the section felt like part of the catalogue.
- Lifestyle photos looked different and may have been skipped as ads.
- One category dominated the site, so links to other categories gave shoppers related products they might not have found.

## Caveats

The test ran for three weeks with over 20,000 sessions and 550 checkouts per version. The transaction lift fell short of 95% significance, and the test date was not shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we add links to other categories at the bottom of category pages, using photos that match our product grid, then more visitors will reach checkout because they find related products.
- Primary metric: Proceed to checkout rate
- Guardrail: Transactions
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Clicks on the new section
- Who should test it: Stores where one category dominates traffic and other categories are related. Test more than one design if you can, as the photo style changed the outcome here.

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Credit: GrowthRock ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/growthrock-electronics-category-links-product-vs-lifestyle-photos/).
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.