Story-style widgets replace mobile hero banner: +18.6% conversion
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsSwapping a static mobile hero banner for tappable story-style widgets raised conversion rate by 18.6% for snack brand Jackson's.
Blend Commerce ran this two-week A/B test on mobile.
Transactions per session rose 17.28%, but basket value fell.
- Conversion rate: +18.6%.
- Transactions per session: +17.28%.
- Cart completion rate: +19.3%.
- Basket value fell. The size of the drop was not shared, so revenue impact is unclear.
The change
Static mobile hero banner replaced with tappable story-style category widgets.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Mobile pages opened with a static hero banner at the top.
Variant
The banner was replaced by tappable widgets styled like social media stories, each with a lifestyle image linking to a key category.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Story bubbles are a format most mobile shoppers already know how to use, so they invite a tap.
- Each widget is a shortcut to a category, which helps people who would ignore a single static banner.
- Shoppers landed on collection pages rather than product pages. The agency thinks this may explain the lower basket value.
Caveats: The test ran for two weeks on mobile. Basket value fell, and the source describes the problem as a homepage issue but the test as a collection-page change. Sample size and confidence were not shared.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for Jackson's 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 replace the static mobile hero banner with tappable story-style category widgets, then more mobile visitors will browse and buy because the format invites taps and points straight to categories.
- Primary metric
- Mobile conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Average order value
- Revenue per visitor
- Product page view rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with mostly mobile traffic and a few clear categories that a hero banner fails to sell. Watch basket value closely; if your revenue depends on bigger orders, the trade-off may not pay off.
Questions
Do story-style widgets work on ecommerce sites?
In this test they lifted mobile conversion by 18.6% when they replaced a static banner.
Basket value fell, so check revenue too, not just conversion.
Should I replace my mobile hero banner?
If people scroll past it without tapping, it's worth testing.
A row of category shortcuts gives visitors more ways in than one image.
Why would basket value drop when conversion rises?
The agency's view is that shoppers went to collection pages rather than product pages.
A follow-up test linking widgets to product pages was suggested.
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