Care-package homepage promo vs self-care: +250% click-through
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA homepage promotion themed on sending care packages to loved ones got a 250% higher click-through rate than one themed on self-care at home.
The Lush team ran this A/B test in 2020, published as a VWO case study, and the care-package version also brought in about $7,500 more in sales during the test.
- Click-through rate: 250% higher for the care-package promo than the self-care promo.
- Sales: about $7,500 more for the care-package version during the test.
- Lush couldn't tell whether shoppers bought the packages for others or for themselves.
The change
Same homepage layout; the promo theme changes from self-care to care packages.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A homepage promotion built around self-care, encouraging shoppers to put together a full at-home routine for themselves.
Variant
A homepage promotion built around sending care packages to friends and family who couldn't be visited in person.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Early in the pandemic, a way to reach people you couldn't see may have felt more meaningful than self-care.
- Gifting gives shoppers a reason to buy now, for someone else, rather than a nice-to-have for themselves.
- The theme matched the mood of the moment without ignoring it.
Caveats: Both promos were new campaigns that replaced a travel campaign early in COVID-19, so neither was an original control. No sample size, duration or confidence level was shared, and the result may not carry over to normal times.
Who ran it
Lush ran this test for Lush 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 Lush →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we frame our homepage promotion around gifting to others instead of treating yourself, then click-through and sales will rise because shoppers have a clearer reason to buy now.
- Primary metric
- Homepage promo click-through rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Average order value
- Homepage bounce rate
- Who should test it
- Brands with giftable products and a homepage hero that drives traffic. It may not hold in periods when people aren't separated from friends and family, so retest the theme as conditions change.
Questions
Does promo messaging matter more than design?
Here the layout stayed the same and the theme alone produced a large gap in clicks.
Message and timing can matter a great deal.
Is gifting messaging better than self-purchase messaging?
It was in this test, during an unusual period.
It's worth testing for any giftable product, but don't assume the size of this gap.
How should I test seasonal homepage campaigns?
Run two themes side by side, as Lush did, rather than comparing one campaign to last month. That removes timing as an explanation.
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