'Bought today' line under the buy button doubled transaction rate
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a line under the buy button that showed how many units were bought that day doubled the transaction rate on NYX Professional Makeup product pages.
A version showing how many times the item was viewed lifted the transaction rate by 33%.
NYX Professional Makeup ran the test on its French desktop site, and it was published as a VWO case study.
- Purchases message: buy-button click-through rate +43%, transaction rate doubled.
- Views message: buy-button click-through rate +32%, transaction rate +33%.
- Bounce rate fell about 38% for both versions.
- Purchases beat views on every metric shared.
The change
The variant adds a social proof line just under the buy button.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A standard product page with no social proof line.
Variant
Variant 1 added a line under the buy button saying how many units were purchased that day. Variant 2 said how many times the item had been viewed.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Beauty shoppers follow trends, so knowing others are buying an item now is a strong signal.
- A purchase count is stronger proof than a view count, since a purchase shows commitment.
- Placing the line right under the buy button puts the cue at the moment of decision.
Caveats: The test ran for a full business cycle on desktop only, on the French site. It used the testing vendor's own social proof template, and sample size and confidence were not shared.
Who ran it
NYX Professional Makeup ran this test for NYX Professional Makeup 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 NYX Professional Makeup →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show how many people bought an item today under the buy button, then more visitors will buy because they see others choosing it.
- Primary metric
- Transaction rate
- Guardrails
- Buy-button click-through rate
- Bounce rate
- Return rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with enough daily sales per product to show real, believable counts. It can backfire on low-traffic products where the number is tiny, and the counts must be true.
Questions
Is 'purchased today' better than 'viewed' as social proof?
In this test it was. The purchases message doubled the transaction rate, while the views message lifted it 33%.
Where should a social proof message go on a product page?
NYX placed it just below the buy button, where shoppers are deciding.
That spot drew more buy clicks for both versions.
Can social proof counts hurt sales?
Low or fake-looking numbers can reduce trust. Only show real counts, and consider hiding them below a minimum.
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