Images in the mobile menu: -2% conversion rate overall
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding product images beside category links in the mobile menu cut overall conversion rate by 2% and revenue per visitor by 4% for Oaktree Memorials, a seller of urns and memorial products.
Blend Commerce ran this A/B test in Intelligems.
A later cut of the data that removed one jewellery landing page showed a 20% conversion lift, but that view was found after the fact.
- Conversion rate across all traffic: -2%. This is the headline result, and it is negative.
- Revenue per visitor: -4%, and average order value: -2%.
- Product page views rose 1%, while collection page views fell 3%.
- With traffic from one jewellery product page removed: +20% conversion rate, +15% add-to-cart rate and +4% revenue per visitor. Treat this as a lead, not a result, since the cut was chosen after seeing the data.
The change
Each mobile menu link gets a product image beside it.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The mobile menu used text-only links for categories and subcategories.
Variant
Approved product images sat beside the relevant category and subcategory links in the mobile menu.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Images may help people who are unsure which category holds the right urn. Most visitors to this site were first-time visitors.
- Shoppers who landed on a jewellery page may have met more choice or a less direct route, which could explain the drop in that group.
- Fewer collection page views suggest the images sent some people to products directly, which suits some shoppers and not others.
Caveats: Statistical confidence was not reported, and the positive view comes from excluding one landing page after the test ended. Sample size and duration were not shared.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for Oaktree Memorials 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 product images beside category links in the mobile menu, then more first-time visitors will find the right product and buy, because they can recognise each category at a glance.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Collection page views
- Conversion rate by landing page
- Who should test it
- Stores with a broad or unfamiliar range where category names alone are hard to read, and many first-time mobile visitors. Segment by landing page before you roll it out, as the effect can differ by product line.
Questions
Do images in a mobile menu increase conversions?
Not always. In this test they lowered overall conversion rate by 2%, though one group of shoppers seemed to respond well.
What is a post-hoc exclusion in an A/B test?
It means removing a segment of traffic after you have seen the results.
It can point to a useful idea, but it can also find patterns by chance, so it needs a fresh test.
Should I roll out a menu change to only some categories?
It can make sense when one product line clearly benefits.
Oaktree Memorials kept the images only on urn subcategory menus and planned to study jewellery shoppers separately.
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