# Same promo message on category and product pages: +3.7% purchases

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Collection page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Bestseller badges & product labels, Pricing, discounts & savings display
- Test run by: [Optimizely](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/optimizely/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.optimizely.com/field-notes/articles/experimentation-use-cases-retail-category-page
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/optimizely-retailer-promo-messaging-category-and-pdp/

Showing the same promotional message on both category and product pages for eligible items raised purchase rate by 3.7% and add-to-cart rate by 10.5%. Optimizely ran the test for an online retailer and published it as an Optimizely Field Notes use case. The details of the promotion itself were not shared.

## Result

**+3.7% purchases**

- Purchase rate: +3.7%. This is the headline number.
- Add-to-cart rate: +10.5%.
- Optimizely reports the category-page message lifted clickthrough to product pages, though no figure was given.
- Sample size, duration and confidence level were not shared.

## Control

Promo-eligible items did not carry a consistent promotional message across category and product pages.

## Variant

Eligible items showed the same promo message on the category page and again on the product page.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Seeing the offer on the category page gives shoppers a reason to click into an item.
- Repeating it on the product page confirms the offer still applies at the point of decision.
- Consistent wording removes doubt about whether a deal is real or which items qualify.

## Caveats

Anonymized vendor summary with no sample size, duration or confidence level. The promotion and message wording were not described.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we show the same promo message for eligible items on both category and product pages, then purchase rate will rise because shoppers see the offer early and have it confirmed when deciding.
- Primary metric: Purchase rate
- Guardrail: Gross margin per order
- Guardrail: Add-to-cart rate
- Guardrail: Purchases of non-promo items
- Who should test it: Retailers running promotions on only part of the catalog. If a site-wide sale already shows in a banner everywhere, item-level messaging will add less.

---

Credit: Optimizely ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/optimizely-retailer-promo-messaging-category-and-pdp/).
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.