# Competitor prices above Add to Basket: no clear result, leaned worse

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Comparison charts & tables, Pricing, discounts & savings display
- Test run by: [Paperstone](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/paperstone/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/paperstone/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/paperstone-competitor-prices-above-basket/

Showing competitors' higher prices above the Add to Basket button did not produce a clear result: both add-to-basket clicks and sales came in lower than the original, but the gap was not statistically significant. Paperstone, a UK office supplies retailer, ran this test itself, and it was published as a VWO case study. The team used what it learned to design a second version that put the comparison below the button.

## Result

**no clear result, leaned worse**

- Add to basket: lower than the original, but not statistically significant. We count it as inconclusive.
- Sales conversions: also lower than the original, also not significant.
- Over 12,000 unique visitors, split 50/50. Exact percentages were not shared.

## Control

Product pages showed only Paperstone's own price above the Add to Basket button.

## Variant

Competitors' higher prices were shown on the 5,000 product pages that had competitor price data. The new block sat above the button and pushed Add to Basket further down the page.

## Why it likely came out this way (our reading)

- Pushing the Add to Basket button down the page may have made the main action harder to find.
- Naming competitors could remind shoppers to go and check those sites, especially where the price gap was small.
- A plain list of other prices may have looked like an ad and been skipped.

## Caveats

The result was inconclusive and leaned negative, so treat it as a warning sign rather than proof. Only visitors to the 5,000 product pages (out of 18,000) with competitor data were included, and test length was not shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we show competitors' higher prices on product pages, then more visitors will add to basket because they can see we are cheaper without leaving to compare.
- Primary metric: Add-to-basket rate on pages with competitor data
- Guardrail: Sales conversion rate
- Guardrail: Exit rate from product pages
- Guardrail: Position of the Add to Basket button on screen
- Who should test it: Retailers that compete mainly on price against well-known rivals and have reliable competitor data. Keep the main button where it was; this version suggests moving it down can hurt.

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Credit: Paperstone ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/paperstone-competitor-prices-above-basket/).
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.