Homepage first-screen redesign: +10.86% category visits
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsRedesigning the first screen of the desktop homepage lifted category page visits by 10.86% and purchases by 3.28% for safety equipment store Safety Gear Pro.
Wingify Services ran this A/B test, published as a VWO case study.
Several changes shipped together, so the result reflects the whole redesign.
- Category page visits: +10.86%, so more visitors moved deeper into the store.
- Purchases (thank-you page visits): +3.28%, a much smaller gain than the lift in browsing.
The change
The first screen gains a hero, a category CTA, popular categories and trust points.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The desktop homepage showed little useful information in the first screen. The page had high bounce and exit rates.
Variant
The first screen gained a hero photo of the product in use, a button to the most visited category, a popular-categories section, and points on service, safety and guarantee. The copy spoke directly to price-sensitive, blue-collar buyers.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Many new visitors used the homepage to learn about the company. Giving them service and guarantee points up front answered that need.
- A direct link to the top category and a popular-categories section gave visitors a clear place to go next.
- Copy aimed at the real audience may have made the store feel like it was built for them.
Caveats: Several changes were bundled, so no single element can take credit. The test ran for 20 days on all desktop traffic; sample size and significance were not shared, and the data dates from around 2020.
Who ran it
VWO ran this test for Safety Gear Pro 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 VWO →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we use the homepage's first screen to show the product in use, top categories and trust points, then more visitors will browse and buy because they understand the store and know where to go next.
- Primary metric
- Purchase conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Homepage bounce rate
- Category page visits
- Revenue per visitor
- Who should test it
- Stores whose homepage gets a lot of new visitors and has high bounce rates, especially with a clear target buyer. If most visitors land on product or category pages from search, homepage changes will touch fewer sessions.
Questions
What should go in a homepage's first screen?
A clear picture of what you sell, a path to your top category, and a reason to trust you.
Safety Gear Pro saw more category visits after adding all three.
Why did purchases rise less than category visits?
A homepage change mainly affects browsing. Many other steps sit between the homepage and checkout, so the effect on purchases is usually smaller.
Similar tests
@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon
@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen