# Stripping product categories to titles only: fewer product clicks

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Other (SaaS)
- Elements: Copy, Page length
- Test run by: [Sage France](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/sage-france/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/sage-ab-testing/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/sage-france-product-categories-stripped/

Cutting Sage France's product category listings down to titles only made visitors less willing to click into products, so the test lost. Sage France's CRO manager, Marion Ravel, ran the test, and it was published as a Wingify case study. No figure was shared, but the data showed the bare titles did not give people enough to go on.

## Result

**fewer product clicks**

- Clicks into product pages: worse than hoped. Visitors still hesitated before choosing a category. No number was given.
- Negative result: the team dropped the idea and moved to a version with short guiding copy instead.

## Control

Product category listings with plenty of text and several CTAs competing for attention.

## Variant

Each category was stripped of its supporting text and CTAs, leaving only the title.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- Sage sells several subscription products by business size, profession and sector. A bare title rarely tells a visitor which one fits.
- Removing clutter also removed the cues that helped people choose.
- the problem was unclear choices, not too much text. Simplifying without guidance made the choice harder.

## Caveats

No figures, sample size or duration were shared for this version. It is reported as a learning step in a longer series of changes.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we strip product categories down to their titles, then more visitors will click into products because there is less clutter to process.
- Primary metric: Click-through from category listings to product pages
- Guardrail: Homepage bounce rate
- Guardrail: Transactions or trial starts
- Guardrail: Clicks on the wrong product followed by a quick exit
- Who should test it: Sites with a few simple, self-explanatory products might gain from cleaner listings. If your products differ in ways a title can't explain, as at Sage, expect this to lose.

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Credit: Sage France ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/sage-france-product-categories-stripped/).
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.