Social proof with women and men: +6.95% conversion rate
Test run byDave DiederenSyntra Labs
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsShowing social proof that featured both women and men on the product page lifted conversion rate by 6.95% against a page with no social proof. Dave Diederen ran this three-way test for a DTC brand, and the women-only version landed close to control. Revenue per visitor rose 7.83% and profit per visitor 7.94% for the mixed version.
- Conversion rate: +6.95% for women and men vs control (4.54% to 4.85%). The interval shown runs from -4% to +19%, so the lift was not yet certain.
- Revenue per visitor: +7.83% (£1.72 to £1.86). Shoppers who saw the mixed proof spent more per visit.
- Profit per visitor: +7.94% (£1.22 to £1.32), the metric the test was judged on.
- Women-only social proof was nearly flat vs control: 4.63% conversion and £1.73 revenue per visitor.
- Average order value: no change (about £38 in every group). The gain came from more orders, not bigger baskets.
The change
Variant adds social proof showing both women and men customers
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The product page had no social proof section at all. A second variant added social proof featuring women only.
Variant
The winning variant added social proof featuring both women and men. Everything else on the page stayed the same.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- the brand sells to both sexes, and women-only faces may have signalled to men that the product was not for them.
- shoppers look for people like themselves in reviews. A mixed group gives more visitors that match.
- the gap between the women-only and mixed versions suggests who appears in the proof mattered more than having proof at all.
Caveats: The dashboard shows the test started on Oct 30, 2025 with no end date, about four days before the post. Across all groups it had 40,068 visitors and 1,872 orders, and the confidence intervals still crossed zero.
Who ran it
Dave Diederen (@DaveDiederen) shared this test on X. The numbers and screenshots are theirs.
View the original post on X
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show social proof featuring the full mix of our buyers, then more visitors will convert because they can see people like themselves using the product.
- Primary metric
- Profit per visitor
- Guardrails
- Average order value
- Revenue per visitor
- Conversion rate split by traffic source
- Who should test it
- Stores whose product is bought by more than one audience but whose reviews or photos show only one. If nearly all your buyers come from one group, this probably won't move much.
Questions
Does the gender mix in reviews affect conversion?
In this test it did. Social proof featuring women and men converted 6.95% better than no social proof, while women-only proof was almost flat.
Is adding any social proof enough?
Not here. The women-only version barely beat a page with no social proof, so who was shown mattered more than whether proof was shown.
Did mixed social proof raise order value?
No. Average order value stayed around £38 in every group, so the lift came from more people buying.
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