Sticky subcategory pills on the homepage: +8% conversion rate
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsPutting a sticky row of subcategory pills above the fold on the Stone Creek Coffee homepage lifted conversion rate by 8% and revenue per visitor by 9%.
Blend Commerce ran this A/B/C test for the coffee roaster over two weeks.
The pill design beat both the original homepage and a story-style circle version.
- Conversion rate: +8% for the pill variant against the original homepage.
- Revenue per visitor: +9%, so the extra orders did not come at the cost of smaller baskets.
- Collection view rate: +19.41%, meaning far more visitors clicked through into a category.
- Projected impact: about 75 extra orders a month, based on Intelligems projections.
The change
Subcategory links move from low on the page to a sticky pill row above the fold.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The original homepage listed subcategories further down the page. Only 29% of mobile visitors scrolled far enough to reach them.
Variant
A sticky carousel of compact, pill-shaped subcategory buttons sat above the fold. A second variant tested the same idea with round, story-style circles instead.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Most mobile visitors never scrolled to the old subcategory links, so moving them up made them visible to everyone.
- Pills take up less space than story circles, leaving more of the hero and products in view.
- A sticky row stays reachable while scrolling, so shoppers can jump to a category at any point.
Caveats: The test ran for two weeks and the source does not share sample size or confidence level. The 75-orders figure is a projection, not a measured count.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for Stone Creek Coffee and published the results (Blend Commerce A/B test). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Blend Commerce →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show subcategories as a sticky row of pills above the fold, then more visitors will reach a collection and buy, because most mobile users never scroll to the current category links.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Hero or banner click-through rate
- Bounce rate on mobile
- Who should test it
- Stores with several clear product categories and a long homepage, where analytics show few mobile users reach category links. It matters less for single-product stores or sites where category navigation is already at the top.
Questions
Should homepage category links be sticky on mobile?
It can help if most visitors never scroll to your category section.
In this test, a sticky pill row raised collection views by about 19%.
Test it, because a sticky bar also takes screen space.
Pills or story-style circles for category navigation?
Stone Creek Coffee tested both, and the compact pills won.
They use less space above the fold, which leaves more room for the hero and products.
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