# Sticky subcategory pills on the homepage: +8% conversion rate

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Homepage (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Navigation & mega menus, Hero & above-the-fold section
- Test run by: [Blend Commerce](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/blend-commerce/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://blendcommerce.com/blogs/ab-tests-shopify/improving-subcategory-visibility
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/stone-creek-coffee-homepage-subcategory-pills/

Putting 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.

## Result

**+8% conversion rate**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Hero or banner click-through rate
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Blend Commerce ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/stone-creek-coffee-homepage-subcategory-pills/).
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.