Circle category icons in mobile nav: +11% conversion on mobile
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReplacing a text-based category menu with circular category icons raised mobile conversion rate by 11% for Stone Creek Coffee.
Mobile revenue per visitor rose 12%, but both new designs hurt desktop, so the change went live on mobile only.
Blend Commerce ran this A/B/C test across desktop and mobile.
- Mobile conversion rate: +11% with circle icons.
- Mobile revenue per visitor: +12%.
- Mobile subscription revenue per visitor: +385%. That is a very large jump, likely from a small base, so read it with care.
- Pill labels also won on mobile: +9% conversion, +8% revenue per visitor.
- Desktop: both variants lowered conversion and revenue per visitor. This is a negative result for desktop.
The change
Text-based category menu replaced with circular category icons.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Shoppers reached categories through a multi-step, text-based menu. On mobile that meant several taps; on desktop a hover menu did the job.
Variant
Circular category icons gave shoppers visual, one-tap routes into product ranges. A third arm tested pill-shaped text labels instead.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- On mobile the old menu took several taps. Icons cut that to one.
- Images help shoppers recognise a coffee range faster than a text label does.
- On desktop the hover menu was already quick, so the new widgets added little and took focus away from it.
Caveats: Sample size, duration and confidence level were not shared. The win is mobile only; desktop lost, and the brand rolled out on mobile alone.
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 replace the multi-step mobile menu with tappable category icons, then mobile conversion will rise because shoppers reach the right range in fewer taps.
- Primary metric
- Mobile conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Desktop conversion rate
- Revenue per visitor
- Subscription revenue per visitor
- Who should test it
- Stores with several distinct ranges and mostly mobile traffic. Segment results by device, because a design that wins on mobile can lose on desktop, as it did here.
Questions
Should mobile and desktop navigation be the same?
Not always. In this test the same change won on mobile and lost on desktop, because desktop already had a fast hover menu.
Icons or text labels for category navigation?
Both beat the old menu on mobile here, and icons did a bit better.
Test both if your categories are easy to show in a picture.
Why did subscription revenue jump so much?
The case study does not give the baseline.
Large percentage jumps often come from small starting numbers, so check the raw figures before planning around them.
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