# Thumbnail strip on mobile product gallery: +1.71% conversion rate

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Product images & gallery
- 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/1-increase-in-conversion-rate-1
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/supplement-brand-pdp-image-thumbnails/

Adding a row of image thumbnails to the mobile product gallery lifted conversion rate by 1.71%. Blend Commerce ran this two-week A/B test for a supplements brand. Add-to-cart and checkout visits also rose, and the thumbnails were kept.

## Result

**+1.71% conversion rate**

- Conversion rate: +1.71%. A small but real gain for a low-effort design change.
- Add to cart: +2.5%. More shoppers moved from browsing to adding the product.
- Checkout visits: +3.44%. The lift carried through the funnel rather than stopping at the cart.
- Confidence level and sample size were not shared.

## Control

The mobile product page showed one main image with no visible thumbnails. Session recordings suggested many shoppers did not realise there were more photos to see.

## Variant

A strip of thumbnail images was added to the product gallery, so shoppers could see at a glance how many photos there were and tap straight to one.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Thumbnails signal that more images exist. Without them, many mobile shoppers assume the first photo is all there is.
- Seeing the product from more angles, plus packaging and label shots, answers questions that would otherwise stall a purchase.
- Tapping a thumbnail is quicker than swiping blind through a carousel, so more images actually get viewed.

## Caveats

The test ran for two weeks. Sample size and statistical confidence were not shared, and the lift is small enough that it could sit within normal noise.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we add visible thumbnails to the mobile product gallery, then more shoppers will add to cart because they will find and view the extra product images.
- Primary metric: Conversion rate on product pages (mobile)
- Guardrail: Page load time on mobile
- Guardrail: Add-to-cart rate
- Guardrail: Image gallery interaction rate
- Who should test it: Stores whose mobile gallery hides extra images behind swipe gestures or small dots, especially where products need close inspection. Less likely to help if you only have one or two images per product.

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Credit: Blend Commerce ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/supplement-brand-pdp-image-thumbnails/).
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.