# Removing social share buttons from product pages: +11.92% clicks

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Social proof, authority & press, Layout, fonts & visual design
- Test run by: [Taloon](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/taloon/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/taloon/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/taloon-remove-social-share-buttons-pdp/

Removing social share buttons from product pages lifted Add to Cart clicks by 11.92%. Taloon, a hardware and building supplies retailer, ran this test itself, and it was published as a VWO case study. Most of the removed buttons showed zero shares.

## Result

**+11.92% clicks**

- Add to Cart clicks: +11.92% versus the original, at 95% confidence.
- The test ran for 2 weeks. Visitor numbers were not shared.
- Sales were not reported, so the effect on orders is unknown.
- Taloon kept the change after the test.

## Control

Product pages had Google+, Pin it and Facebook share buttons right below the product photos. Most showed zero shares.

## Variant

The social share buttons were removed. Nothing else changed.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Share counts of zero can work as negative social proof, hinting that nobody cares about the product.
- The buttons sat in a prime spot near the photos and pulled attention away from Add to Cart.
- Few shoppers share hardware products, so the buttons offered little in return for the space.

## Caveats

This measured Add to Cart clicks only; sales were not reported. The test ran for 2 weeks and sample size was not shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we remove social share buttons from product pages, then more visitors will add to cart because there is less clutter and no low share counts to put them off.
- Primary metric: Add to Cart click rate
- Guardrail: Orders per visitor
- Guardrail: Social referral traffic
- Who should test it: Stores whose share buttons show low or zero counts, or that sell everyday products people rarely share. If social sharing drives real traffic for you, check referral data before removing them.

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Credit: Taloon ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/taloon-remove-social-share-buttons-pdp/).
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.