# Social proof and scarcity next to add-to-cart: +25% add-to-cart rate

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Social proof, authority & press, Low-stock & scarcity messaging
- Test run by: [ConvertPolo](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/convertpolo/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/theater-convertpolo-add-to-cart/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/theater-atc-social-proof-fomo-messages/

Adding popularity, scarcity and trust messages beside the add-to-cart button raised Theater's add-to-cart rate by 25%. ConvertPolo ran this A/B test for Theater, a fashion and lifestyle brand, and it was published as a VWO case study. The effect on completed purchases was not reported.

## Result

**+25% add-to-cart rate**

- Add-to-cart rate: +25% against the plain button.
- Purchases, conversion rate and revenue were not reported, so it's unclear how many extra cart adds turned into orders.

## Control

The product page had an add-to-cart button with no urgency cue and no social proof around it.

## Variant

Messages next to the add-to-cart action showed how popular the product was, signalled limited stock, and added trust cues.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Seeing that others are buying a product reassures hesitant shoppers that it's a safe pick.
- Low-stock cues give a reason to act now instead of saving the item for later.
- Urgency can inflate cart adds more than orders, which is why the missing purchase data matters.

## Caveats

Only add-to-cart rate was reported, not purchases or revenue. No sample size, test duration or significance level was published.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we show real popularity and stock messages beside the add-to-cart button, then more shoppers will add to cart, because social proof and scarcity reduce hesitation at the decision point.
- Primary metric: Conversion rate (orders per product page visitor)
- Guardrail: Add-to-cart rate
- Guardrail: Cart abandonment rate
- Guardrail: Return rate
- Who should test it: Stores with real popularity and stock data to show, such as fashion with limited sizes. Skip it if the numbers would be fake or always the same, since shoppers notice and trust drops.

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Credit: ConvertPolo ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/theater-atc-social-proof-fomo-messages/).
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.