Recommendations overlay after add to bag: +9% revenue
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsShowing an overlay with relevant product recommendations when a guest added an item to the bag lifted revenue by 9%.
Ulta Beauty ran this test, and it was published as a VWO case study.
Add-to-bag clicks rose 15.1%, and conversion rate, items per order and bag views all went up too.
- Revenue: +9%.
- Add-to-bag clicks: +15.1%. The overlay gave shoppers more products to add right away.
- Conversion rate: +2.3%. The overlay did not scare people off checkout.
- Items per order: +4.7%, and bag views: +11.5%.
The change
The variant opens an overlay with relevant recommendations after a guest adds to bag.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Adding an item to the bag worked as normal, with no recommendations shown.
Variant
When a guest added an item, an overlay appeared showing products most relevant to that guest.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The moment after adding to bag is when a shopper is most open to a related item, like a brush with a foundation.
- Relevant picks feel like help rather than a hard sell, so more guests added a second product.
- The overlay put the bag in front of shoppers, which may explain the rise in bag views.
Caveats: No sample size, duration or confidence level was shared. The source does not say how the recommendations were chosen.
Who ran it
Ulta Beauty ran this test for Ulta Beauty and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Ulta Beauty →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show relevant product recommendations in an overlay right after someone adds to bag, then more shoppers will add extra items because the moment of purchase intent is when add-ons feel most useful.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per visitor
- Guardrails
- Conversion rate
- Checkout start rate
- Overlay close rate
- Who should test it
- Stores with a wide range of products that pair naturally, such as beauty, skincare or accessories. With a small catalog or weak recommendations, the overlay may just get in the way.
Questions
Do add-to-cart popups with recommendations work?
In Ulta Beauty's test, an overlay with relevant picks lifted revenue by 9% and items per order by 4.7%.
The key is that the picks are relevant to the shopper.
Will a popup after add to cart hurt conversion?
It didn't here: conversion rate rose 2.3%. Still, track checkout starts and give shoppers an easy way to close it.
What should recommendations after add to cart show?
Products that go with what was just added, such as complementary items.
The source says Ulta showed the products most relevant to each guest.
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