# Recommendations overlay after add to bag: +9% revenue

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Upsells & cross-sells, Popups & email capture
- Test run by: [Ulta Beauty](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/ulta-beauty/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/ulta-beautys-palette-for-innovation-starts-with-experimentation/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/ulta-add-to-bag-recommendations-overlay/

Showing 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.

## Result

**+9% revenue**

- 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%.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Conversion rate
- Guardrail: Checkout start rate
- Guardrail: 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.

---

Credit: Ulta Beauty ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/ulta-add-to-bag-recommendations-overlay/).
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.