@peterac_
@CROguy_
@joshtCROWhat a navigation menu has to do
The menu is the shopper's route to a product when the landing page is not the right one. Its job is to get people to a product page they want with as few taps as possible, and on mobile it is often the second thing a visitor opens.
The tests below treat the menu as a sales surface, not a site map. Almost every winner added something that helps a shopper choose: a best seller, a search box, an image, or a line explaining a category.
Most-tested navigation elements
- Best sellers inside the menu. Oliver Kenyon's Trending Now best-sellers block reported +$106,886/month and +$0.98 revenue per session. A mobile menu reordered by revenue per session with a Best Sellers slider added +$48,607/month, and a best-seller carousel with an in-menu testimonial added +$48,332/month.
- Search in the menu. A search bar inside the mega menu reported +$81,050/month, and a mobile menu with search at the top and Clearance first reported +$92,000/month.
- Images and visual panels. Turning a text-only megamenu into a visual panel added +$13,192/month, and category icons plus a Best Sellers section added +$42,736/month.
- Bigger tap targets on mobile. A full-screen mobile mega menu reported +$50,568/month and lower bounce rates.
Biggest measured wins
The top result, Oliver Kenyon's mega menu with category descriptions and a testimonial, used no product images at all and still reported +$151,192/month. Images are not the point by themselves. Helping the shopper understand which category fits them is.
Want results like this on your store?
Oliver Kenyon at Conversionwise. Oliver co-founded Conversionwise and has spent 13 years helping ecommerce brands turn clicks into customers.
Kasper Dolk's optimised site-wide navigation reported +€127,112 in revenue at 90% confidence across 451,943 unique visitors, the largest sample stated in this set. Peter Christensen's removal of the Track Order link from the main navigation reported +30% revenue per visitor and +24% conversion rate at 98% significance.
Tests that lost (and why)
None of the 14 measured tests lost. That is a gap in the evidence, not proof that menu changes are safe. Most results here are reported as monthly or forecasted yearly revenue rather than conversion rate with confidence levels, and only Kasper Dolk and Peter Christensen state confidence.
If you run your own menu test, expect some to come back flat. The removed Track Order link is a useful reminder that taking links out can matter as much as adding blocks.
Ideas not yet tested
- Milos suggests fixing 'no results' site searches with synonyms.
- Kasper Dolk suggests grouping nav collections by problem solved or body part, adding predictive search with bestseller suggestions, and moving the announcement bar below the navbar.
- Dave Diederen suggests a featured products section inside the mobile navigation and turning the mobile menu into visual merchandising tiles.
- Josh Thompson suggests putting bestsellers on the first tap of the mobile menu with icons and a thumb-friendly layout.
Navigation checklist built from the results
- Put best sellers or trending products inside the menu, on desktop and mobile.
- Add a search bar inside the menu, at the top on mobile.
- Order categories by revenue, not alphabetically or by catalog structure.
- Add one line explaining what each main category is for.
- Make mobile tap targets large and consider a full-screen menu.
- Remove links that pull buyers away from shopping, such as order tracking or social icons.
Tools to run these tests
Menu changes are theme-level, so you need a tool that can split traffic on every page, not one landing page. See the Shopify A/B testing apps comparison and use heatmap tools to see which menu items people tap. For deeper dives, browse navigation menu tests and filter and search tests.
Questions
Do mega menu changes increase ecommerce revenue?
In this collection, all 14 measured navigation tests won. The largest was Oliver Kenyon's mega menu with category descriptions and a testimonial, reported at +$151,192/month. No losing tests have been recorded, so expect your own results to vary.
What should go inside an ecommerce mobile menu?
The winning mobile menus added search at the top, best sellers near the top, categories ordered by revenue and larger tap targets. Oliver Kenyon's full-screen mobile mega menu with larger tap targets reported +$50,568/month.
Should I remove links from my main navigation?
Peter Christensen removed the Track Order link from a store's main navigation and reported +30% revenue per visitor and +24% conversion rate at 98% significance. Oliver Kenyon also won with a mega menu that removed off-site social icons and added images beside categories, reported at +$14,598.60/month.