Navigation Menu A/B Tests: 14 Measured Wins and 13 Ideas

Why the menu matters

The navigation menu is where shoppers who don't land on a product go to find one.

On mobile it hides behind a hamburger icon, so whatever sits on the first screen of the menu does most of the work.

Every winning test here changed what shoppers see first when they open it.

Measured results

Bestsellers inside the menu

This is the biggest cluster. Oliver Kenyon added Trending Now bestsellers with clearer category links (+$106,886/month, +$0.98 revenue per session), a Best Sellers slider on a mobile menu reordered by revenue per session (+$48,607/month), a best-seller carousel with an in-menu testimonial (+$48,332/month) and a Best Sellers section with category icons (+$42,736/month).

A

→

B

+$106,886 per month

Mega menu: added Trending Now best-sellers, clearer category links, simpler layout

Navigation & menuNavigation & mega menus@oliverkenyon

A

→

B

+$48,607 per month

Mobile menu reordered by RPS with Best Sellers slider

Navigation & menuSubscriptions & subscribe-and-save@oliverkenyon

A

→

B

+$48,332 per month

Mobile menu: best-seller carousel, categories reordered by revenue, in-menu testimonial

Navigation & menuReviews & star ratings@oliverkenyon

A

→

B

+$42,736 per month

Added category icons and a Best Sellers section with product images to the megamenu

Navigation & menuProduct images & gallery@oliverkenyon

Search in the menu

Oliver Kenyon's search bar inside the mega menu added $81,050/month.

A mobile menu with search at the top and Clearance listed first with a 60% off label added $92,000/month, and a mega menu with search, top-two collection visuals and USPs added $13K/month.

Images, descriptions and tap targets

Adding visuals helped: a text-only megamenu turned into a visual panel (+$13,192/month), gender tabs with thumbnails (+$22,000/month) and a full-screen mobile menu with larger tap targets (+$50,568/month).

Images are not required, though. Oliver Kenyon's largest result came from a mega menu with category descriptions and a testimonial, and no product images: +$151,192/month. Clear words did the job there.

Removing distractions

Two wins came from taking links out. Peter Christensen removed the 'Track Order' link from the main navigation and saw +30% revenue per visitor and +24% conversion rate at 98% significance.

Oliver Kenyon removed off-site social icons and added category images (+$14,598.60/month).

Losing or flat tests

There are none in this hub. Treat that with caution: most of these results are reported as monthly revenue figures from a single practitioner, and several changed many things at once, so you can't tell which part did the lifting.

Untested ideas

The 13 ideas lean the same way as the wins.

Kasper Dolk suggests a dedicated Bestsellers block in the nav bar, grouping collections by problem solved or body part, and moving the announcement bar below the navbar so it actually gets read.

Dave Diederen suggests a featured products section or visual merchandising tiles in the mobile menu.

Josh Thompson reports results for bestsellers on the first tap of the mobile menu (+19% mobile CVR) and a simplified hamburger menu (+27% completed purchases), but no test data is shown, so treat them as ideas to test.

Patterns that won

• Put bestsellers or trending products on the first screen of the menu.
• Order categories by revenue, not by habit.
• Add search inside the menu, at the top on mobile.
• Make labels clear, with a short description, an image or both.
• Remove links that send people away from shopping, like order tracking or social icons.

Related tests elsewhere

Navigation changes overlap with search, announcement bars and collection page tests.

If your menu already surfaces bestsellers, the next step is usually the collection page those links lead to.