Is Magento A/B Testing Will Give a Better Conversions Rate?

Experienced chef always experiments with ingredients and their proportions for a quite a time to achieve a perfect balance and that’s how they create a new recipes. Similarly in Ecommerce merchants struggle to develop their own recipe to provide excellent customer service. They keep on trying different versions of one feature to understand which one resonates with customers in a better way and it’s known as A/B testing. This marketing technique is used to increase conversion rate.

We read numerous praises all over the internet and thought for a moment that is this method 100% effective or are there any hidden pitfalls which one should know?

So, to get a clear picture we discussed this with our Magento experts and came up with all pros and cons which are summarized and analyzed.

Magento A/B testing as a conversion helper

Overall it is considered as a good way to understand customers. Merchants may be able to analysis of what is better for buyers and they keep on testing it until they reach an expected result.

This technique can really help in case of:

1. Doubts in UX design

Based on their own perception, Merchants can’t come to an accurate reply to the questions like “what is the best color for call-to-action buttons? Is the current page layout a best solution for a website? “To get a better UX design merchants need to try various options and see the response of customers.

2. Low conversion rates

A logical outcome of good user experience will result in better conversion rate. The more intuitive a customer journey across a website then there are chances that of more likely they will press a Buy button.

3. High shopping cart abandonment rates

Sellers must take quick measures as they know the fact that 70% of online shoppers abandon the cart at the checkout process. So here A/B testing comes to rescue by finding what is critical for customers at this last stage of a shopping process.

4. Ineffective email marketing campaigns

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with customers and inform them about interesting updates. You can use different variants of a subject line, length, content, visuals, CTA buttons and personalization tactics of an email, sellers can achieve better opening and click-through rates to develop more effective customer communication.

Retailers may use advanced tools like MailChimp or Remarkety to automate and improve Email marketing in their company and they both offer A/B testing as a part of the functionality.

Every coin has two sides… so does the A/B testing:

Till now it’s all good, we mean merchants know what works best for their customers and accordingly they improve their web store but then what are the possible inconveniences:

• Magento A/B testing is a lengthy process.

The main aim behind A/B testing is to see the influence of a specific feature on customer behaviour and that can be done through click or conversion rate. So in such a situation one needs to test one feature at a time for fair results. A typical website will have number of page types and elements and to find a perfect combination for customer-friendly experience might take ages. And if once you reach your desired result then you can start again as website optimization as an ongoing process.

• Coincidence can happen.

In Magento A/B testing it happens that merchants tend to conclude results based on a time limit. For example you have mentioned the behaviour pattern of certain percentage of visitors but it does not mean the outcome will same with the whole audience so remember there is always a chance that findings are random.

• Time frames can lead to failure of promotional campaign.

One cannot define the duration of a testing experiment. And It is all the more important when one needs to test a promotional campaign. One can not only set time frames for playing with different elements like a position and color of a banner but also they must have time to implement changes while the campaign is still on.

• Options will make it complicated

Merchants should take a note that they should know what website element ruins their conversion. But for this they will have to o through great many tests to achieve more or less tangible results. Hence it is important you conduct a preliminary analysis of the pages when potential customers tend to leave not to take stabs in the dark and to define an A/B testing strategy clearly.

Bottom line

Magento A/B testing is unique in terms of seeing a real response of customers to website changes before implementing them permanently. We always encourage them to run this test for improved results. A fair picture will give them a chance to develop a smart strategy.