The e-commerce domain is a challenging one as convincing shoppers to buy online is easier said than done. It is so because they do not have a tangible product to experience but make a purchase decision only on the basis of what they see. Additionally, the cut-throat competition in this industry makes survival a tough job for the sellers. However, there are some conventional measures that they adopt to maximize their sales and revenues. Having a visually appealing and high-performance e-commerce is one of them. Also, they need to make sure that the checkout process is well-optimized. A/B testing is a technique that plays a critical role in this context. Before delving deeper, let’s try and understand what A/B testing really is.
All About A/B testing
Sellers need to invest in a sound digital marketing campaign to propel their e-commerce sales. Typically, a digital campaign involves a mix of strategies that are aimed at boosting traffic, conversions and revenues. The mix includes techniques such as SEO, SMO, SMM, content marketing, and more. Marketers not only look to find the perfect mix but also make efforts to measure the value of the campaign. They aim to analyze data and gain actionable insights for better results. This is where A/B testing steps in.
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a comparison between two variations that you try out as a part of your marketing campaign. The variations relate to the elements of the online experience, such as landing pages, headlines, ad text, CTA’s and more. Marketers come up with two versions A and B and compare which one drives better results in terms of conversions. Based on this comparison, they are able to come up with the best combination to craft a near-perfect look and feel for the website. A/B testing is a complex task that requires a lot of skill and efforts. Now it is important to understand whether it is justified to invest in A/B testing for your campaign.
Significance of A/B testing for an e-commerce website
There are a number of ways in A/B testing can help an e-commerce website to improve its performance. Let’s find out more about them:
Enhanced User Experience: The most important purpose of A/B testing for a site is that it enables the seller to enhance the user experience. For instance, it helps them to understand the loopholes in the checkout process and tweak it accordingly. Multiple fields in the forms and wrongly-placed CTAs might be driving the user away. With A/B testing, the seller can identify a list of potential improvements and take action to resolve them. Overall, he can craft a compelling shopping experience with only a few changes, thanks to the results of A/B testing.
Increased Conversion Rate: Conversion rate is perhaps the most significant parameter to measure the success of an e-commerce store. A/B testing serves as a highly effective measure for enticing the visitors to convert into buyers with the help of the right content. By creating two different versions of the campaign, marketers can easily understand what really works and what does not. It may be a lot of hard work but once done well, it can bring home the most amazing results.
Decreased Bounce Rate: While conversion rate is one key metric, bounce rate is another vital one. The biggest challenge for the seller is to find out why visitors are simply “bouncing off” from his site. This can be disheartening because he may have invested a great deal of time and effort for creating an impressive website. With A/B testing, the seller can find the exact causes and try to resolve them to bring down the bounce rate. He could tweak the fonts, headlines, or CTAs and make a comparison between the two versions. The key lies in delivering value from the content so that the user stays long enough and ultimately converts.
Reduced Cart Abandonment: Besides a high bounce rate, a high cart abandonment rate is a matter of concern for the e-commerce seller. There could be various reasons that a buyer puts some products in the cart but fails to complete the purchase. Whatever the reasons may be, high cart abandonment indicates imperfections in the shopping experience. With A/B testing, the seller gets a clear idea about the actual reasons of high cart abandonment rates. Simply tweaking a few things like the text on the checkout page cam make all the difference.
Valuable Analysis: Another key reason that makes A/B testing such a critical tool is that it serves valuable analysis for the seller. It yields real, factual results that come from real-life user data. An expert can easily read the analysis and study simple, straightforward metrics such as conversions, session lengths, etc. With this, it becomes easy to distinguish between the winning and losing strategies and put the best one into action.
Lower Risks: A/B testing is a strategy that involves lower risks and costs for the sellers. Bringing considerable revisions to an e-commerce selling could cost a fortune. Also, there is always a risk of things not really working out as expected. With A/B testing, however, the seller can study the actual results that the changes may bring. In this way, he can invest in only the ones that he is sure about. Hence, it becomes possible to avoid unnecessary risks and take only the right actions. The seller can utilize the resources for maximum efficiency and high ROI.
Conclusion
A/B testing is an effective technique but it requires a great degree of technical expertise and experience. Only a professional can come up with the optimal versions which are to be compared as a part of the strategy. Similarly, a lot of skill and experience is required to read the result of an A/B test. Read https://straydigital.com/how-read-ab-test-results-ecommerce-site/ to get some tips to help you get the best benefits from A/B testing strategy. If you are planning to invest in A/B testing for your e-commerce website, make sure that you partner with experts.
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