A/B Testing in eCommerce: A Complete Guide to Increasing Conversions with Top Shopify Apps

Ellie Ho

June 27, 2025

•

5 min read

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Guessing and hypothesis are the start of optimization. However, in the world of eCommerce, it can be expensive.

What if you could trade those guesses for data? What if you could ask your customers directly which version they prefer, not through a survey, but by observing their actions?

That’s the power of A/B testing. It’s the single most effective way to let your customers tell you exactly what they want, so you can make smarter decisions that lead to more revenue.

In this guide, we’ll break down what A/B testing really means for your online store. We'll explore why it's a non-negotiable tool for growth and introduce you to the best apps on Shopify that put this power right at your fingertips, including a brand-new feature from Boost Commerce.

What is A/B testing in eCommerce: From guesswork to growth

Let's ditch the technical jargon for a moment. At its core, A/B testing is a straightforward concept.

Imagine you’re standing in front of two doors, and behind one is a better prize. You don’t know which one. So, you send half of your friends through Door A and the other half through Door B. You count how many from each group find the prize. Whichever door has the higher success rate is the one you’ll use from now on.

That’s A/B testing.

In eCommerce, it works the same way. You take one element on your website, such as a product page or a merchandising rule, and create a new version of it.

Version A (The Control): This is your original, the way things are right now.
Version B (The Variant): This is the new idea you want to try.

You then show Version A to one group of shoppers and Version B to another group, completely at random. The system tracks the behavior of each group. Do they click more? Do they add more items to their cart? Do they spend more money?

The version that performs better against your goal is your winner. You then make the winning version permanent for all your visitors and move on to the next test. It’s a continuous cycle of learning and improving, backed by real customer behavior, not just a hunch.

How does A/B testing benefit your online stores?

Making decisions based on data might sound complex, but the benefits are incredibly straightforward. When you embrace A/B testing, you unlock some of the most powerful levers for growth in your business.

The goal of A/B testing isn’t just to find a winning button color; it’s to establish a direct line of communication with your customers, allowing their actions to guide your strategy.

Turn More Visitors into Buyers: The most obvious benefit is a higher conversion rate. By testing elements like your headlines, product descriptions, button colors, and page layouts, you can systematically remove friction from the buying process. Each winning test makes it a little easier for a customer to say "yes."
Increase Your Average Order Value (AOV): A/B testing isn't just about getting the first sale. It’s about making that sale bigger. You can test different cross-sell strategies, product bundle offers, and merchandising rules to see which ones encourage shoppers to add more to their cart.
Discover What Your Customers Truly Want: Your customers are leaving clues all over your website. A/B testing helps you decipher them. You might think your "minimalist" homepage design is chic, but a test might reveal that a more product-focused layout leads to 20% more clicks. Testing is the ultimate form of listening.
Make Changes with Confidence, Not Fear: Redesigning a product page or changing a promotion strategy can feel risky. What if it doesn’t work? A/B testing removes that fear. You can test your new idea on a small portion of your traffic first. If it works, you roll it out with the confidence that it’s the right move. If it doesn’t, you’ve avoided a costly mistake.

Top 3 A/B testing apps for Shopify merchants

Getting started with A/B testing doesn't require a team of data scientists. The Shopify ecosystem is full of incredible tools that make it easy. Here is a comparison of our three favorites for different areas of your business.

Tool	Primary Use Case	What You Can Test
Boost Commerce (Boost AI Search & Discovery)	On-site Merchandising	Product sorting rules, promotional logic, and product orders and banners on collection pages, as well as search results pages.
Klaviyo	Email & SMS Marketing	Subject lines, email content, send times, and promotional offers.
Shogun Page Builder	Landing Page Design	Page layouts, headlines, images, videos, and call-to-action buttons.

1. Boost AI Search & Discovery: Test Your Product Merchandising

While testing buttons and headlines is important, what about testing the very logic that decides which products your customers see?

Your merchandising rules are some of the most powerful tools you have to manipulate the product listings.

You set them up to promote certain products, bury others, and guide your customers' shopping journey. But how do you know if your “Boost Bestsellers” rule is actually more profitable than a “Boost Items with High add-to-cart ratio” rule?

“We realized merchants were guessing about their most powerful tool: merchandising. Our A/B testing feature was built to replace those guesses with data, letting them see which product strategies actually lead to more revenue.” - Jamie Do, Product Manager at Boost Commerce.

That’s why we’re so excited to introduce A/B Testing for Merchandising, a brand-new feature now available in Boost AI Search & Discovery for Professional plan users.

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Here’s how it works:

Pick a Rule to Test: You start with one of your existing merchandising rules. This is your "control," the current champion.
Create a Challenger: You then create a "variant," a different merchandising strategy you want to test against it. For example, your control might boost products with the most sales, while your variant boosts products with the newest arrivals.
Set a Goal and Split the Traffic: You tell Boost what you're aiming for, whether it's a higher conversion rate or more total revenue. We’ll automatically split your shoppers into two groups, showing each one a different version of your collection or search results page.
Get a Clear Winner: Our analytics dashboard tracks everything in the background. You don’t need to be a data expert. We’ll show you in simple terms which version is performing better and declare a winner, so you can confidently adopt the more profitable strategy.

6 Merchandising and Promotion Hacks Top eCommerce Sites Are Using

This feature allows you to answer critical business questions with data. Should you promote items with the highest ratings or the ones that are trending? Does hiding out-of-stock products improve conversions more than leaving them visible? With A/B Testing for Merchandising, you can finally stop guessing.

Refer to the comprehensive A/B Testing guide for Merchandising.

2. Klaviyo: Test Your Email and SMS Marketing

Your communication with customers is a goldmine for testing. Klaviyo is a leader in email and SMS marketing, and its A/B testing capabilities are incredibly user-friendly.

With Klaviyo, you can easily test every part of your marketing messages to find out what resonates most with your audience, including:

Subject Lines: Is a question more engaging than a statement? Does including an emoji increase your open rates?
Email Content: Does a GIF get more clicks than a static image? Is a long, story-based email more effective than a short, direct one?
Offers and Promotions: Does a 20% off coupon convert better than a “Free Shipping” offer?

Klaviyo lets you test these ideas on a small segment of your audience, automatically sends the winning version to the rest, and gives you clear reports on what worked. It’s an essential tool for maximizing the return on your marketing efforts.

Great news: Boost integrates with Klaviyo to help you segment your audience dynamically and automate email flows based on real-time search activities.

Check out:

3. Shogun Page Builder: Test Your Landing Page Visuals

Your store's design and layout play a huge role in guiding customers toward a purchase. Shogun Page Builder is a powerful drag-and-drop tool for creating custom pages, and its built-in A/B testing functionality lets you optimize every visual element.

With Shogun, you can test different versions of your key pages to see what drives more action:

Page Layout: Does a two-column product grid outperform a three-column one on your collection pages?
Media: Does a product video lead to more "Add to Carts" than a series of images?
Social Proof: Are customer testimonials more effective when placed near the top of the page or closer to the buy button?

Shogun makes it simple to create two different page designs and measure which one leads to better business outcomes. It’s the perfect tool for fine-tuning the look and feel of your store for maximum impact.

A Simple Framework to Get Started with A/B Testing

Feeling inspired? You don’t have to overhaul your entire store at once. The key to successful A/B testing is to start small and be consistent. Here’s a simple framework:

Pick One Goal. Don’t try to test everything at once. Choose a single, specific metric you want to improve. For example: “I want to increase the click-through rate on my 'Summer Collection' page.”
Form a Hypothesis. This is your educated guess. It should be a clear statement. For example: “I believe that boosting products with a 'New Arrival' tag will get more clicks than boosting products based on 'Best-Sellers,' because my customers are interested in what's new.”
Run Your Test and Learn. Use a tool like Boost, Klaviyo, or Shogun to set up your test. Let it run long enough to get meaningful results (usually at least a week, depending on your traffic). Whether your hypothesis was right or wrong, you’ve learned something valuable.

Final Thoughts: The Only Bad Test Is the One You Don't Run

Moving from a business run on hunches to one run on data is the single biggest step you can take toward sustainable growth. A/B testing demystifies what your customers want, providing a clear path forward.

The tools are more accessible and easier to use than ever before. You have the power to ask the right questions and get definitive answers. So, what’s your first question?

Install the Boost AI Search & Discovery app and start A/B testing with a 14-day free trial!

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Frequently Asked Questions about A/B Testing

1. What is the difference between A/B testing and multivariate testing?

A/B testing compares two versions of a single element (e.g., green button vs. blue button). Multivariate testing compares multiple versions of multiple elements simultaneously (e.g., testing two headlines, two images, and two buttons all at once) to see which combination performs best. A/B testing is simpler and more effective for obtaining clear answers on specific changes, while multivariate testing is more complex and better suited for complete redesigns.

2. How long should I run an A/B test?

The ideal duration depends on your website traffic, but a good rule of thumb is to run a test for at least one to two full weeks. This helps ensure you capture different shopping behaviors across weekdays and weekends. The most important factor is achieving “statistical significance”, which means you have sufficient data to be confident that the results aren't due to random chance. Most A/B testing tools will tell you when you've reached this point.

3. Can I run an A/B test for other features, such as search, recommendations, or product bundles?

Not at this time. Our initial launch of the A/B testing feature is focused exclusively on Merchandising rules, as this is one of the most powerful ways to influence customer behavior on collection and search pages. However, we build our app based on what our merchants need most. If you'd like to see A/B testing for other features, such as Recommendations or Predictive Bundles, we encourage you to add your voice to our public roadmap.

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Ellie Ho

•

Content Marketing Specialist

June 27, 2025

•

5 min read

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A/B Testing in eCommerce: A Complete Guide to Increasing Conversions with Top Shopify Apps

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