Designing an e-commerce site: AB testing or how to identify the preferences of visitors to a website

In a previous article, we discussed the impact that the choice of colors can have on the subconscious of users and recommend you conduct tests to better target preferences of your visitors. Today, we present the solution of AB testing or multivariate testing, which, in a significant traffic to test directly to your users. To illustrate this solution, we will rely on the DYMO case.

Impact of color on the subconscious Users

A judicious use of color contributes greatly to the success of a website. Thus, it will take into account the psychological meaning of colors. The subconscious of many people, for example, tend to associate red with a sense of danger. It may therefore be disadvantageous to opt for a red "disconnect" button, the intention is not to create a sense of danger to potential buyers. However, red can suggest several positive like love, passion or enthusiasm impressions. In some industries, it is strongly recommended to cause such associations. For now DYMO, he even found a "Buy Now" red button encouraged purchases. DYMO is how he achieved this? By conducting a simple test A / B. Presentation.

Experience the colors

DYMO, a manufacturer of printers this label globally, conducted a field survey on its online store in 2007 to observe the effect of different colors on its conversion rate. The first phase of testing focused around the "Buy Now" button that was previously shown in light blue. Under the test, a dark blue button, in line with the Corporate Design, and a bright red stain version ostensibly the rest of the page were compared. Despite their doubts about the likely uptake of red button with a stop sign, testers still experimented with 90% of visitors to the shop to get a relevant result. Only 10% of visitors were confronted with the old version of the site during this test A / B. In the end, it turned out that red was higher than the light or dark blue 4.03% impact. This result is significant, site designers have decided to replace the "Buy Now" button light blue with a red button on the long term. According to the results of a survey conducted by the developers of the HubSpot marketing software, it is a good choice since this color turns better than the green, other colors commonly used for the "add to cart" button. The study asserts that the red button saves 21% more clicks than the green button.

After clicking "Buy Now", DYMO customers were redirected to a page to order accessories designed for the selected product. The first version of the site, you had to click on "Add to Cart" light blue button to proceed to the next step of the purchase. Web designers also studied the potential impact if the same button was represented in a bright color such as red and green. Unlike the previous experiment, the light blue face has become red. Once the "Add to Card" button is clicked, visitors arrive at a page for selecting the desired amount of product. Again, the color of the button has been tested and the green was a surprise because users were significantly more responsive to your clear that blue. If DYMO did not quantify the exact percentage of this preference, the difference would be striking.

In addition, web designers DYMO led other experiments in which the colors were not playing the leading role. Thus, they have seen a "Proceed to Checkout" button improves the largest conversion of 44%! The choice of text written in the buttons has also been a source of improvements. Also, the "Proceed to Cart" recorded more than the "Add to Cart" score 21%. Meanwhile, DYMO has done a complete overhaul of its website. Therefore, the results of A / B testing conducted in 2007 are currently only visible on the screenshot inserted earlier in the article.

Michael Klazema, Web Director Marketing & Customer Relations Manager at MarketingSherpa DYMO told that it was "interesting to see that some colors at point’s data could generate a positive effect in some situations when they had a negative impact on the contrary. If the green worked well for the "Shopping Cart" button, it did not convince in other situations. Users are in another state of mind when making the disconnection. We realized that we needed to test the appearance of the site in the long term to ensure that we are by draw wrong conclusions rather than settle for a unified look and feel across the site. "

Our advice: test the influence of different colors. Several tools such as Google Website Optimizer or Virtual Website Optimizer make the implementation of A / B testing very easy. In these tests, two versions of the site are generated and then compared. At the end of the test, a winner will be chosen, if indeed one of the two versions apart. Since this technique depends on the number of visitors exposed to some version of the online store, you can carry out original experiments without losing your customers over the long term.