Does clearer search hint text lift desktop homepage conversion?
The desktop search box was narrow, with a vague hint. We widened it, its dropdown, and wrote hint text naming flower, color or style. Conversion fell 17.6% over 18 days, our 3rd search test without a lift.
Lost Desktop 18 days Called at 90%
The hypothesis
By making the search box larger and adding clearer hint text, we will get more shoppers to notice and use search, resulting in higher conversion, since search users show stronger buying intent.
Shoppers who searched converted better than those who browsed. 2 earlier tests had tried to grow search use: a search field in place of the hero buttons, and a wider, outlined search box. Neither lifted results.
This time we focused on telling shoppers what they could search for.
What we changed
We widened the search box and wrote clearer, more helpful hint text.
The variation widened the search box in the desktop header and widened the preview dropdown below it. The hint text changed to invite a search by flower, color or style. The test ran sitewide on desktop.
- Search box widened
- Hint text: flower, color or style
- Preview dropdown widened
- Sitewide on desktop
The result
Conversion fell 17.6% over 18 days on desktop.
Conversion fell 17.6% over 18 days. Revenue per visitor fell 36.2%, but a few large orders in the control inflated that gap. The drop in conversion was still clear, and we paused the test.
What we took from it
A bigger search box pulled shoppers away from the main paths.
A larger search box likely changed how shoppers scanned the page. Attention moved off the main calls to action, and shoppers browsed more instead of taking a clear next step. On this site, 3 tries at a louder search all fell short of the control.