Do star ratings on featured homepage products lift desktop sales?
Our desktop homepage featured a row of fan favorite products with no ratings. We tested adding star ratings, and star ratings with a call to action. Over 34 days, the star ratings cut conversion 24.8%.
Lost Desktop 34 days Called at 90%
The hypothesis
By adding social proof to the featured products on the homepage, we will give shoppers more confidence in their choice, resulting in more purchases.
The homepage featured a set of fan favorite products, but gave no sign of how buyers rated them. The product pages already showed star ratings, so we pulled those ratings onto the homepage cards.
What we changed
Star ratings added to featured products, with or without a button
Var A added star ratings, pulled from the product pages, to each featured product. Var B added the same star ratings plus a call to action button on each product.
- Star ratings added to featured products
- Star ratings added to featured products
- Call to action button added
The result
Star ratings on featured products cut conversion 24.8%
The star ratings (Var A) cut conversion 24.8% and revenue per visitor 19.3%. The loss reached our confidence bar, so we paused Var A early and let Var B keep running. Stars with a button (Var B) cut conversion 6.7% and revenue per visitor 6.0%. Both trended down from the start, so we paused the test after 34 days.
What we took from it
Users preferred the featured products without star ratings
The ratings added detail to cards that shoppers used to browse, not to decide. Adding a button won back some of the loss, which suggests the cards worked best as a clean path to the product page.
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Read the article →Conversion Rate Optimization
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