Does toning down a product option lift desktop sales?
A second formula option sat inside the product box with a filled red button. We moved it out and toned it down. Conversion fell 15.0% in 16 days on desktop, so we paused the test.
Lost Desktop 16 days Called at 90%
The hypothesis
By toning down how the second formula option is styled on the product page, we will keep shoppers focused on the main product while still letting curious shoppers explore, resulting in the same or higher conversion.
The product page offered the main product plus a link to a second formula version. The second option sat inside the product box with a filled red button, so it competed with the main add to cart button.
We wanted to keep the second option on the page for shoppers who wanted it, but make it clearly secondary. The page we tested on was the winning layout from the previous round of product page tests.
What we changed
We moved the second option out of the product box and toned it down.
The control was the winning page from the previous product page test, with the second option inside the product box and a filled red button. Var A moved the option outside the product box, made its strength buttons smaller, and replaced the filled red button with an outline button. The test ran on 1 gummies product page, on desktop.
- Second option moved out of product box
- Strength buttons made smaller
- Filled red button changed to outline
The result
Conversion fell 15.0% on desktop in 16 days, so we paused the test.
Conversion dropped 15.0% against the control and revenue per visitor fell 24.3%. Average order value fell about 11%, so shoppers who did buy spent less.
The same change ran on mobile at the same time as a separate test, and conversion fell there too. We paused both and kept the original styling.
What we took from it
The second option was helping sales, not distracting from them.
We expected the second option to pull attention from the main product. The drop in both conversion and order value says many shoppers wanted it, and toning it down made it harder to find. On this page the option worked as an upsell, so hiding it cost sales instead of focusing them.