Now that you’ve learned all about the different types of tests and KPIs, our final article will give you the most important points at a glance. You will learn why you should use tests in the first place, what makes a test successful, and how a test is evaluated.
Why Is Testing Important for Your Online Shop?
Improve the User Experience
By testing different elements of your site, you can improve the user experience and ensure that your visitors have a positive shopping experience. They will find what they are looking for easily and remember your shop positively.
Increase Conversion Rates
Probably the most sought-after goal of an e-commerce business is to increase conversion rates. Testing can help you do just that. Not only can you find out which designs work best for your users, but you can also test and optimize the placement of promotions, product descriptions, and many other elements to increase the likelihood of conversion.
Adjust Marketing Strategies
Testing can also play an important role in your marketing. By analyzing different approaches, you can better understand which messages and offers are most effective with your target audience and adjust your marketing campaigns accordingly.
What Types of Tests Are There?
Broadly speaking, there are A/B tests, multivariant tests, and multi-armed bandit tests. In A/B test, two variants are tested against each other, while in the multi-variant test and the multi-armed bandit test, several variants can be compared with each other. If you want to learn more about the different types of tests, be sure to check out our previous blog posts. They explain exactly what A/B testing, multi-variant testing, and multi-armed bandit testing are.
What Is Significance and How Are Tests Evaluated?
Significance indicates the point at which the measured correlation between variables does not occur by chance, and the result can therefore be extrapolated to the whole. In testing, there are different levels of significance that can be defined to evaluate the meaningfulness of the values. Usually a significance level of 95% is used. Especially at the beginning of a test, the data is too small to draw conclusions. In most cases, there are too few desired user actions, such as conversions. When a significance level of 95% is reached, the test is significant. At this point, it is very unlikely that the differences are just random. The results can therefore be applied to all users.
Significance is calculated based on the number of conversions, the number of users, and the difference between the test group and the null group. The larger the difference between the test group and the null group, the faster a test becomes significant – even with a smaller number of users. The smaller the difference, the longer it will take. In some cases, a test may not become significant even after a very long run. In this case, you should rethink the test setup and possibly include other KPIs or variants.
To simplify the evaluation of the test, it is advisable to use certain test tools such as trbo. On professional platforms, uplifts and downlifts can be read quickly and clearly. If you also want to know how and when your measure has influenced the behavior of your users, you can also use funnel reporting. Among other things, you can find out if your campaign was able to influence further steps in the customer journey.
Whether your test result is positive or negative, you can learn from every result. Don’t see negative numbers as a failure, but as a starting point for further optimization.
The Checklist for Successful Testing in Your Online Store
- Set clear goals: Define clear goals for each test, whether it’s increasing conversion rates, improving navigation, or optimizing marketing campaigns.
- Set hypotheses: Create hypotheses to help guide the execution of the test.
- Select relevant KPIs: Select the right KPIs that align with the objectives of the test.
- Collect enough data: Make sure you have enough data to get meaningful results. Depending on the traffic in the shop, the test duration can vary greatly.
- Test regularly: The ecommerce landscape is constantly changing. Regular testing allows you to adapt to new trends and customer behavior.
Testing – a Fundamental Part of Your Business Strategy
By making testing a fundamental part of your strategy, you can positively impact usability, user experience, conversion rates, and the overall success of your business. Read our testing whitepaper to learn more and get ready for your first test.