Setting the sale price is one of the most delicate and critical aspects of any business. Customers take price into account when evaluating the value of your product. Your customers may perceive how good or bad a product is based on how expensive or cheap it is. Moreover, the price you set will define your revenue and margin. And this margin is what will allow you to spend more resources on improving it and on campaigns to attract new customers.
In a process as complicated as pricing and offer creation, A/B testing is a necessary tool to evaluate the impact of price changes while minimizing its risks.
Until now, Nelio A/B Testing offered the possibility of creating A/B tests of WooCommerce products to test different combinations of a product’s name, short description, image, and price with the intention of discovering which one gets the most orders. Some of the customers with e-commerces with a wide variety of products, delighted with this type of test, wanted more: they asked us about the possibility of A/B testing discounts applied to a set of products. And you know that we love to listen to our customers…
New A/B Test of WooCommerce Bulk Sales
The recently released version 5.4.0 of Nelio A/B Testing includes a new type of test so you can create A/B tests of offers on a batch of products from your WooCommerce. The A/B test of WooCommerce product bulk sales is a new type of test that allows you to apply alternative discounts to all your store products (or just a subset, filtered by categories and/or tags).
For example, suppose we have an e-commerce store for sports clothing and equipment.
Our products are classified in the store in the following categories: Bags, Bras & Tank, Fitness Equipment, Hoodies & Sweatshirts, Jackets, Pants, Shorts, Tees, and Watches. In addition, we also have products labeled as Eco Friendly, as Performance Fabrics, as part of a Yoga Collection and/or as Recommended by Trainers.
In our store we have simple products with a single price and variable products with different sizes, colors, and prices. And in some products, we offer discounts.
Suppose I want to test different types of discounts for a whole set of products in my store. In particular, to the tees and bags that are marked as eco-friendly, to see which alternative will produce the best performance for my store.
In particular, I want to create a test with two additional variants to compare against the original version:
- Variant B: directly apply a 50% discount to the whole set of items mentioned whether or not they had any offer,
- Variant C: apply a 25% discount to the whole set of items mentioned, but only if they’re not on sale right now.
Once this test is created, the traffic is divided into three groups, those who see the original content, those who see the catalog of selected products with a 50% discount (Variant B), and those who see the conditions of Variant C. The rest of the products will continue to be viewed at their original prices.
Note the difference in the application of the discount on a variable product that already had discounts for some of the variations, as you can see in the following image:
In Variant B, a 50% discount has been applied to all variations of the product (from €28 of the original price, we have gone to an offer of €14 in all variations). In Variant C, a 25% discount has been applied only to the variations that weren’t already on sale (from €28 of the original price we have gone to €21 but we have maintained the price of the previous offer of some variation at €25).
Let’s see below how easy it is to create this WooCommerce bulk sale test with Nelio A/B Testing.
Create the New A/B Test
Select the Type of Test to Create
To create this test, just click on Add Test and then select WooCommerce Bulk Sale type.
Select the Set of Products Participating in the Test
On the test editor screen, start by naming your test and adding an optional description. Under the Control Version and Variants, you’ll notice that you’ll be testing all products by default:
If you want to test a subset, just click on Filter to select the tested products using categories and tags:
Once you have selected the filters, you will see the description of the products to which the test applies. In this case: “This test applies to products in category Bag or Tees and tagged as Eco Friendly“.
Nelio A/B Testing
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Specify the Discount for Each Variant
In variant B, enter the discount percentage that you want to apply to the selected products.
As you can see in the image above, we have also checked the box to overwrite the prices that were on sale. This means all tested products will have a 50% discount sale.
Creating the second variant is as easy as clicking the New Variant button and filling in its fields:
In this case, for Variant C we apply a 25% discount that should only apply to products that don’t have a explicit sale already.
Set the Conversion Action
In a WooCommerce bulk sale test, the goal is to achieve better store performance, i.e. to get more sales.
By default, in this type of test, it is considered a conversion when an order has been completed in which there is any of the products that are part of the test. You have the option to change the order status that counts as a conversion action. That is, for example, we can consider as a conversion that the order is pending payment, although it is not completed.
Finally, before starting a test, as explained here, you can segment or limit who participates in a test. For example, you can target the test to visitors from a certain country or to those who have a browser in a certain language, etc.
And that’s it, you’ve already seen how easy it is to define a WooCommerce bulk sale test.
Run the A/B Test
After starting the test (just click on the Start button), as we have already mentioned, the traffic that reaches your website is divided into three groups in which the visitors of each group will see one of the three variants of your store. Now all that remains is to wait for the results to see which one you gives you the best performance for your.
Results
On the results page, you will find several graphics that show you the evolution of your test: the evolution of the conversion rate, the evolution of the accumulated revenue and, for each variant, the details of the visits, conversions, revenue, and improvement compared to the original content.
Improve the Conversion of Your Store
On the Nelio A/B Testing results page you will see at all times when the results obtained are statistically significant and if you have found a winning variant of the test.
In a WooCommerce store, it takes less than 2 minutes to create a bulk sale test and you’ll make sure to improve the conversion progressively, minimizing the risks. What are you waiting for to try it out?
Featured image by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash.
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