A/B Test Your Way to Success on Amazon

Brands often ask our Client Success team about the benefits of A/B testing on Amazon. If you’re wondering as well, read on to learn the basics about A/B testing, why your brand should care, and how to get started. 

What is Amazon A/B testing?

Amazon’s A/B testing tools are an exciting addition to both Vendor and Seller Central. They allow merchants to execute “split tests” on their product listings to understand what’s performing best over time — or in other words, what’s driving consumers to act and make a purchase. Today, Amazon’s A/B testing tools can be utilized on a variety of elements, such as a listing’s title, main product images, and A+ content. 

Why should my brand care about A/B testing?

Content is king on Amazon. However, if it’s not positioned properly, your brand could be losing out on a significant amount of sales. This is where A/B testing comes in:

Amazon’s A/B testing is a simple but powerful approach to systematically improve your content, optimize conversion rates, and see your sales rise.

• A/B testing gives your brand a chance to test out a hypothesis that you can either apply across the board if results turn out to be favorable, or pause if results turn out to be unfavorable. 
• A/B testing can additionally help your brand discover what your consumers value, or what is not important to them. For example, a listing that promotes “memory and concentration” benefits in the title may perform better than a listing that only promotes “concentration” as a benefit in the title.
• Amazon’s tool will even show you the potential results/impact that can be achieved when implementing strategies over time, based on incremental sales and incremental units.

What are some A/B testing best practices?

1. Only test one variable at a time — otherwise, you can’t be sure which one is responsible for changes in performance.
2. Implement a proven hypothesis across the board after the results have been revealed. If consumers appear to favor one detail over another for one product, chances are it will apply to other products as well. 
3. A/B experiments can run for 4,6,8, or 10 weeks at a time. Have them run for the longest duration of testing to collect enough data. 
4. If your results are inconclusive, then re-run the test. There is no limit on what you can test and when!

What are some A/B hypotheses to consider?

1. Try shortened titles – is the conversion rate higher because more shoppers are searching on mobile? 
2. Test calling out different product features and see which one consumers convert more on. What captures their attention, and what keeps them scrolling?
3. Change up the style of the A+ content to see which one has better results.
4. Try infographics versus lifestyle imagery to see which one performs better. 

There’s always an opportunity to improve your product content on Amazon, and A/B testing is a fantastic feature that will not only show you what variants work, but why they work.

Still looking for more information on A/B testing ? You can contact us HERE for insights about additional best practices and results that have been achieved by top brands on the marketplace.