@JamesGurd pointed out Mothercare.co.uk’s use of scrolling boxes for product upsells and cross-sells on product pages, and we thought we’d share some of our data.
Last year we carried out an A/B split test with a client using a vertical scroller, displaying 3 products at any one time on the left-hand sidebar, whilst requesting 12 suggestions in total – enough for three “scrolls”. Clickthrough to a suggestion was just 1.38%, generating 1.6% of their revenue.
In the version without a scroller, which requested and displayed only 4 products, clickthrough to suggestions shot up to 6.54% – an increase of 374%! Direct revenue attributable to this block also rose to 4.8%.
We think that the use of the scroller could have put users off clicking through by displaying more choice and perhaps adds an unneeded level of complexity to the customer’s purchase decision.
However, we think the CTR on the scroller would have increased if, like Amazon, we had displayed “Page x of 3″ on the scroller – so this is obviously worth testing next time!
What do you think? Do scrollers for product recommendations add value or just hinder purchases?
[...] Using “People Who Bought This Also Bought” on product pages can detract the visitor from their original goal by conveying “cross-sell” opportunities and presenting more choice – similar to what we found looking at product recommendations when scrollers were used. [...]