03 - Do you know what A/B testing is?
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'Convert on Shopify,' host Pancho Mandiola introduces A/B testing, explaining its importance for optimizing e-commerce websites. He shares his personal experience transitioning his cosmetics brand to e-commerce and highlights how platforms like Shopify helped him succeed. Pancho emphasizes that A/B testing is key for improving site performance by experimenting with different versions of elements like headlines, buttons, and layouts. He encourages entrepreneurs to adopt a culture of experimentation to achieve better conversions and business growth, while also hinting at future episodes with expert guests.
Takeaways
- 📈 A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or app against each other to determine which one performs better.
- 🌐 The podcast aims to educate listeners on A/B testing and conversion optimization strategies, featuring experts from the field.
- 🚀 The host, Pancho Mandiola, shares his personal journey of entering e-commerce and the challenges he faced, including the importance of learning from failures.
- 🛠️ Early e-commerce ventures often failed due to a lack of understanding of UX/UI and the absence of a technical background, highlighting the need for learning and adaptation.
- 🌟 Shopify is highlighted as a platform that allows entrepreneurs without a technical background to create and manage e-commerce stores effectively.
- 📊 A/B testing is crucial for growth as it helps businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their online presence for better conversion rates.
- 🔍 The podcast will explore the importance of having a culture of experimentation and data within organizations to drive continuous improvement.
- 🎯 A/B testing involves creating two versions of an element on a website and measuring which one performs better, providing certainty for investment in marketing and traffic generation.
- 📝 Examples of elements that can be tested include headlines, button colors, images, and calls to action, emphasizing the importance of detail in optimizing user experience.
- 💡 The ultimate goal of A/B testing is to refine and optimize website elements to increase conversions, which can lead to higher sales and a more successful online business.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the podcast episode?
-The main topic of the podcast episode is A/B testing, with a focus on its importance and application in e-commerce and conversion rate optimization.
Why did the host start exploring A/B testing?
-The host started exploring A/B testing because they realized the importance of having a culture of experimentation and data-driven decisions in their organization, especially after experiencing the limitations of not having a technical background in e-commerce.
What was the host's initial experience with e-commerce?
-The host's initial experience with e-commerce involved starting a natural cosmetics brand and facing challenges with developing an online store due to a lack of experience in UX/UI and e-commerce.
Why did the host switch from developers to using Shopify for their e-commerce platform?
-The host switched to Shopify because it was a more accessible platform for someone without a technical background, allowing them to create an online store with pre-built templates and without the need for coding knowledge.
How did the host's e-commerce business perform after transitioning to Shopify?
-After transitioning to Shopify, the host's e-commerce business became very successful, eventually reaching a million dollars in annual sales, outperforming their physical retail shops and wholesalers.
What is the 'fold' in the context of a website's homepage?
-The 'fold' refers to the imaginary line on a website's homepage that separates the visible content before a user scrolls down. It is important because most first-time visitors will only see the content above this line.
What elements on a website's homepage can be tested using A/B testing?
-Elements that can be tested using A/B testing include the banner, headline, call-to-action button text, background color, images, and the menu on the homepage.
What is the purpose of using a plugin like Convert for A/B testing?
-A plugin like Convert is used for A/B testing to measure and analyze the results of different versions of a webpage element, allowing the business to determine which version performs better.
Why is it important for businesses to have a culture of experimentation?
-Having a culture of experimentation is important because it allows businesses to make data-driven decisions, optimize their websites, and improve conversion rates, ultimately leading to better performance and sales.
What are the potential benefits of A/B testing for an e-commerce business?
-The potential benefits of A/B testing for an e-commerce business include increased conversion rates, better user experience, more efficient use of marketing budgets, and the ability to make informed decisions based on data.
Outlines
📈 Introduction to A/B Testing in E-commerce
In the first paragraph, Pancho Mandiola introduces the topic of A/B testing within the context of e-commerce. He sets the stage for the podcast by explaining that the initial episodes will focus on foundational concepts, which are essential for understanding more complex discussions with future guests. These guests will include experts from the Convert team, conversion rate optimization agencies, and entrepreneurs who have successfully implemented A/B testing strategies. Pancho emphasizes the importance of learning the basics to have meaningful conversations with these experts without needing to pause for clarifications on terminology. He also shares a personal anecdote about his early foray into e-commerce with a natural cosmetics brand, highlighting the challenges he faced in developing an online store due to a lack of experience in UX/UI and e-commerce.
🛠️ Transition from Traditional Retail to E-commerce
In the second paragraph, Pancho recounts his journey from traditional retail to e-commerce, noting the success of his small retail shop and wholesale business. He observed the shift towards e-commerce in more developed countries and decided to prepare for the same trend in his home country of Mexico. His initial attempt at e-commerce involved hiring developers to build a website, which resulted in failure due to inexperience with UX/UI and e-commerce on both his part and the developers'. This experience led him to seek better solutions and eventually learn about platforms like Shopify, which were more accessible for non-technical entrepreneurs.
🚀 Success with Shopify and the Need for A/B Testing
The third paragraph details Pancho's success with Shopify, which allowed him to create an online store without a technical background. He emphasizes the importance of templates in Shopify that helped him avoid the pitfalls of a blank canvas and the challenges of designing from scratch. His online store became a million-dollar business, outperforming his physical retail shops and wholesalers. However, Pancho points out that with growth came the necessity to learn about A/B testing. As the business expanded, he realized the importance of testing and optimization to continue improving the online store's performance and to make informed decisions about marketing investments.
🧪 Understanding A/B Testing and Its Benefits
In the final paragraph, Pancho defines A/B testing as running experiments on a website to measure the effectiveness of different elements, such as headlines, images, or call-to-action buttons. He explains the process of splitting traffic between a control version and a test version to determine which performs better. Pancho stresses the importance of moving from assumptions to evidence-based decisions, which A/B testing facilitates. He also touches on the broader goal of fostering a culture of experimentation and data-driven decision-making within organizations. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for listeners to embrace A/B testing and to look forward to more detailed discussions in future episodes.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡A/B Testing
💡Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
💡E-commerce
💡UX/UI
💡Technical Background
💡Platform
💡Optimization
💡Experimentation
💡Control Version
💡Banner
💡Fold
Highlights
Introduction to the concept of A/B testing in the context of e-commerce and Shopify.
The importance of understanding A/B testing for entrepreneurs and business owners.
The host's personal story of entering e-commerce and the challenges faced with website development.
The shift from traditional retail to e-commerce and its impact on business operations.
The failure of the initial e-commerce venture due to lack of UX/UI and marketing knowledge.
The transition to Shopify as a platform for non-technical entrepreneurs.
How templates in Shopify helped in creating an effective online store.
The success story of a natural cosmetics brand reaching a million-dollar business through e-commerce.
The necessity of learning A/B testing for growth and optimization of an online business.
Defining A/B testing as a method to run experiments and measure their impact on a website.
The significance of the homepage and 'above the fold' content in user engagement.
Examples of elements that can be tested through A/B testing on a website's homepage.
The process of conducting an A/B test using a plugin like Convert and analyzing the results.
The goal of A/B testing to move from assumptions to data-driven decisions for business growth.
The importance of having a culture of experimentation and data within organizations.
Invitation for listeners to engage with the podcast by suggesting topics or referring interested friends.
Transcripts
[Applause]
[Music]
hello my name is pancho mandiola welcome
to a new episode of convert on shopify
so today we're going to be talking about
what is a b testing
and as we said in the previous episodes
these first ones are all about getting
to know the concepts that we're gonna be
using all along the way once we bring
the big guns because yes we're gonna
have some awesome guests here in this
podcast obviously we're gonna have
people from the convert team and they
believe me they are very knowledgeable
when it comes to a b testing experiments
and all all about conversion so we're
gonna have a couple of them we're gonna
also gonna have people that uh have
their own agencies specifically
conversion rate optimization agencies so
these are like the
the superheroes in the world of
e-commerce
we're gonna have these uh these types of
guests as well and obviously we're gonna
have some entrepreneurs and uh business
owners that are already using these
types of strategies and tactics with or
within their own organizations and
that's why it's important in these first
episodes to
learn about all these concepts so that
if we
use these concepts or these words in
conversations we don't have to stop
because i mean the idea is to get as
much information as possible from these
these people this is this is the whole
idea of these first episodes let's let's
learn the basics so then we can have
very very deep conversations and we
don't have to stop
and and be like specific of what
everything means so today that's that's
the goal we're going to uh like
introduce you to a b testing what what
it means how it looks like and for this
i'm going to tell you a bit a little
story so
i started with e-commerce uh a while now
i at that time let's say 10 years ago i
was starting a brand you know cosmetics
a natural cosmetics brand and we already
had a small retail shop it was we were
doing very well we already we also had
some retailers that sold our brand we
had like minor retailers that but
basically bought store stuff from us and
then sold it in their own stores and or
their own businesses
and things were going really well but i
could see in other countries in other
more let's say advanced or developed
countries where i i was already seeing
how big brands were moving into
e-commerce and not only doing it in a
small scale but they were switching
their whole
way of doing business and and their
whole communication channels
essentially how they operated they were
switching all the way to e-commerce so i
said okay i think
even though
this wave has enriched my country
remember i am from mexico
so
i this wave didn't reach my country a
few years later but still i was like
okay i think i need to prepare myself so
i started at least i said okay
i want to start doing e-commerce so the
first thing i did is that i looked for
some developers right i at that time
that was the
smart the smart move okay so you you
find some developers that can help you
build the site your e-commerce site or a
store and that's what i did so
what what happened
it was a total a total fail i had to go
through four four different developers
to then realize that uh this was not the
way to go
and obviously i i don't want to put
place all the blame in these developers
the problem was at that time i i didn't
have experience about ux or ui i didn't
even know what it meant
and the developers didn't have any
experience in e-commerce or they don't
have experience in marketing you know
this was a time where not a lot of
people were selling online that the only
types of of you know sites that were
available at that time most of it was
you know these like click funnels
sort of things that you know the site or
the store as you can imagine it now it
wasn't that common before it it got
developed
through the years and it got optimized
through the years so at that time i
didn't have experience with ux ui and
obviously with development and the
developers you don't have a lot of
experience with marketing and and what
what should a site what is contained
what is a proper flow for a customer
there wasn't a lot of information
available at that time so that's why it
was a huge fail i at that time obviously
i
i did blame the developers now i i think
i am a little more mature as well but
now i have a better understanding of why
it actually failed so it failed because
we we don't know about like how to do it
in both sides but that
that experience led me to start finding
better solutions in this case i said
okay i'm an entrepreneur i want to make
this happen and i have failed previously
with somebody else doing the development
for me so i need to learn how to do it
there must be a way to
get you know
for a person that doesn't know how to
write code to create something that can
sell so i started doing some research
obviously at that time i learned about
you know wordpress uh and they were just
coming out with this uh with a new plug
plugin for
woocommerce
we already had magento but still it was
very very complicated for me i i don't
know anything about coding and and i
didn't know anything about hosting and a
lot of things i didn't have technical
technical background essentially i was a
merchant you know i i used to sell stuff
boy i didn't have a technical background
so magento was at that end for me and
then a friend recommended me shopify so
shopify
10 years ago it wasn't the platform that
we had today you know it's super robust
and you can do essentially anything with
shopify you can sell almost anything
with shopify at that time it wasn't as
robust as we have it today but still it
was a very very good option for someone
like me that wanted to start selling
online and they don't have the technical
background to to do it
so i
dug in i i took all the courses i did
all the you know like all the reading
and the articles and the blogs and
everything and i learned how to
basically create my first store
and i think that one of the reasons that
i succeeded at first at creating the
store was that there were templates so
before when when i was trying to do it
with developers there were no templates
so once once you get to this like blank
blank canvas and you say okay what
should we should we add to this to this
site you get froze you know you you
freeze and and then
what happens is that if you don't have
the experience or the technical
knowledge to actually create something
now the developer is going to ask me
okay why should i why should i put here
in in the homes in you know in the home
of of the site and i don't have the the
background as well of ux and ui so i'm
going to say i don't know you do it and
that's why it didn't work so with
shopify we start with a template and we
just have to fill in the blanks
to create something that is useful and
that it's already tested for you know
for its selling capabilities so
i ended up using shopify and and i could
create my own site and eventually
you know long story short eventually
this site became a very successful
business actually uh we at that time we
already have
maybe 15 retail shops and and 300
wholesalers
and the online store
could sell more i mean outsold
all of these channels combined and this
business eventually became a million
dollar business you know a million
dollar a year in sales business and it
was all thanks to to e-commerce you know
and and it still is this brand is still
very very successful because it's
e-commerce platform and and so that what
seemed very interesting here
is that we could we reached 1 million a
year in sales without even having to
know
a lot of technic technical stuff you
know or having a technical background
thanks to shopify now
you can say okay well yeah
what a great what a great story or what
a blessing but the problem is and and
this is what i want to address the
problem is that
since we never needed this technical uh
background
at least in i don't know maybe i i don't
need to know about coding but there's
certain stuff that you need to learn or
we need to learn along the way and one
of them is a b testing so when you grow
with uh with a platform like shopify
where pretty much everything is already
set up for you and you just need to
tweak certain things to make it work
sometimes you you don't grow with this
culture of experimentation okay what if
we draw a little bit out of the lines
and and maybe we run some tests
and and
have like two examples with with shopify
this doesn't happen organically and then
the problem is that when you reach to a
certain level
uh let's say when you have a million
dollar business and use and you want to
start investing a lot more money in
marketing
or or you you want to just bring more
traffic into your site
but obviously you want this traffic to
convert because it's not it's gonna be
like way more expensive for you so you
don't know how to test and because you
didn't need to learn that in the process
so
i learned uh very late let's say late i
i know i'm i'm a little hard on myself
i think all entrepreneurs are
that's we we criticize ourselves a lot
because we are perfectionists and we
always ask ourselves how can we make it
better so i like i for me was i learned
a little bit late that there's stuff
that you can do
like a b testing so your site can
perform and even outperform other sites
or your your competition with less money
and this is what a b testing actually is
or it allows you to do so now to define
this concept what actually is a b
testing it's very very easy to
understand a b testing
is
basically running an experiment
but with tools that you can
insert in your site that will allow you
allow you to measure
these experiments okay it's not okay
let's just let's just do something let's
just do two versions or of something and
see which one is better it's not it's
not as simple as that it's also not
super complicated you will need certain
tools to have accurate and correct
measurements of your experiments but
essentially is having two versions of
something and we're gonna give some
examples but having two versions of
something and see which one performs
better so let's say that we have a site
like shopify okay or or our site is is
powered by shopify we we still have a
lot of elements
in our home page that we can test with
with with other other versions of the
site for example
did you know
that more than half of the people that
visit your site in their first session
won't
see other places of your site but the
home page and specifically
right where the banner is they call they
call this the fold so the fold is this
imaginary line from where you first land
okay you you land in the home page and
you can see the banner and the menu and
there's an email imaginary line right at
the at the bottom where if you scroll
if you you do a scroll
what's before
what's below that line is uh it's below
the fold so that in my imaginary line is
called the fold so more than half of the
people
that land in your sight for the first
time won't go beneath the fold
and won't even click on anything like on
the menu or on the banner so this is
like uh general statistics so
this first page or first impression
is very very important for your site and
and here we have a lot of elements that
we can actually test so for example we
have the banner so in your banner you
have a lot of
assets so you have a background color
you have uh possibly a text you know
like a headline a big headline you also
have a button with a call to action
maybe like right below the banner you
have like a category product or your top
sellers
but you can still see some of it above
the default you have a menu as well you
have uh you know that this tiny banner
that is above the menu so there's quite
a lot of elements that that are in that
first page or in that fold
that you can actually test
so let's take the headline just as an
example imagine that you have
you right now you already have the
version of your site that is published
and and you already have a banner design
and you already have a headline for that
binary design so if you want to do a b
testing what you need to do is
first of all get a plugin like convert
so you can measure the results and then
you can create another version
of this headline another text and run it
so what's going to happen is that this
the softwares will send
will split the traffic into in these two
versions of the sites
we
when the first one that we call it
control
the first half would go to the control
site with the normal text or the normal
headline that you started with and half
of the traffic is going to go to the new
version of this headline and at the end
you'll know
which one worked better okay now at the
end you have an
an answer okay so
the question was okay will it work
better
if i write these words versus these
words or this copy at the end of this
experiment you'll have an answer and the
answer is yeah it actually worked better
so now you have an experiment obviously
it's a little bit more complicated than
that because there's certain parameters
but we're gonna get to those
further further along the way
in the next episodes right now we just
want to understand the the actual
concept of a b testing so
you can also do this with the
the color
the the picture or the images that you
have in in your actual banner you can do
also with the color of the button and
the text that you have in the button of
your call to action so you can
a test
by now or more information or buy now
with see all the products or i don't
know you you can run a lot of a lot of
tests so the real goal of a b testing is
to switch from
you know the the what we all
all entrepreneurs do a lot and and this
is
i think
i believe for we want to switch those
words to i know okay i know because if
we know that something works better
than something else okay now we have
certainty that we can invest in bringing
more traffic because we already know
that that works better
now
if we already have an answer
we run an experiment and we have a an
answer between two tests so now we know
that the test number two or the version
number two works better we can invest
more money or we can also do another
test okay now let's see if this one
version three
works better than version two and we can
just keep dialing in and dialing in
and eventually have the just the perfect
the perfect copy i mean obviously we're
not gonna get to perfection but almost
perfect you know what what's the almost
perfect pitch or copy or headline or
button or caller or whatever
that converts the most and this a b
testing is
the quintessential uh way to do
basically experimentation and
optimization for our sites like i said
we are going to get really more into
details and we're going to dive deeper
into how to do it in other episodes
right now i just wanted to you know give
you a
a little bit of understanding of how
this works so to sum it up a b testing
is just running experiments on your site
having one version with which is your
control version and running against
another version of the text or the
caller or the picture or the offer or
the price there's a lot of ways to do it
and see which one works best
so then we can drive more traffic
knowing
that this is going to have better
results for our site and obviously that
means for our sales so i hope i hope
this helps i hope this information will
uh at least
get you excited about you know getting
getting uh a b testing in in your
ecosystem in your organization this is a
b testing and every topic that we're
going to be talking
in this podcast
it's a lot about culture you know having
this culture of experimentation and data
within organizations this is the most
important thing
all all of the other aspects you know
the technical aspects and the just the
the small details we're going to cover
those and there's already softwares and
agencies and a whole a whole ecosystem
that can help you with that but you need
to have that culture first in your
organization and that's one of the goals
also of this this podcast so again thank
you very much if you have any questions
ideas topics that you want us to cover
please don't hesitate to write to us uh
and obviously please subscribe we're
just getting started we're gonna have
some great uh great talks a little
further down the way and some good
guests and also if you know someone that
that loves these these topics about a b
testing e-commerce also you can refer
them to us and we'll have a
discussion here in the podcast so thank
you very much and see you in the next
one bye
[Music]
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