You’ve poured your heart into crafting the perfect mobile app, dazzling visuals, and killer copy. But are your website visitors actually clicking? Is your carefully curated social campaign actually converting followers into buyers?
Think of A/B testing as a digital showdown: You create two versions of something—be it a landing page, email, or ad—and let your audience pick the winner.
If you’re staring at stagnant numbers, it may be time to turn to A/B testing tools. These tools can help you optimize your entire customer journey, decode customer behavior, and boost conversion rates.
Here’s a deep dive into these powerful behavioral analytics tools to help you supercharge your website’s performance and turn data into dollars.
What are A/B testing tools?
A/B testing tools are software analytics platforms used to help you compare two versions of something so you can see which version has a bigger impact on visitor behavior. A/B testing tools (and A/B tests in general) help you understand how users engage with your ecommerce website, marketing messages, and digital products, like a mobile app.
These tools help remove subjectivity and ambiguity from the assets you create, allowing you to understand the effectiveness of small tweaks and provide data-driven insights about customer preferences.
For example, maybe you’re unsure whether to use emojis in your email subject lines or take a more deadpan approach. Which will result in more subscribers opening your emails? Instead of going with your gut, you can use A/B testing tools to get a definitive answer. The test results can give you surprising results or prove your gut was right all along—either way, you get the certainty you need to move forward.
Here are some common elements you could A/B test and the corresponding key performance indicators (KPIs) to help assess your test results:
Header copy
Test the message at the top of your page to see if it entices website visitors to stick around. Use bounce rate as the metric to gauge whether people stick around or leave your site right away; the header with the lower bounce rate is the more effective one.
Email subject line
With brands flooding inboxes, your subject lines need to immediately grab your recipients’ attention. A/B test two different subject lines for the same email; the one with a higher open rate wins.
Call-to-action text
A call-to-action (CTA) on a website or mobile app prompts your audience to do something like buy a product, sign up for email newsletters, or share your content with friends. A/B test different CTA copy; the version with a higher click-through rate wins.
Product image
Pit different product images against each other—perhaps one in a bright, white studio setting and another in a lifestyle context—to see which version results in more sales conversions.
Types of tests
Beyond the fundamental A/B test, the world of digital optimization offers a diverse arsenal of testing methodologies, each designed to tackle specific challenges and uncover nuanced insights. Although you likely won’t need to run all of these tests when you’re first launching your online store, it’s helpful to know about the tests and capabilities you may (or may not) need in an A/B testing tool:
Multivariate testing
Test multiple elements on a webpage, like headlines, images, and CTAs, all at the same time, so you can discover the combination that performs the best. This type of testing is slightly different from A/B testing as it analyzes multiple combinations and requires high traffic to find statistical significance between variations. In an A/B test, you would test two headlines with the same CTA. In a multivariate test, you would test a combination of factors simultaneously.
Split URL testing
This type of test compares two completely different versions of a page by directing visitors to two completely separate URLs. You test significant design changes or even the page structure rather than smaller elements on one page. For this type of test, you need separate hosting for each variation.
Server-side testing
This is a more technical form of testing requiring server-side or back-end developers with a fair amount of technical expertise. By contrast, A/B testing tools allow you to update designs the platform implements through front-end coding. Server-side testing assesses the speed at which the page loads and how well it functions once loaded.
Feature release testing
This type of testing allows you to gradually roll out new features (like a product carousel or search bar) to different user segments and gauge user engagement. That way, you can identify any issues before a full release. It also provides valuable insights into how users engage with your features overall.
7 A/B testing tools for your ecommerce store
The best part about today’s A/B testing tools is that most don’t require technical expertise. Many also feature an intuitive user interface to simplify the testing process.
Here are seven testing platforms to explore if you’ve hit an engagement plateau and are looking to level-up your ecommerce store:
1. Shogun
Shogun enables web experimentation with user-friendly tools like a no-code visual editor for your home page, blog posts, landing pages, and more. Use the tool to edit and test individual landing pages or your entire Shopify theme. Perform multivariate testing to optimize outcomes across all your pages.
Shogun also integrates with Shopify-compatible checkout apps, Google Analytics, Adobe Typekit, YouTube, Klaviyo, Yotpo, and Instagram for robust statistical analysis.
Types of tests Shogun supports: Multivariate testing and A/B website testing.
Pricing: After a 10-day free trial, plans start at $40 per month.
2. Intelligems
Intelligems is a web page experimentation platform designed to help you boost profits by tracking more than 100 metrics across ecommerce landing pages, including checkout pages. You can use the tool to test variations in Shopify themes, your blog content, product descriptions—even product prices—to maximize conversions.
Use its split testing functionality to create multiple variations of landing pages and get real-time data on which version is performing better. Once you have that data, you can save customer segments and deliver personalized content to the right audiences.
Types of tests Shogun supports: Web page experimentation, split URL testing.
Pricing: After a seven-day free trial, plans start at $100 per month.
3. Shoplift
Shoplift is a user-friendly experimentation platform you can integrate with your Shopify store to test variations directly in your Theme Customizer dashboard. Shoplift lets you test different product descriptions, landing pages, and your website navigation so you can manage major site overhauls efficiently.
Shoplift also offers automated A/B tests informed by millions of ecommerce sessions, letting you run rests more likely to give you results with statistical significance.
Types of tests Shoplift supports: Web page experimentation.
Pricing: After a 14-day free trial, Shoplift plans start at $100 per month.
4. OptiMonk
OptiMonk helps you build personalized messages—like sales announcements or email sign-up offers—that appear when visitors land on your website. OptiMonk is one of many testing platforms designed for integration with your Shopify store, making it easy to create and test customized pop-ups for emails, SMS, and landing pages.
Types of tests OptiMonk supports: Multivariate testing and pop-up experimentation.
Pricing: Optimonk offers a limited free plan; paid versions start at $30 per month.
5. Optimizely
Optimizely is a web-optimization platform with feature experimentation capabilities that let you iterate and implement changes quickly. Its comprehensive suite of features includes both A/B and multivariate testing, as well as personalization tools to give you real-time performance data on what’s doing best. It’s a robust tool that you can—with the help of an account manager—customize to your needs, whether you’re running a large direct-to-consumer (D2C) operation or managing big-ticket B2B accounts.
Types of tests Optimizely supports: Multivariate testing, web page experimentation, server-side testing, split URL testing, feature release testing, feature flags.
Pricing: Optimizely structures each plan based on your needs; contact the company for pricing details.
6. Visual Website Optimizer
Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) is a digital experience experimentation platform that allows you to optimize websites, mobile apps, and digital product features through both existing data and test results from new experiments. It has a comprehensive suite of experimentation features, including multivariate A/B testing, test analysis capabilities, and behavioral analytics tools.
Types of tests VMO supports: Multivariate testing, web page experimentation, server-side testing, split URL testing, feature release testing, feature flags.
Pricing: VWO has a free version with limited features and basic A/B testing capabilities. Paid versions start at $393 per month.
7. Unbounce
Unbounce is a landing page optimization platform with a user-friendly interface that allows you to build high-converting landing pages with a drag-and-drop feature. It has a smart traffic feature to automatically direct visitors to the best-performing versions of a landing page so you can capitalize on winning variants right away. Run A/B tests, write your product detail pages more quickly with the help of AI, and understand user behavior to improve your conversion rates.
Types of tests Unbounce supports: Web page experimentation.
Pricing: After a 14-day free trial, Unbounce plans start at $100 per month.
A/B testing tools FAQ
What are A/B testing tools?
A/B testing tools help you quickly set up, launch, and analyze experiments to understand user behavior with various elements on your website or mobile app. They remove subjectivity by providing data-driven insights on what influences key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates and engagement. Common tests include experimenting with header copy, subject lines, CTAs, product images, and new features to drive better outcomes.
What can A/B testing tools do?
A/B testing tools help you streamline experimentation, optimize user experience, and make data-driven decisions more efficiently. They provide automated data analysis, real-time metrics, and intuitive test design interfaces that don’t require technical expertise. By simplifying test setup and execution, these tools help remove subjectivity from optimizing websites, mobile apps, and other digital experiences.
What types of tests can you run?
There are many useful tests you can run to increase conversions, reduce bounce rates, and validate the function of new features. Multivariate testing, web page experimentation, and split URL testing help optimize website design and content by identifying which elements drive the best engagement.
Can you still use Google Optimize for A/B testing?
No, Google Optimize was sunset in September 2023. However, Google recommends other platforms to explore like Optimizely and VWO. You can also explore other platforms specifically designed to integrate with Shopify stores, like Shoplift, Intelligems, or Shogun.