3 a b testing mistakes that can be fatal for the growth of your ecommerce store

3 A/B Testing Mistakes That Can Be Fatal For The Growth Of Your eCommerce Store

There is a certain aura and mystery around this web testing that has made it one of the most talked about word among numerous online businesses around the world. No business would like to gamble their reputation, conversions, sales and customer engagement especially when the competition is very tough. To undertake calculated risks for their business, various measures and techniques are adopted that could minimize the extent of damage. Moreover, in a business environment, you need to have a proper strategy when you are thinking about “big bang” reforms.

This is because your one “bold move” can prove to be suicidal in the long term growth and planning activities of your online business entity. A/B testing is one such component that fits into this “scheme of things” and can act as a major deterrent against the harsh winds that could spoil your business chances and conversions rates. However, there are few limitations that could be a spoilsport during the implementation of this web testing technique for your business entity.

Random changes in the statistical confidence- The main ingredient that is paid attention during the implementation of A/B testing is the statistical significance or the “confidence level”. You can't apply changes onto their site until and unless an acceptable level of statistical significance is achieved. It is important to have a confidence level of at least 95 percent while applying the final changes onto a site. Apart from this, you need to ensure that there are no multiple fluctuations in the statistical significance that could cast doubts on the success of your split testing results. Of course, you can't expect to have a consistent confidence level at all times but a sharp and random decline in the statistical significance can jeopardize the things for you.

You are not paying adequate attention towards the testing data- You need to pay complete attention towards your testing results as well as the data which is used for A/B testing results. It makes complete sense to pay adequate attention to the information or data which is driving split testing results for your online business entity. Ensure that the traffic distribution for both the variations of your site is made on a 50:50 basis in order to provide unbiased results. If you are dividing your site traffic on an uneven basis like 60:40, 70:30 or

any other ratio, there are stronger chances that your testing results may not hold true for your site as they are undertaken under biased testing conditions.

Going for multiple site components at a time- If you are a new entrant in the field of A/B testing, you need to “play it safe” instead of going for an “adventurous trip” that may prove to be fatal for your online business. You need to restrain yourself from being too experimenting and need to stick towards “one site element per test” for getting a better idea about the impact of a site element towards conversion rates and customer engagement. No doubt, you would have the urge of “testing multiple items at a time” but don't go for it as the temptation could be a trap for you. If you can't resist the temptation, you need to go for multi- variate testing that help in testing multiple site elements at a time. However, try it out only when you are having too much familiarity with the split testing technique.

It is time to introspect the mistakes that can affect the performance of your A/B testing for the growth and performance of your online store. You need to remember the relevancy of the old proverb, “Make hay while the sun shines” for getting optimum performance out of your web testing approaches. Learn and explore more about split testing for scripting new success stories in your business segment.