Test the Price of a Single Product

If your store meets the criteria specified on this page, we recommend testing prices in Shoplift with Price tests. However, if your store does not meet the criteria, we recommend trying to test prices with duplicate products.

Setting up duplicate product tests can be very technical, requiring thorough QA and monitoring to ensure tests are set up correctly. Therefore, we suggest working closely with a team of developers or upgrading to our Pro plan before launching a test with duplicate products.

It's important to note that price tests are inherently high-risk tests. While we provide a few approaches to conduct these tests, it is your responsibility to QA these tests and methods prior to exposing a wider audience, to confirm that the user experience and level of risk is acceptable.

Create a single product price test by leveraging a landing page and direct-link approach

A great way to conduct a low-impact price test to gauge shopper sentiment before making larger changes across your website is to leverage a URL split test between a landing page or product page that is only accessible via a direct link, like from an email campaign or ad campaign.

By tightly limiting the point-of-entry into price tests on your store, as well as the particular audience of website visitors who is exposed to the test — for example, new visitors only — you can ensure that visitors included in the price test will not encounter different prices elsewhere on your storefront and hold certain expectations of a product’s price prior to entering the test.

Furthermore, the landing page navigation should not link back to the main website, so that visitors won't easily be able to see non-test prices after being exposed to a certain price.

This approach leverages duplicate products, and requires a pagebuilder app like Replo or Pagefly to be able to specify both the price of the product and which product is added to the cart.

Step 1: Identify the product you want to test, and create a duplicate product in Shopify

1. In Shopify, find the product you wish to test and click on its name to open the product details.

2. Click on the Duplicate button at the top right corner.

3. In the duplication dialog:

   • Ensure you have all of the boxes checked to duplicate media, SKUs, inventory quantities, and translations.

   • Ensure you do not retain the autogenerated “(Copy)” text in the product title.

   • Ensure you are setting the duplicated product as a draft until you are ready to publish your test.

Step 2: Adjust the price and inventory settings of the duplicated product

1. Navigate to your newly duplicated product and open the product details.

2. Scroll to the Pricing section and set the new price.

3. Under Inventory, decide how you want to track inventory. If you want both products to share inventory, consider using an app like Connected Inventory or Duplicate SKU Sync Master.

4. Consider setting the product status to Unlisted following Shopify's documentation. This will automatically hide the duplicate product from internet search, Shopify Catalog, and your store's sitemap.

5. Click Save to apply your changes.

Step 3: Hide the duplicate product from Collections and third-party sales channels

If using the Unlisted status on your duplicate product, you may skip this step.

1. In the Product organization section, remove the product from all collections by clicking the 'x' next to each collection name.

2. For automated collections, ensure the duplicate product does not meet the collection conditions by leveraging product tags.

3. Add a unique tag to the duplicate product, such as hidden. Then modify your automated collections’ conditions to exclude products with the hidden tag.

4. Now adjust product availability. At the top right, click on Manage next to Sales channels and apps. Uncheck all sales channels except for the ones needed for testing (e.g., keep Online Store checked).

Step 4: Modify your theme code to exclude tagged products from Collection templates

If using the Unlisted status on your duplicate product, you may skip this step.

Important: Shoplift always recommends consulting a developer prior to making changes to your theme code. If you do not have access to a developer, then ensure you back up your theme by creating a duplicate.

1. Next you'll need to add some theme code to ensure your duplicate product is completely hidden from all collection templates.

2. Go to Online Store and click Themes.

3. Click Actions and select Edit code.

4. Under Templates, locate and click on collection.liquid or collection.json (depending on your theme).

   • If you have a liquid template, you can add the below code directly in that template.

   • If you have a JSON template, you'll need to find the main collection section in your Sections directory. This will be referenced in your collection.json template and will be called something like main-collection-product-grid.liquid.

5. Look for the code that iterates over collection.products. It typically looks like this:

{% for product in collection.products %}
  <!-- Code to display each product -->
{% endfor %}

1. Now modify the product loop by adding a condition to exclude products with the hidden tag:

{% for product in collection.products %}
  {% unless product.tags contains 'hidden' %}
    <!-- Existing code to display each product -->
  {% endunless %}
{% endfor %}

Here's a brief explanation of what the code does:

• {% unless product.tags contains 'hidden' %}: This condition checks if the product does not have the tag 'hidden'. If the product doesn’t have the tag, the code inside the unless block will execute, displaying the product.

• {% endunless %}: This closes the unless conditional statement.

1. Click the Save button at the top right of the editor to apply your changes.

Step 5: Modify your theme code to exclude tagged products from Search templates

If using the Unlisted status on your duplicate product, you may skip this step.

1. Similar to the previous step, you'll need to ensure your tagged products are excluded from your Online Store search.

2. Under Templates, locate and click on search.liquid or search.json (depending on your theme).

   • If you have a liquid template, you can add the below code directly in that template.

   • If you have a JSON template, you'll need to find the main collection section in your Sections directory. This will be referenced in your search.json template and will be called something like main-search.liquid.

3. Look for the code that loops through search results. This typically looks like:

{% for item in search.results %}
  <!-- Code to display each item -->
{% endfor %}

1. Now modify the search loop by adding a condition to exclude products with the hidden tag:

{% for item in search.results %}
  {% unless 'hidden' in product.tags %}
    <!-- Existing code to display the product -->
  {% endunless %}
{% endfor %}

1. Click the Save button at the top right of the editor to apply your changes.

Step 6: Prevent the duplicate product from being indexed by search engines

If using the Unlisted status on your duplicate product, you may skip this step.

1. Using the hidden tag you created in the previous step, you'll now need to ensure that search engines will avoid indexing any product with this tag by adding some theme code.

2. Navigate to Online Store and click Themes. Find your active theme and click Edit code.

3. In the Code Editor, find your theme.liquid file and add the following code within the <head> section:

{% if 'hidden' in product.tags %}
  <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
{% endif %}

1. Hit Save to apply your changes.

Step 7 (optional): Prevent direct access to the duplicate product via navigation menus

If using the Unlisted status on your duplicate product, you may skip this step.

1. Go to Online Store and click Navigation.

2. Check all your menus to ensure there are no links to the duplicate product.

3. If there are, remove any links that point to the duplicate product.

Step 8 (optional): Hide the duplicate product from third-party search apps

If using the Unlisted status on your duplicate product, you may skip this step.

1. If you leverage third-party search apps, ensure that they are set to exclude products with the tag hidden from search results.

Step 9 (optional): Add the duplicate product to custom shipping profiles

If you use custom shipping profiles for your original products, you'll need to add your duplicate products to the shipping profiles you've set up for your originals.

1. From within Shopify, click Settings and then Shipping and delivery.

2. Find your relevant shipping profiles in the list, and click Manage rates. Then click Manage products.

3. You can easily search for products with the hidden tag. Select these products, and then click Done.

4. Click Save to save your selections.

Step 10 (optional) Add the duplicate product to discount codes

If you have discounts configured for your original products, you'll need to make sure your duplicate products are included in the discount.

1. From within Shopify, click Discounts.

2. Locate your active discounts, and modify the products they apply to to include your duplicate products.

Step 11: Create landing pages for your original and test products and prices, respectively

1. Using a pagebuilder app like Replo or Pagefly, create a new landing page. If you already have a landing page you use that points to a specific product, skip to 6.

2. Design the landing page to display your product as you see fit, for the purposes of your email or ad campaign.

3. Point the product on this landing page to your original product, so that it displays the price of the original product and will add the original product to the cart or checkout when visitors select "Add to cart" or "Buy now" buttons.

4. Remove references and links on the landing page navigation that point back to your main site. This is a strategy to help ensure visitors cannot easily return to your main storefront and see different prices for products that they were exposed to in the test.

5. Test and QA your landing page to ensure it works correctly.

6. Duplicate your landing page, and point this version to your duplicate (test) product, so that it represents the test price and will add the duplicate (test) product to the cart or checkout when visitors select the "Add to cart" or "Buy now" buttons.

Step 12: Set up a URL redirect test between your original price landing page and your variant price landing page

1. Within Shoplift, create a new test by clicking Create a test.

2. Select Test a URL or a single page when drafting your test.

3. A drawer will open, wherein you can specify the URL of your original landing page. Enter this URL, and the click Find page to verify the page. Then click Add to test to add it to your test.

4. Do the same for your variant, by entering the URL for your landing page duplicate with the test price.

5. (Optional) Specify your visitor, device, and audience configurations for your test, if necessary, to correspond to your email or ad campaign.

Step 13: Configure an email or ad campaign to send to your original landing page

1. The last step is to configure an email or ad campaign to send to the URL of your original landing page.

2. When you launch this campaign, visitors will be sent to your landing page, and traffic will be split between the landing page with your original price and the landing page with your test price.