Overview

URL testing unlocks the potential to run countless tests on your site, which we’ll cover in more detail below.

How it works

URL testing allows you to test two single pages from your store against each other. By specifying page URLs, you can effortlessly target a single page as your original (A) experience and a single page as your variant (B) experience. When site visitors are directed to the original URL, they will be allocated to the A or B experience, and those who were allocated to the B experience will be redirected to the variant URL.

Let’s say you launch a 50/50 URL test with the following URLs:

• (A) https://my-store.com/product-a

• (B) https://my-store.com/product-b

When site visitors reach the /product-a URL, they will be assigned to either the A or B experience. Site visitors assigned to the A experience will continue to the /product-a URL, while site visitors assigned to the B experience will be redirected to the /product-b URL.

What to test

With URL testing, you can test beyond the template level by comparing two distinct pages. URL testing can be used to implement many powerful changes, such as testing:

• Collection images and product order

• Specific purchase flows

• Site quizzes

• Pagebuilder URLs

• Landing pages for paid media using a single URL

• Product images and image order*

• Product prices and price testing*

• And more!

Testing product images or product prices with URL testing is an advanced use case, as these elements can appear in multiple places across your site. These tests might require additional steps to set up correctly. If you ever need help conducting tests with Shoplift, our Support Team is always available to assist.

If you would like a member of our support team to build one of these tests with you, consider upgrading to our Pro plan.

Examples:

Testing Collection Product Order: If you want to test different product orders in a collection, you can do so by duplicating your original collection, changing the product order of the duplicate collection, and running a URL test on the original and duplicate collections. Visitors who click on the collection will either be sent to URL of the original collection (with the original product order) or redirected to the URL of the duplicated collection (with the modified product order).

Testing Subscription Purchase Flow: If you want to test how many pages should be in your subscription flow, you can send some visitors to a flow with three steps and others to a flow with two steps (skipping the first page). Visitors will either be sent to the first page of the flow or redirected to second page of the flow, skipping the first page.

Template tests vs. URL tests

While template tests allow you to test groups of products, collections, and pages under their assigned templates, URL tests allow you to test individual products, collections, and pages. Not only does this isolate the changes you’re most interested in testing, but it also allows you to get detailed reporting at your desired level of specificity.

Template Testing refers to testing variations of the same URLs by modifying the template assigned to those pages. For example, if your product is assigned to template sl-original, and you run a template test on sl-original against sl-variant, your site visitors would be sent to the same product URL, but would see one of two template views:

• (A) https://my-store.com/product?view=sl-original

• (B) https://my-store.com/product?view=sl-variant

URL Testing refers to testing entirely different URLs, without regard for the template they are assigned to. For example, if you have two products (Product A and Product B), and you run a URL test on their URLs, your site visitors would be sent to one of two URLs:

• (A) https://my-store.com/product-a

• (B) https://my-store.com/product-b

If you need help conducting tests with Shoplift, our support team is always available to assist. Reach out from within the app using the live chat widget in the bottom right of the screen, or email [e-mail] to get in touch.