3 Amazon's A/B Tests to Improve the Quality of Product Pages

Personally, I am fascinated by Amazon's site, so I follow topics regarding Amazon as well as product updates.

Here are some of the A/B tests that have been done by amazon, some has rejected some is still live.

I hope you like this kind of information as well.

1. Amazon A/B Tests Bottom Aligned Product Thumbnails

Amazon attempted an image thumbnail experiment on their product pages. Instead using traditional left-aligned thumbnails, they shifted them below the main image and increased their size.

This is very similar to the left vs bottom thumbnail pattern we started tracking this year.

And given the variation was rejected by Amazon, our pattern shifted towards the other side on our evidence scale.?

Highlighted UI Changes From This Leak

1. Bottom Alignment, Size and Product Qualifiers
2. If we look more closely at the variation, we can detect at least 3 key characteristics. First, the position of the thumbnails was shifted below the primary image. Secondly, the size of the thumbnails was increased. And finally, product qualities were also added (ex: "Best selling keyboard in the United States" or "Faster than traditional mechanical keyboards").
3. If I were to iterate on this experiment, I'd attempt to increase the legibility of this text - as it's highly pixelate and barely legible. :) Also, given Amazon's statistical sensitivity, I would also be curious how a A/B/C/D experiment might look like with all three characteristics isolated separately.

2. Keeps Both Add-To-Cart And Buy Now Buttons on Product Page

For the longest time I could remember, Amazon's product pages would display two purchase oriented buttons with a very subtle difference.

The "Add to Cart" would appear first and move customers into a confirming shopping cart screen with potential upsells.

While the "Buy Now" button below?would skip the shopping cart and try to send customers one step ahead into a shipping address selection page - essentially a very subtle shortcut.?

Two months ago?Jacub managed to detect that Amazon was a/b testing the removal of the second "Buy Now" button on a specific product page.

Finally,?it looks like the experiment has been completed with both buttons still being displayed - like in the old days.

3. Discovers A Better Product Option Selector In This A/B Test

Amazon has been experimenting with different formatting of product choice?selections.

Think of books being customized as hardcover, audio or paperback.

Think of product quantities and colors.

Jacub has been observing Amazon run a sequence of such similar tests over the last few months and here is one such experiment with at least 3 properties that now have been implemented - hinting at higher optimality.

I hope this information helps you to understand how you can improve the quality of your product pages.

Big thanks to Jakub Linowski who share this kind of insights.

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Happy Searching!