Conversion rate optimization is a silly name for what we’re trying to accomplish with A/B testing. 

Our real goal is to make more money. Not top-line revenue, but profit — real dollars in your bank account at the end of each month.

That’s why we’re focused on offers. Testing one type of offer moves the needle more than any other: price testing.

Specifically, raising your prices.

Making the case for price testing

Let’s first address the biggest concern: What if customers freak out about higher prices? I can tell you first-hand that this never happens.

Not because customers don’t care about price (spoiler: they do), but because you don’t have to raise your prices by much to see a big impact. An increase from $30 to $33 is a 10% increase, but very few people really care about a $3 difference — and that’s exactly why you should care about that $3. 

Think about it. If you raise the price and you change nothing else, 100% of that increase goes straight to your bottom line.

Imagine you sell a $30 widget. If the profit margin on that widget is 50% you take home $15. If you raise prices by 10% to $33 and see no drop in conversion rate, you are now taking home $18. (Maybe it’s $17.65 because of processing fees, but you get the point.)

That adds up to a 20% increase in profits on every sale with only a 10% increase in price.

The bottom line: your customers won’t notice a 10% increase in price, but you’ll definitely notice a 20% increase in profits. 

Original Grain uses price testing to scale profitably

This isn’t just theoretical either. Nate Lagos, the VP of Marketing for Original Grain, credits price testing as one of the main reasons they’ve been able to grow profitably. Here’s how he thinks about it:

“We don't sell the cheapest watches — that's not our goal. And almost NOBODY in ecom is competing purely on price. We all hold some kind of brand value that we think is worth more than the cheapest alternative in the market. So, if we're not competing on price, WHY ARE WE TRYING TO COMPETE ON PRICE?

Raise your prices, and watch your first order AOV increase, watch your LTV increase, watch your contribution margin grow,”

 – Nate Lagos, VP of Marketing for Original Grain

Because this strategy is so beneficial for the long-term health of their business, Original Grain now begins product development with a higher price tag in mind. 

Why price testing using Intelligems is your best bet

The best part about all of this is that price is the easiest thing to test.

Changing what you sell can be time-consuming. Sometimes you need new photography, have to create new products in shopify, or even manufacture an entirely new product. With price, all you do is change one number. Really doesn't get easier than that.

Obviously, just changing the price of your product in Shopify and waiting to see what happens isn't super scientific. In my opinion, that kind of makeshift strategy is better than nothing, but there's an easier (read: more productive) way: using Intelligems.

With Intelligems you can set up a price test in two different ways. One super quick and easy, the other a bit more time consuming. I'll walk you through both here quickly.

For one or two products:  duplicate and redirect

If your brand has just one or two products, all we have to do is set up a basic redirect test. It’s so simple. You just redirect 50% of the people to a new product page. Everything is the same for this redirected group, except the price.

To get started head to Shopify and duplicate your product. For the duplicate product, set the price 10% higher. Then note down the URL for the duplicated product (it probably looks something like "products/your-product-1").

Now you can go into Intelligems and create a new Test. You'll want to create a Content Test and then choose Split URL Test.

By default you will have two test groups. One is the control group (no changes) and the other is the group that will see our increased prices. You can name that one “10% Increase” so it’s easy to remember which is which.

On the next screen you’ll set up the redirect. In the control group slot, enter your current product URL. In the test group slot enter the duplicated product URL.

It should look something like this:

Then, this is the most important thing: set it to Redirect Every Time. This ensures that if people leave the page and come back they still get shown the correct product.

Just like that, you’re set up and ready to launch. Depending on your current traffic numbers, you should have actionable results within two to three weeks.

For 3+ products: Upgrade to Intelligems Profit Optimization Plan

If you have more than one product you can imagine how annoying price testing would get. Duplicating 15 products in Shopify, setting up 15 different redirect tests — it's a lot.

That's why I recommend Intelligems' price testing tool for brands with a larger product catalog..

To use this feature, simply login, create a new test, and choose "Pricing Test" from the set of options. Choose any number of products to include in the test. You can even edit the price of products down to the variant level.

Or use the "Apply Autofill" button to simply increase all prices by 10% in your test group.

Now publish the test.

Really, that’s it.

Okay. Sometimes the Intelligems team needs to do some work on their end to make sure your store is ready to run the test. But that usually only takes a day — with no effort on your part!

Within just a few minutes, you’ve simultaneously deployed price tests across your entire catalog of products.

Now compare that process with the old “duplicate and redirect” method I mentioned in the previous section (the only option you have with other A/B testing tools). For a larger product portfolio, you’d spend days could have taken days on organization and QA.

Once you have your results (in two to three weeks), you can test again with a single click. And you should.

Keep on testing

You’ve seen how easy it is to configure these tests, and now you can get specific with it.

Test price increase on your best-selling products. To try and move your worst-selling products, test lower prices on those items. Test… well I’m sure you’ll have a ton of ideas after you run your first one.

So just go ahead and get started. And then do it again.

Author: Shane Rostad, The go-to guy for 7- and 8-figure Shopify store owners that want to increase their conversion rate.