Skip to content
Logo-black
  • Native Commerce Core™
    • IDC-marketscape-q4-2024-resources-hub-cover-562x562@2x

      Constructor is a leader in the IDC marketscape

      Constructor is a Leader in the IDC MarketScape on Worldwide Knowledge Discovery Software for External-Facing Use Cases, 2024.

        • Search & Autosuggest

          Hyper-personalized ecommerce search driven by AI and real-time shopper behavior.

        • Browse

          Personalize your ecommerce category pages for maximum conversions.

        • Recommendations

          Drive upsells and increase RPV with hyper-personalized product recommendations.

        • Collections

          Dynamic, personalized ecommerce collection pages that learn from every search, click, and purchase.

        • Quizzes

          Create smart product recommendation quizzes that drive shopper engagement.

        • Merchant Controls & Intelligence

          Get the ecommerce merchandising controls and insights you need to make high-impact changes that drive revenue.

        • Attribute Enrichment

          Automatically enrich product attributes and categories to give shoppers the best possible experience.

        • AI Shopping Assistant

          Help your online customers discover great products faster.

        • Retail Media

          Constructor Sponsored Listings complement (instead of compete with) your organic results.

        • Cross-Channel & Offsite Discovery

          Create and launch personalized, data-driven marketing campaigns across digital channels.

        • B2B Use-Cases

          Product discovery technology that’s purpose-built to handle the complex needs of B2B ecommerce.

  • Customers
    • Beyond Relevance Featured

      Beyond Relevance Report

      The Data-Backed Case for Attractiveness as the New Standard for Ecommerce Search Performance.

        • Upcoming Events

          Visit us in person at ecommerce industry events.

        • Reports & Guides

          New research, guidance, and insights for the future of retail.

        • Webinars

          Educational webinars, conversations with Constructor partners, and more.

        • Blog

          The latest ideas and news from the frontier of commerce search and discovery.

        • Split/Test Digest

          The most interesting learnings from A/B testing at Constructor.

        • News

          Read Constructor's latest news coverage and press announcements.

        • Documentation

          Learn about the components of Constructor's advanced, AI-powered product discovery suite.

        • About Us

          With AI in our DNA and by keeping ecommerce as our core focus, we’ve built the best product search and discovery solution specifically for the unique needs of retailers.

        • Partners

          Constructor partners with the world’s top retail consultants, systems integrators, and technology platforms.

        • Careers

          Constructor is building the next generation of search solutions.

Login
Book a Demo
  • Native Commerce Core™
    • IDC-marketscape-q4-2024-resources-hub-cover-562x562@2x

      Constructor is a leader in the IDC marketscape

      Constructor is a Leader in the IDC MarketScape on Worldwide Knowledge Discovery Software for External-Facing Use Cases, 2024.

        • Search & Autosuggest

          Hyper-personalized ecommerce search driven by AI and real-time shopper behavior.

        • Browse

          Personalize your ecommerce category pages for maximum conversions.

        • Recommendations

          Drive upsells and increase RPV with hyper-personalized product recommendations.

        • Collections

          Dynamic, personalized ecommerce collection pages that learn from every search, click, and purchase.

        • Quizzes

          Create smart product recommendation quizzes that drive shopper engagement.

        • Merchant Controls & Intelligence

          Get the ecommerce merchandising controls and insights you need to make high-impact changes that drive revenue.

        • Attribute Enrichment

          Automatically enrich product attributes and categories to give shoppers the best possible experience.

        • AI Shopping Assistant

          Help your online customers discover great products faster.

        • Retail Media

          Constructor Sponsored Listings complement (instead of compete with) your organic results.

        • Cross-Channel & Offsite Discovery

          Create and launch personalized, data-driven marketing campaigns across digital channels.

        • B2B Use-Cases

          Product discovery technology that’s purpose-built to handle the complex needs of B2B ecommerce.

  • Customers
    • Beyond Relevance Featured

      Beyond Relevance Report

      The Data-Backed Case for Attractiveness as the New Standard for Ecommerce Search Performance.

        • Upcoming Events

          Visit us in person at ecommerce industry events.

        • Reports & Guides

          New research, guidance, and insights for the future of retail.

        • Webinars

          Educational webinars, conversations with Constructor partners, and more.

        • Blog

          The latest ideas and news from the frontier of commerce search and discovery.

        • Split/Test Digest

          The most interesting learnings from A/B testing at Constructor.

        • News

          Read Constructor's latest news coverage and press announcements.

        • Documentation

          Learn about the components of Constructor's advanced, AI-powered product discovery suite.

        • About Us

          With AI in our DNA and by keeping ecommerce as our core focus, we’ve built the best product search and discovery solution specifically for the unique needs of retailers.

        • Partners

          Constructor partners with the world’s top retail consultants, systems integrators, and technology platforms.

        • Careers

          Constructor is building the next generation of search solutions.

Login
Book a Demo
Back to Blog

A/B Testing Strategies to Drive More Revenue Through Recommendations

Recommendations Best Practices Product Discovery
Posted on:
April 22, 2025
Author:
Nate Roy
A/B Testing Strategies for Recommendations
Table of Contents:
A/B Testing Strategies for Recommendations

Product recommendations can make the difference between a single-item purchase and a full cart, but with limited real estate across your homepage, product pages, and cart, every decision about how to design, display, and populate them matters. 

Let's explore how strategic A/B testing can help you validate your recommendation strategy decisions and drive better results.

Homepage Recommendations 

There are many creative ways to embed recommendation pods into homepages. Consider testing both merchandising themes and searchandising strategies within each section.

For example, a large American photo and video equipment retailer’s “Deal Zone” could be manually merchandised or dynamically populated based on rules or personalization. A/B testing can quantify which strategies drive more engagement and revenue.

video equipment home page feature

A large American photo and video equipment retailer’s homepage ‘Deal Zone’ recommendation pod

Tabbed recommendation pods are trending on ecommerce homepages. For example, the luxury department store chain below lets shoppers browse through several themes like new arrivals under $100, work apparel, makeup, and new markdowns. Consider testing default tabs (first visible) against each other.

Nordstrom Top Picks for You

Luxury department store chain’s tabbed homepage recommendation pod

Product Page Recommendations 

Because product detail pages (PDPs) are typically your most complex templates, it’s important to test recommendation pod design and placement as well as your recommendation strategy.

Recommendation pods present a competing call to action to “add to cart;” you’re asking shoppers to make their decision a bit more complicated, but when used effectively, it can boost CVR, RPV, and AOV.

Pod recipes

If you already present a combination of recommendation pod types on your PDPs (pod recipes), a great test to start with is their stack rank, or the order in which they are shown.

For example, Sephora uses “You May Also Like,” “Compare Similar Products,” and “Use it With” pods. Because not all users will scroll to see all three (especially on mobile), a simple experiment testing pod order (A/B or A/B/C) is a great place to start before testing rules within the pods.

Sephora PDP reco pods default (1)

‘Compare similar products’ first (control)    

 

Sephora recommendation pod swap

 ‘You may also like’ first (proposed variant B)

 

Sephora alternate recommendation pod order

‘Use it with’ first (proposed variant C)

New thematic pods 

Beyond the standard “you might like” and “more like this” varieties, consider testing attribute-level recommendations, like more in this color, pattern, fabric, scent, or finish.

A/B testing tells you how effective these pods are relative to your standard recommendations.


Aritzia more from color cross-sell

More in this [color]

Alo more in this fabric

More in this [fabric]

Or try a pod of deeply discounted recommendations (but remember, revenue and AOV may be lower compared to other pod strategies, even when click-to-conversion is high).

Colourpop Last Call cross-sell widget

“Last call” recommendation pod

Alternative Product

Within Constructor, you can also serve alternative product recommendations to steer shoppers toward a featured item, upsell, or otherwise attractive option, such as an item from a brand the customer has frequently bought from or added to favorites.

For example, the premium consumer electronics retailer below suggests an upsell for the ‘next model in this lineup’ and includes a short summary of product specs inside the component.

Crutchfield alternative recommendation

How a premium consumer electronics retailer displays an alternative product upsell

 


🧪At Constructor, in internal A/B tests we found that complementary recommendation results lead to significantly more users clicking and eventually adding to cart compared to alternative items.

While more people clicked on alternative items, complementary recommendations drove conversions and larger basket sizes.

The alternative strategy (upselling) drove +8.1% in users clicking recommendations.

The complementary strategy drove +11.6% in users clicking on a recommendation followed by an add-to-cart and +13.6% in clicks followed by a purchase.


 

Cart Cross-Sells 

As with all recommendation pods, your A/B testing use cases are virtually unlimited, but showing recommendations in the cart is a hot topic in itself. Many conversion optimization professionals argue that you should keep distractions out of the cart to increase proceed to checkout actions.

Others argue that cross-selling is a great tactic to increase AOV and revenue, especially on mobile where continuing your shopping journey through your navigation menu carries more friction.

It’s not just a matter of showing cross-sells or not though. It also depends on how your cart page (or mini cart drawer) is designed, your merchandising strategy, and how cross-sells display once a cart is full of items.

Global show-hide test 

The simplest experiment (and the one you should start with) is a show/hide A/B test. 

This enables you to gauge how receptive your shoppers are to cross-sells in general.

Colourpop cart with cross-sells

An example cart with cross-sells

 

Colourpop cart no cross sells

An example cart without cross-sells

 

A losing test doesn’t mean you need to scrap the idea of cross-selling in your cart altogether. Consider re-testing with different merchandising strategies or UI patterns to see if you can close the gap.

Once you have a winning recipe, you can more confidently proceed with keeping cart cross-sells live, and experiment with more granular rules.

Recommendation orientation 

Testing a horizontal scroller against a vertical pattern can help you determine what has the best impact on revenue.

Aritzia horizontal cart cross-sells

A cart with horizontal cross-sells    

 

Beeinspired vertical cart cross sells@2x

A cart with vertical cross-sells

 

Tabbed cross-sells

Merchandising the mini-cart is challenging with limited real estate on both mobile and desktop.

Tabbed recommendations enable you to pack more into the cart and give users some choice. You can also set up your experiment to switch the default visible tab from category A to B, for example.

Loelife tabbed cart cross-sells

A cart with tabbed cross-sell recommendations

Add-to-Cart Interstitials

Modals give you more room to work with on both desktop and mobile. Consider testing them against traditional cart cross sells.

BH photo add to cart modal@2x

Add-to-cart confirmation modal populated with accessories related to the product added

You can also A/B test designs against each other. For example, the men’s clothing brand below has redesigned their add-to-cart modal, which may involve A/B testing in the revision process.

Chubbies BOGO deals

Add-to-cart confirmation modal populated with complementary products

 

Chubbies Recommended for you carousel@2x

Add-to-cart confirmation modal with redesigned UI

Next Steps 

The power of product recommendations lies not just in having them but in using them strategically, informed by real user behavior. 

Through systematic A/B testing of placement, content, and presentation, you can build a recommendation strategy that drives meaningful results. Start with your highest-traffic areas, measure impact carefully, and keep optimizing based on what the data reveals. 

For more A/B testing insights and strategies from the Constructor experimentation team, check out the Experiments Blog.

What's next?

Uncover lost revenue opportunities with a complimentary Search Experience Audit.

According to the 2024 State of Ecommerce Search & Product Discovery Survey, nearly 70% of shoppers think the search function on retail websites needs an upgrade. Our team has run over 1000 A/B tests to identify easy-to-implement algorithmic and UX improvements that get results. Use their research to your advantage with a complimentary Search Experience Audit — no strings attached.

Request an Audit
  • Analyze your search results quality
  • Identify "no results" pages
  • Pinpoint irrelevant results for long-form queries
  • Uncover UX opportunities for Search, Autocomplete, and PLPs

According to the 2024 State of Ecommerce Search & Product Discovery Survey, nearly 70% of shoppers think the search function on retail websites needs an upgrade. Our team has run over 1000 A/B tests to identify easy-to-implement algorithmic and UX improvements that get results. Use their research to your advantage with a complimentary Search Experience Audit — no strings attached.

Request an Audit
  • MACH Certified
  • 21972-312_SOC_NonCPA-150x150
  • Cartification-mark_04-09-300x253-1-150x150
Constructor.io Logo
  • Technology
    • Native Commerce Core™
    • Request a Demo
    • The Proof Schedule®
  • Solutions
    • Search & Autosuggest
    • Browse
    • Recommendations
    • Collections
    • Quizzes
    • Merchant Controls & Intelligence
    • Attribute Enrichment
    • AI Shopping Assistant
    • B2B Solutions
  • Resources Hub
    • Events
    • Reports, Guides & Webinars
    • Blog
    • Experiments
    • News
    • Constructor vs Alternatives
    • Documentation
  • About
    • About Us
    • Partners
    • Security & Compliance
    • Careers
  • Technology
    • Native Commerce Core™
    • Request a Demo
    • The Proof Schedule®
  • Solutions
    • Search & Autosuggest
    • Browse
    • Recommendations
    • Collections
    • Quizzes
    • Merchant Controls & Intelligence
    • Attribute Enrichment
    • AI Shopping Assistant
    • B2B Solutions
  • Resources Hub
    • Events
    • Reports, Guides & Webinars
    • Blog
    • Experiments
    • News
    • Constructor vs Alternatives
    • Documentation
  • About
    • About Us
    • Partners
    • Security & Compliance
    • Careers
© 2025 Constructor All rights reserved
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy