The moment you're actually ready to A/B test

Last issue I told you to forget CLV and fix your checkout first. If that landed and you've done the work, this issue is for you.

Now we can talk about CRO.

This is a love letter to it. I wish more of my clients tested instead of guessing. I keep watching mature stores spend serious money on redesigns nobody validated and the new thing isn't always better than the old. Sometimes it's worse. Sometimes by a lot.

So: when are you actually ready to start running experiments?

Three things have to be true:

1. You have enough traffic.

The "100 conversions per variation" floor is the bare minimum where results start being plausible. Not where they become reliable. The honest number is closer to 1,000 monthly transactions and 10,000+ visitors through the funnel you're testing. Less than that, you're running fewer, bigger swings. Not button colours. Whole-page rewrites.

2. The obvious problems are fixed.

A/B testing is for choosing between two reasonable options. It's not a substitute for fixing what's clearly broken. If a 30-minute walkthrough generates a 20-item list, fix the list first.

3. You have a real hypothesis.

"Let's see what happens if we move the trust badge" is not one.

"Customers hesitate at the shipping step because the cost only reveals at checkout , let's surface it on the PDP and watch AOV vs abandonment" is.

If you can't write down what you expect to happen and why, you're not ready to test. You're ready for user research.

Why I'm telling you this

If you're running a store with real traffic and you're not testing, that's a fixable problem. I'm partnering with two platforms: Convert (any stack) and Intelligems (Shopify, strong on price and shipping tests).

Different tools for different stores.

Reply if you want to talk about where your store sits on the readiness scale.

Philip Wallage — BTNG.studio​
I find what's confusing your customers. And fix it.
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