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A/B Testing Homepage on Shopify for Better Storytelling & Conversions [2026]
Your website’s homepage is where you tell everything your brand has to offer.
From your brand’s messaging to products to offers — everything is packed on your homepage. And if it’s not that way, it should be, because most visitors land on your homepage first.
But with so many things to cover and optimize, how do you know what exactly needs to be changed or enhanced? Like for most eCommerce optimization issues, A/B testing is the answer.
So, in this blog post, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of A/B testing your homepage to boost your conversions and optimize your brand’s storytelling.
What is Homepage A/B Testing in Shopify?
Homepage A/B testing is the technique to compare two different versions of your homepage to identify which one performs best for your defined goal.
Now, when talking of the goal, it may vary from business to business.
For example, a brand may want to optimize the CTA button in the hero section, while another one wants customers to check out the featured product section. On the homepage, the scope of A/B testing is vast.
How Does Homepage A/B Testing Work in Shopify?
Using a Shopify A/B testing app like GemX, you can test two different versions of your homepage template. Let’s understand this with a hypothetical example
As you can see in the above example, the total homepage traffic is divided into two equal parts. 50% traffic is sent to the homepage version (A), where the above-the-fold copy focuses on the discount offer. The remaining 50% is sent to the variant which focuses on the brand’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) in the copy.
Conclusion: The test can be considered successful, as the discount offer copy got 3% conversion rate, and the variant with brand USP-based copy achieved 7% conversion rate.
Why A/B Test the Shopify Homepage?
Considering the importance of the homepage in your Shopify store, A/B testing the homepage template offers multiple benefits.
Improve your store’s overall performance:
The homepage is the center of everything your store has to offer. Thus, it’s imperative for your homepage to perform well in order to enhance your store’s performance. A/B testing can help identify areas of improvement on your homepage and make necessary changes with a data-driven approach.
Improve the conversion rate of a specific product:
Your brand’s homepage may have multiple items highlighted on it. But some brands focus on increasing the conversion rate of a certain product or offer on the homepage through the hero section or a featured product section. A/B testing can help you boost the conversion of such items.
Enhance the user experience (UX):
While most eCommerce brands leverage A/B testing to increase the conversion rate, there’s more you could do with A/B test insights. You can also use A/B test insights to enhance the experience of your site visitors. For example, if your site’s navigation has an issue, you can test a different menu or layout for better navigation.
Step-by-Step Guide on A/B Testing Homepage for Your Shopify Store
Now, let’s go through the detailed guide on how to run A/B testing for your Shopify homepage:
Step 1: Define the Hypothesis for the Test
A hypothesis defines what needs to be tested.
Now, you could A/B test your homepage in two ways: A. Single element testing, and B. The entire template testing. So, defining a hypothesis is necessary to decide on which type of template test you’re going to conduct for your homepage.
Let’s understand both of these hypotheses in more detail with examples:
Hypothesis Type A: Testing a single variable or element on your homepage
As the title suggests, here, we’re testing only one variable or element at a time on our homepage template.
When to use this type of hypothesis?
When you’re trying to identify the impact of certain element(s) on your homepage, test only one variable at a time. If you test multiple variables in a single test (e.g., announcement bar + hero image), you won’t be able to identify which exact element impacted the result.
Now, let's understand this with an example hypothesis based on a widely used template from Craig Sullivan, a conversion optimization expert:
Theory: Based on the conversion rate data, we believe that displaying social proof (the product rating) before the CTA button instead of trust badges to all visitors will enhance their confidence in the product and entice them to go for the purchase.
Validation: We will know this when we see an increase in the click-through rate of the CTA button and the overall conversion rate.
Outcome: This will be good for our business because it will help us validate the homepage template design and increase our overall revenue.
Apart from product rating and trust badges, here are some more important elements to test on your homepage:
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Hero image (e.g., product-only image vs lifestyle image)
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Hero copy (headline and sub-headline copy)
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Hero + other CTA buttons
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Announcement bar (i.e., testing the bar’s color scheme or content)
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Hero offer (Discount offer, free shipping, etc.)
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Other social proof elements (30-day returns, ethical sourcing, etc.)
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Menu design (i.e., number and order of menu items)
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Featured collections
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Featured product (e.g., testing best-selling products)
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Newsletter signup box (e.g., signup box or CTA copy or color scheme testing)
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Footer section
And the list goes on — because your homepage consists of several crucial elements that not only impact your conversion rate but also the brand perception and user experience.
Hypothesis Type B: Testing “Shopify theme’s default homepage template” vs “Homepage designed with GemPages”
Here, we're conducting an A/B test on a template level altogether.
When to use this type of hypothesis?
With this hypothesis, you can identify if the entire homepage template needs to be changed and which one is more effective from a conversion standpoint.
Now, let’s review a sample hypothesis for this scenario as well:
Theory: Based on the homepage bounce-off and engagement data, we believe that displaying a homepage template designed with GemPages — instead of a standard theme template to specific NEW visitors (coming from organic and paid campaigns) will make the brand storytelling more engaging, encourage them to interact more, and buy from our brand.
Validation: We will know this when we see an increase in engagement and overall revenue from new visitors.
Outcome: This will be good for our business because it will help us validate the homepage template design, enhance our brand connection with new visitors, and increase our overall revenue.
Step 2: Create Two Versions of the Homepage for the Test
Based on the hypothesis you defined, create the variant homepage template.
For this tutorial, we’ll consider the hypothesis type B: Testing “Shopify theme’s default homepage template” vs “Homepage designed with GemPages”.
Thus, we’ll use GemPages to create the variant homepage template. GemPages is one of the most popular page builder apps for Shopify, with a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from more than 3,000 reviews.
When using GemPages, you get a huge library of professionally designed homepage templates. These templates are optimized with built-in conversion-focused elements.
Also, it’s easy to customize these templates using its visual drag-and-drop editor.
Step 3: Set Up “Template Testing” Using GemX
For A/B testing of a critical page like the homepage, you need a reliable A/B testing app. “GemX: CRO & A/B Testing” app is built specifically for Shopify merchants with our years of experience and expertise in CRO and A/B testing.
First, install the GemX app with a free trial. Then, go to the GemX dashboard and click the “Create new experiment” to begin setting up your A/B test.
Now, you’ll have two options:
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Template testing: This feature lets you test a single template. Thus, you can A/B test both hypothesis scenarios we discussed: 1. Testing one homepage variable at a time, and 2. Testing two entirely different homepage templates.
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Multipage testing: This feature covers a much broader scope. GemX also lets you A/B test two complete store experiences — instead of testing just one page.
For this tutorial, we’ll go with the “Template testing” feature as we’re testing two different homepage templates.
Now, select both homepage templates that you need to test. For example, here, we’re selecting the Shopify theme’s default homepage template vs. a GemPages homepage template.
First, insert the Control version, i.e., Shopify theme’s default homepage template.
Next, we’ll insert the homepage template (Variant) we created using GemPages.
Now, both of your templates are ready in the experiment.
Step 4: Set Up the Advanced Conditions for the Test
GemX lets you set up advanced conditions/settings to make your A/B tests more specific and precise. Let’s go through each setting to understand its role in the test:
4.1 Choose the Winning Metric:
Your winning metric could be either “Conversion” or “Revenue”, depending on your business goal. For example, in this case, we’re testing the homepage template, which has many conversion points throughout the page.
So, we’re not going to use the conversion metric; instead, we’re going to measure the impact of the variant template on the overall revenue generated from it.
4.2 Select the Device Types:
If you want to perform the test for specific device type(s), GemX allows you to do so.
4.3 Select the Visitor Types:
This could be an important setting if your hypothesis was defined to target specific visitors only — new or returning. For example, we’ve selected only “New visitors” because we want to analyze the influence of different homepage designs on visitors who’ve not visited the site before.
4.4 Choose the Traffic Sources:
You can also customize the traffic sources to be covered in your test. For this guide, we’ve selected four specific traffic sources:
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Organic social
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Organic search
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Paid social
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Paid search
4.5 Define the Traffic Split:
Ideally, your traffic should be split equally, i.e., 50% for each homepage template, so that both versions are given equal opportunity to prove their potential.
4.6 Select “Market & language”:
If you want to test your homepage template for specific market(s), GemX lets you define that condition as well.
Now, if you still find it difficult to set up the test for any reason, don’t worry — the GemX team is there to help you! Just click the Question/Help icon, and you’ll find the option for “Setup guide”, “Chat with us”, and “Book a call with us”.
Step 5: Start the Homepage A/B Test
Once the templates and conditions are set, begin your test by clicking the “Start experiment” button.
Once the experiment has started, you can go to the “More options” button to view analytics, rename your experiment, copy the page link, and end the experiment (when needed).
Keep monitoring the performance of both templates.
Step 6: End the Test and Implement Changes
For a quick overview of your live experiment, go to the GemX dashboard and you'll find key data points such as Conversion, Revenue, and Visitors. Also, you can click on the Analytics icon to expand more detailed data points.
After running the test for a defined timeframe, end the test and implement the changes on your live store if you’ve found your “winner homepage template”.
But before you end the test, consider these two important aspects:
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Timeline of the test: Make sure to allow your A/B test the required time (minimum two weeks) to gather reliable insights.
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Statistical significance: Achieve the statistical significance of 95% (or at a minimum 90%) to ensure the result you obtained is not a coincidence.
Pro Tip: You may not necessarily find your best homepage version in the first A/B test itself. Chances are, your test may fail — and that’s okay. You can continue testing your homepage with alternate versions until you find the winner.
Step 7: Document Your Homepage A/B Test Insights
Regardless of the test results, make it a practice to document the key insights from your test results and observations. These insights could be helpful to understand your target audience better and enhance your future marketing campaigns.
To save and organize your A/B test insights in a systematic manner, you can use a database tool like Notion or any other tool of your choice.
Final Thoughts on Shopify Homepage A/B Testing
Once again, your Shopify store’s homepage covers many critical sections.
It’s imperative to understand what type of test you need to run on your Shopify store. Even if you’re already using a homepage template designed with GemPages, you can still perform a template-level test with another variant designed with GemPages.
And if you haven’t already, install GemPages (free plan available) and GemX (14-day free trial available) — to start optimizing your Shopify homepage and other store pages as well.
To learn more about other eCommerce marketing strategies, tools, and best practices — check out more resources on the GemPages Blog. Also, join the GemPages Facebook community to network and learn from like-minded entrepreneurs and experts.
FAQs About A/B Testing Shopify Homepage
