- Pick the lever, then count your orders
- Eight store testing tools, in no particular order
- Which lever each tool pulls
- Testing the offer: what you charge and how you ship
- Testing the page: Shopify builders and page testers
- General suites: when a store outgrows the apps
- Reading a result without fooling yourself
- My advice for your first store test
- Frequently asked questions
The right A/B testing tool for an ecommerce store depends on the lever you want to pull: page layout, what you charge and ship, or experiments across the whole site. Choose the lever first, then check you get enough weekly orders to read a result, because no testing dashboard can rescue a sample that's too small.
You've redesigned the product page three times in a few months, sales went up once and down twice, and you still can't say which change did it. That's the problem store owners bring to A/B testing: they want to stop guessing. The trouble is that the tools on offer test very different things, and most comparisons line them up as if they were the same product.
This list is for store owners and growth managers, most of them on Shopify. Four of the eight tools are built for stores and four are general testing tools that stores also use, and each entry is labelled. They're in no particular order and there's no crowned pick.
Pick the lever, then count your orders
Stores usually choose a testing tool by browsing page features, and they miss the real limit. A testing tool only helps if it can change the thing you want to change, and if you get enough orders to see a difference that isn't luck. Get either wrong and you'll run tests for months that never tell you anything.
So start with the lever. There are three, and they answer different questions:
- Page layout. Headlines, images, product page order, landing pages. Does a different page sell more?
- Offer and shipping. What you charge, discounts, bundles, shipping rates and the free-shipping threshold. Does a different offer earn more per visitor?
- The whole site or app. Tests across many pages, personalisation and feature changes, usually run by a bigger team.
A tool that tests your offer answers a different question from one that tests your layout, and a general suite answers both only if you're willing to set it up. Once you know the lever, check your weekly orders against the method the tool describes on its own site. If a test would take a season to reach an answer, change something bigger or test higher up the funnel, where traffic is heavier.
Eight store testing tools, in no particular order
Convert
Best for: Stores that want a testing tool not tied to one platform, with split testing, personalisation and advanced goals; the vendor stresses fast support and monthly payments.
Fibr
Best for: Teams curious about AI-driven page variants and personalised journeys; it's a general platform, not built only for ecommerce.
GemPages
Best for: Shopify merchants who build product pages and funnels without code and want to test them with the vendor's A/B testing product, GEMX.
Intelligems
Best for: Owners who want to test what they charge, subscription offers, shipping rates and free-shipping thresholds; the vendor's aim is more profit per visitor.
Optimizely
Best for: Large teams that want content creation, testing and personalisation on one digital experience platform, with the vendor promising proof of business impact.
Shogun
Best for: Stores that build landing pages and want A/B testing and personalisation built into the same ecommerce page builder.
Shoplift
Best for: Shopify merchants who'd like an idea backlog, campaigns and page tests planned in one place, from a platform the vendor says is built for Shopify.
VWO
Best for: Larger stores after experimentation, personalisation, feature management and behaviour analytics in one general suite.
Which lever each tool pulls
| Tool | Kind of tool | The lever it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Convert | General A/B testing tool | Split tests on any platform, not tied to one store |
| Fibr | General AI optimisation | AI-built page variants and personalised journeys |
| GemPages | Shopify page builder with testing | Building Shopify product pages and funnels, then testing them |
| Intelligems | Built for stores: offer and shipping tests | Testing what you charge, discounts and shipping thresholds |
| Optimizely | General enterprise platform | Large ecommerce teams running content and tests together |
| Shogun | Ecommerce page builder with testing | Landing pages built and tested in the same tool |
| Shoplift | Built for Shopify: page testing | Planning and running page tests on Shopify |
| VWO | General experimentation suite | Bigger stores wanting tests plus behaviour analytics |
Testing the offer: what you charge and how you ship
This is the lever most store owners never test, and it's the one closest to profit. Intelligems is built for it, testing product and subscription offers, discounts, shipping rates and free-shipping thresholds, which are all things a store owner controls directly. Offer tests need care with customers, so think about how you'll handle two people seeing different offers, and check consumer rules where you sell, because requirements vary by country.
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Testing the page: Shopify builders and page testers
If the question is which page sells more, these are the store-built options. Shoplift describes itself as a CRO platform built for Shopify, with an idea backlog, campaigns and tests planned in one place. Shogun is an ecommerce page builder with A/B testing and personalisation built in, so the page you design is the page you test. GemPages builds Shopify pages and funnels without code and adds testing through its GEMX product.
The builders make the most sense if you'd be building new pages anyway; a page tester alone is lighter if your theme already does what you want. Before you test layouts, a session or two with heatmap tools that show where shoppers click will tell you which part of the page deserves a test.
General suites: when a store outgrows the apps
These aren't built for ecommerce, and that's fine if you need tests across a whole site or several platforms. Convert is a general A/B tool not tied to one platform. Fibr is a general AI optimisation platform for personalised journeys and AI-made variants. VWO combines experimentation with personalisation, feature management and behaviour analytics. Optimizely is an enterprise digital experience platform covering content, testing and personalisation. For a smaller Shopify store, one of the store-built tools is usually the better fit; the suites earn their place when a team runs many tests at once. Our main list of A/B testing tools for any website covers the general field in more depth.
Reading a result without fooling yourself
- Change one thing at a time. If you change the headline, the images and the offer together, a win tells you nothing about which one worked.
- Run whole weeks. Shoppers behave differently on a Monday and a Saturday, so stopping mid-week skews the answer.
- Don't stop the moment it looks good. Early leads often fade. Decide in advance how long the test runs and stick to it.
- Measure orders and revenue, not clicks. A page that gets more add-to-carts but fewer completed orders hasn't won. Your ecommerce analytics should agree with the testing tool before you roll a change out.
My advice for your first store test
Write down the one change you most want to make and which lever it belongs to, layout or offer. That single sentence will rule out half this list. Then look at your weekly orders honestly. If they're modest, test something big, like a whole product page or your free-shipping threshold, not a button colour.
Most small Shopify stores don't need an enterprise suite to start. Pick a store-built tool for the lever you chose, run one clean test for whole weeks, and only add a bigger platform once you're running more tests than one person can keep track of.
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Frequently asked questions
What should an ecommerce store A/B test first?
Start with the change you'd make anyway and that touches the most orders, such as the main product page layout or your free-shipping threshold. Small cosmetic tweaks rarely show a clear result on a modest store.
Can I A/B test what I charge on Shopify?
Some tools built for stores say they test product offers, discounts, shipping rates and free-shipping thresholds. Check how each one handles customers seeing different offers, and check consumer rules where you sell, because they vary by country.
How many orders do I need before an A/B test is worth running?
There's no single number, because it depends on how big a difference you expect to see. If a test would take months to reach an answer, test a bigger change or a busier page, and check the method the tool describes on its own site.
Do I need a page builder to run A/B tests?
No. Some page builders include testing, which helps if you build new pages anyway, but page testers and general testing tools can run tests on the pages you already have.
Is a general A/B testing tool better than a Shopify app?
Not for most small stores. A general suite helps when a team runs many tests across several sites or platforms; a store-built tool is usually quicker to set up for one Shopify shop.
Should I use heatmaps before I start A/B testing?
It helps. Heatmaps and session recordings show where shoppers click and stall, which gives you a sensible first test instead of a guess.
