Preview and QA a Page Experiment

Pre-launch checklist for page experiments in Elevate A/B Testing, covering visual checks, functionality, third party apps, tracking verification, and scope.

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Work through this before you launch. A broken variation does not just lose the experiment, it loses you real orders while it runs, and you learn nothing.

Every item below is pass or fail. If something fails, fix it and check again before launching.

Prerequisites: the experiment created and saved, and every variation template finished in the Shopify theme editor.

How to view a variation

Select Preview on a variation to open it as a visitor sees it. Preview renders both desktop and mobile, so you can check each variation at both widths without leaving the app.

When checking on your live storefront rather than in preview, use a fresh incognito window each time. A normal window may already hold a variation assignment from earlier testing and show you the same version every time.

Visual check

Check	What passes
Control page	Looks exactly like your current live page, with no changes at all
Each variation	Your intended changes are present and rendered correctly
Mobile	Each variation loads correctly at phone width. Most layout breakage appears here first.
Desktop	Each variation loads correctly at full desktop width
Tablet	Checked if tablet is a meaningful share of your traffic
Side by side	The only differences between control and variation are the ones you intended. Watch for spacing, font, and missing section differences you did not mean to introduce.

Unintended differences are the most common QA failure on page experiments, because duplicating a template copies its settings at that moment and nothing after. Any theme edit you made to the original since duplicating is missing from the copy.

Functionality check

Check	What passes
Add to cart	Adds the correct product from every variation
Navigation	Menus, breadcrumbs, and internal links work on every variation
Images	All images, thumbnails, and galleries load
Forms	Any form on the page submits correctly on every variation
Video and media	Embedded media loads and plays
Quick view and modals	Any popups or modals your theme uses open and function

Third party apps

Apps that inject into your storefront are configured per template in many themes. They do not always carry across to a duplicate.

Check	What passes
Reviews widget	Appears on every variation
Upsell and cross sell	Any recommendation or bundle widgets appear
Subscription selector	Present and functional if the page offers subscriptions
Live chat and support widgets	Load on every variation
Trust badges and seals	Present on every variation

A missing reviews widget on one variation is not a small cosmetic difference. It is a second, unintended change, and it will move your numbers.

Tracking verification

Check	What passes
Events are arriving	Visiting a page in the experiment produces an event
Correct variation recorded	The event records the version you actually saw
Add to cart is recorded	Adding a product produces a corresponding event
Assignment is sticky	Close the page, reopen it, and you see the same variation

Experiment data is cached and refreshes every two hours, so a test visit will not appear straight away. Select the refresh control next to Experiment Settings to pull live data.

See the reports documentation for where to find this data and what each metric means.

Template and scope check

Check	What passes
Correct templates assigned	Each variation points at the template you intended
No 404s	Every variation loads the page, not a not found error
Theme edits saved	Any recent change in the theme editor is live on the variation
Scope is correct	If you scoped to specific products, collections, or pages, the experiment appears on those and nowhere else
Breadth is correct	If the experiment runs on all products or all collections, check several different ones, not just the first

Scope errors are quiet. An experiment running on your whole catalogue when you meant one product still produces data, and the data still looks plausible.

If your store is translated

If you use Shopify Translate and Adapt, check every variation in every language before launching. A duplicated template starts with no translations, so visitors in other languages see untranslated content until you add them.

Translated text also runs longer or shorter than the original, which can break a layout that looked correct in your default language.

The short version

If you have very little time, do this at minimum:

1. Open the page in a fresh incognito window.

2. Confirm you see one of the variations, and that it looks correct.

3. Add a product to cart.

4. Start checkout.

5. Confirm the events arrived against the right variation.

This covers the path that matters. If it works, the fundamentals are sound.

Next steps

• Reading Results and Ending a Page Experiment

• Troubleshooting Page Experiments