How to create a theme experiment

This guide walks you through the process of setting up and launching a Theme experiment with Elevate A/B Testing, enabling you to compare different Shopify themes directly by splitting traffic between your current theme and alternative designs.

Step 1: Create an Experiment

• Navigate to Dashboard: Access the Elevate A/B Testing dashboard and locate the 'Experiments' section.

• Initiate Experiment: Select 'New Experiment', then choose 'Theme Experiment' from the dropdown menu to begin configuring your new theme experiment.

Step 2: Enter Test Details

• Name Your Experiment: Assign a clear and descriptive name to your experiment for easy tracking and reference.

• Add Description and Hypothesis: Though optional, providing a detailed description of what you're testing and your hypothesis can add valuable context to your experiment, outlining the objectives and expected outcomes.

Step 3: Select Themes for Testing

• Prepare Your Themes: Before setting up the test, ensure you have the themes ready in your Shopify admin. You can either use an existing unpublished theme or duplicate your current theme in Shopify and make modifications to create a variation.

• Control Theme: Your currently published theme is automatically selected as the control version in the experiment.

• Add Variation Themes: For each variation, select the unpublished theme you wish to compare against the control. You can add multiple theme variations if needed to test several alternatives simultaneously.

Step 4: Allocate Traffic Percentages and Name Variations

• Adjust Traffic Distribution: By default, traffic is evenly distributed among the control and variations. Adjust these settings as needed to direct a specific percentage of traffic to each URL.

• Name Variations: Label each variation to help identify and track its performance throughout the experiment.

Step 5: Add Audience Targeting (Optional)

You can optionally add audience targeting to refine who sees your experiment. Target based on:

• Devices: Choose between mobile, desktop, or both.

• Visitor Types: Distinguish between new and returning visitors.

• Traffic Sources: Filter traffic based on specific marketing channels or any UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content, and others).

• Locations: Target specific countries or regions.

These filters allow you to run more precise tests and get targeted insights from different customer segments.

Step 6: Conduct Quality Assurance (QA)

• Review and Test: Prior to launching your experiment, thoroughly review each theme variation to ensure they are correctly set up and reflect the intended changes. Use the Preview button on each test variation card to verify that each theme loads correctly and displays the expected design and functionality.

By closely following these steps, you can successfully set up and execute a Theme experiment using Elevate A/B Testing. This type of experiment is invaluable for assessing the impact of different design approaches across your entire store, offering insights that can drive informed decisions for optimizing your site's performance and user experience.