Insight

Text-Only Navigation Slowed Product Discovery

On mobile, the original menu placed broad navigation labels behind expandable rows and offered no visual cues to distinguish product families. That structure asked shoppers to understand the catalogue before they could see useful routes into it. For a premium travel equipment brand with overlapping bag and accessory categories, this created extra effort at the point where users were deciding what to browse. Blend’s CRO analysis identified an opportunity to turn navigation into a compact merchandising surface, giving shoppers recognisable product imagery and direct category choices as soon as the menu opened. The aim was to improve progression through the funnel rather than treating menu engagement as the end goal.

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A/B Test

Visual Category Tiles in the Mobile Menu

We ran an A/B test on the mobile menu. The control used text-only accordion links for broad sections. Variant 1 replaced that structure with image-led category tiles for travel bags and accessories, alongside direct links to useful information pages. We hypothesised that showing products within the navigation would help shoppers recognise the right category faster, increase collection-page visits and move more qualified traffic towards checkout.

The Results

Variant 1 remained ahead during the initial two-week test, although the result had not reached statistical significance and overlapped with a high-demand product launch and pre-order period. So we reviewed the results again, excluding visits to the promoted product page. In that view, revenue per visitor increased by 13%, average order value by 11%, conversion rate by 2% and checkout-begin rate by 6%. The pattern suggests the visual tiles supported more purposeful product discovery and helped shoppers enter checkout with larger baskets. A 1% decrease in product-page view rate alongside stronger commercial metrics may indicate a more efficient route to relevant products, but it does not prove causation.

Because the earlier full-period view showed a 2% conversion-rate decrease, we're treating the outcome as directional until a representative sample reaches confidence. Follow-up tests will isolate image treatment, labels, button styling and the role of search.

  • 13%

    increase in revenue per visitor

  • 11%

    increase in average order value

  • 6%

    increase in checkout begin rate
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