How Awareness Avenue boosted revenue with Personizely’s A/B Testing

Goals & challenges

Awareness Avenue had established a loyal audience and a polished product offering, but they were still navigating a key gray area: how specific elements on their product pages were influencing customer decisions. Did trust badges like the Trustpilot widget enhance conversions, or did they distract high-intent buyers? Would showcasing savings amounts make the brand feel more accessible, or inadvertently cheapen its premium image?

These weren’t just design questions; they were conversion-critical decisions with direct revenue implications. Yet without testing, these choices relied on guesswork. The Awareness Avenue team recognized that to optimize the user journey truly, they needed hard data. Their challenge became their opportunity: to let the data speak by running controlled, real-world experiments with Personizely’s A/B testing platform.

A/B Test 1: Trustpilot widget analysis

Objective

To evaluate how the presence of a Trustpilot review widget on the Product Display Page (PDP) affects customer conversions and revenue efficiency.

Test setup

• Original Version: The Trustpilot widget was prominently displayed below the product description.
• Variation: The Trustpilot widget was completely removed.
• Audience: Split nearly evenly (~12,200 users per variant).

Insights

• Despite a small decrease in conversion rate, the difference was not statistically significant, indicating it could be due to chance.
• More importantly, revenue per visitor increased significantly, with high statistical confidence (94.11%). This suggests that customers who converted without the widget spent more per session.
• The average order value rose by nearly $10, indicating that removing the widget may have led users to perceive more value or shop with greater intent.

Takeaway

Removing the Trustpilot widget from the Product Display Page led to a surprising but meaningful uplift in revenue per visitor, despite a slight, statistically insignificant decline in conversion rate. The increase in average order value from $124.50 to $134.09 suggests that the absence of the widget may have reduced distractions or increased perceived product value, leading users to spend more. This counters the widely held assumption that trust signals like reviews always enhance performance. For Awareness Avenue, the test demonstrated that minimalist PDPs without third-party trust elements might foster more confident, high-value purchases. It was a pivotal realization: not all "best practices" fit all brands, and testing is the only way to know for sure.

Conversion rate dropped slightly without the Trustpilot widget, but the change was statistically insignificant.

Removing the Trustpilot widget increased revenue per visitor by 2.97%; a statistically significant result.

Average order value rose by nearly $10 when the Trustpilot widget was removed from the page.

A/B Test 2: explicit savings messaging on PDP

Objective

To test whether explicitly stating the savings (e.g., “You save $X”) on the Product Display Page would increase conversions and improve purchase behavior by making the discount more tangible to shoppers.

Test setup

• Original version: Product pricing is displayed normally, without stating the monetary savings.
• Variation: Prominent text added beneath the price stating “You save $X.”
• Audience: ~17,800 users per variant.

Insights

• The conversion rate dropped by 5.84% with the savings message, but with only 57.06% confidence, this change is not statistically significant, meaning it might be due to randomness.
• More critically, revenue per visitor fell by 3.84%, with a very high confidence level (98.67%). This suggests a clear and reliable negative impact on revenue efficiency.
• The slight increase in average order value (+$2.77) did not offset the drop in overall revenue performance.

Takeaway

Highlighting the exact savings amount on the PDP, intended to boost conversions by making deals feel more tangible, unexpectedly harmed revenue performance. Although the conversion rate dropped only slightly (1.96% to 1.84%) and wasn’t statistically significant, the decline in revenue per visitor (from $2.54 to $2.45) was statistically significant with 98.67% confidence. This reveals that making savings too explicit might reduce perceived product value or trigger buyer skepticism, especially in emotionally driven purchase categories like jewelry. While average order value slightly increased, it wasn't enough to offset the revenue loss. The key insight: subtle pricing cues may be more effective than overt discounting in premium or sentimentally driven markets.

Conversion rate decreased from 1.96% to 1.84% when savings messaging was made explicit.

Revenue per visitor dropped by 3.84% with the savings message, indicating a negative impact on overall efficiency.

The variation that highlighted savings showed a modest increase in average order value.

Insights & recommendations

1. Challenge assumptions, even “best practices”

Both A/B tests at Awareness Avenue demonstrated that common e-commerce assumptions can lead to unexpected outcomes. Trust indicators like review widgets and overt savings messages are typically considered conversion boosters. However, the data revealed they can also distract or even detract from customer trust and perceived value. Testing assumptions is not optional’s essential.

2. Optimize for revenue, not just conversion

While conversion rate is an important metric, these tests proved that revenue per visitor and average order value often tell a more complete and strategic story. In both cases, the variation with a lower conversion rate either performed better (AOV increase without Trustpilot) or worse (RPV decrease with savings message). This highlights the importance of balancing volume with transaction value in optimization strategies.

3. Minimize distraction, maximize value perception

The Trustpilot widget removal led to a higher average order value, suggesting that minimizing visual clutter and unnecessary third-party elements may focus users more on the products themselves. This is especially relevant for emotional or luxury-driven purchases like jewelry, where brand storytelling and perceived quality matter more than social proof.

4. Use promotions strategically, not mechanically

Making savings explicit seemed like a logical winbut it led to a statistically significant drop in revenue per visitor. This suggests that price framing and promotional messaging must align with brand tone and product positioning. In premium segments, subtlety often outperforms hard-selling tactics.

5. Use A/B testing as an ongoing optimization engine

The biggest takeaway? A/B testing with Personizely enabled Awareness Avenue to validate their UX and messaging decisions with real data. No guessing. No wasted effort. Just measurable, strategic learning that drives performance.

Conclusion & call-to-action

Awareness Avenue’s journey with Personizely proves one thing clearly: assumptions can’t grow a business; only data can. By testing instead of guessing, the brand uncovered powerful, often counterintuitive truths about their customers’ behavior. Instead of blindly following e-commerce “best practices,” Awareness Avenue used A/B testing to validate (and sometimes debunk) what works for their audience. The result? Higher revenue per visitor, increased average order value, and a more intentional, data-driven approach to growth. More importantly, they didn’t just run experiments; they built a culture of testing. With Personizely, A/B testing is no longer a marketing experiment; it’s a strategic capability embedded into how they optimize, grow, and win.

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