An experience is one complete version of your personalization: every recommendation box, Smart Image, Smart Block and setting. An A/B test runs two or more experiences at the same time and splits your live traffic between them, so you can try a new layout without replacing the one you have. Your original experience is called the Control.
Availability
Plan: Growth Agents plan · Platform: SHOPLINE
Included in the Growth Agents plan. If your plan doesn't include it, Studio shows A/B Testing is not included in your plan with a Contact Sales button.
Open A/B Testing
In Studio, click Menu (⋮) in the top bar.
Click A/B Testing.
The page shows how many Experiences you have, how many are Running and how many are Scheduled, followed by a card for each experience with its status and Traffic share.
Create a variant
Click + Start an A/B test. If you already have more than one experience, the button reads Create a variant. Both make a copy of your Control.
In the Clone experience dialog, enter a Name.
Set the Traffic weight.
Set the Start date and time. It must be in the future.
Optionally set an End (optional) date and time.
Under What to clone, pick one:
Clone all settings copies the Control exactly.
Clone and apply best practices starts from LimeSpot's recommended defaults.
Clone without LimeSpot components starts from defaults with all recommendation boxes turned off.
Click Clone experience.
The new experience is saved as a Draft. It doesn't reach shoppers until you publish it.
Note
Times are in your store's time zone.
Edit and publish the variant
On the variant's card, open the ⋮ menu and click Open in Studio. Studio reloads your storefront with that experience.
Make your changes on the canvas, then click Save.
Click Publish, either in the Studio top bar or from the card's ⋮ menu.
Read the confirmation and click Publish.
When the start time arrives, the variant becomes Running and starts sharing traffic with the Control.
Before you publish
Publishing replaces that experience's live configuration with its current draft. The configuration it replaces is not kept, and this can't be undone.
How traffic is split
Traffic weight is a relative number from 1 to 1000, not a percentage. Each running experience gets its weight divided by the total weight of all running experiences. For example, if the Control has a weight of 1 and the variant has a weight of 1, each gets 50% of traffic. With weights of 1 and 3, they get 25% and 75%.
You can change the weight and start date only while an experience is a Draft or Scheduled.
Switch experiences in Studio
Studio edits one experience at a time. Save and Publish only affect the experience you're working on.
When you have more than one experience, an experience switcher appears in the Studio top bar. It shows the active experience's name.
Click the experience switcher.
Pick an experience. The Control is marked Control.
Studio reloads the page with that experience.
To get back to the full list, click Manage A/B tests → at the bottom of the switcher.
Tip
Save your work before you switch. Switching reloads the page.
Stop or end an experience
Open the experience's ⋮ menu:
Stop now stops a running experience right away. The traffic share of the other running experiences updates.
Clear end date keeps a running experience going with no end date.
Archive stops the experience and removes it from the traffic split. This can't be undone. You can't archive your last remaining experience.
Statuses
Status | Meaning |
Draft | Not published yet |
Scheduled | Published, with a start date in the future |
Running | Live and receiving traffic |
Finished | The end date has passed |
Archived | Archived by you |
Troubleshooting
You see | Why | What to do |
"Your plan runs one A/B test at a time. Upgrade to run more experiences concurrently." | Your plan allows two running or scheduled experiences at once | Stop or archive an experience, or click Contact us to upgrade |
"The start date and time must be in the future." | The start time has passed | Pick a later time |
"Weight must be a whole number from 1 to 1000." | The weight is out of range | Enter a whole number between 1 and 1000 |
"The end date must be after the start date." | The end is before the start | Move the end date later |
No experience switcher in the top bar | You have only one current experience | Create a variant first |