The purpose of doing A/B testing is to compare and contrast the old and new website before determining if we will launch the new website. The new website attempts to make more of an emotional connection to the users through the use of images and personal stories of customers.  A/B testing allows us to analyze customer behavior and determine if this webpage is more preferable.

This testing involved 208 visitors shown the original website (version A) and 205 visitors shown the new website (version B). Data was collected over a two week period looking at the duration of time (in seconds) spent on the site, whether a purchase was made, and the customers typed description of their experience using the web page.

The results of the A/B testing revealed that version A had a higher percentage of purchases made than version B, by about 13%. Additionally, users spent less time on version A than version B. However, there was a rate of variability in time spent on version B. When looking at customer reviews, the increase in time spent on version B may be due to the attempt to emotionally appeal to the users through pictures and personal customer experiences. Some users described these as distracting and stated that the mobile site was very slow because of the need to load pictures. Specifically, one customer stated: “I knew exactly what I wanted and it was a bit hard to get to it”. Additionally, another customer explicitly stated that they wish we “focused more on the products than the people”. Another customer stated “I got lost in the stories- so interesting! Wasted 30 minutes on that”. This is a potential explanation for the higher rate of variability in time spent on version B. Although some users enjoyed the pictures and stories, others did not. For example, one customer wrote: “Whats with all the pictures? Is this National Geographic? Makes everything load slow”.

I recommend that if Twisted Cedar Expeditions wants to proceed with launching version B of the webpage, then we need to figure out a way to make the site faster. This can be done by minimizing the quantity of pictures and customer stories. However, the original website did have more total purchases and rolling out an “edited” version of webpage B may result in decreased sales. I would recommend making major changes to the mobile website in order to increase positive user experiences.