Testing Velocity: Why It Matters and Strategies for Success

Introduction

Many business owners run tests to gather information about their business. Naturally, you want those tests to be efficient and effective– and you don’t want to compromise on either of those pillars. 

Maintaining an efficient testing velocity can allow you to achieve both of those goals. Engaging with a professional CRO team like Prismfly will help you strategize your testing to achieve maximum impact.

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What Is Testing Velocity in eCommerce?

Velocity is the speed of an experiment. How quickly can you get from the starting line to the finish line? 

More specifically, your testing velocity is the amount of time it takes to complete a test cycle —  from ideation and conceptualization to your final report. 

When you’ve streamlined your testing cycle such that your CRO program is able to run tests at a high velocity, you’ll also see an uptick in testing volume. Testing volume is the number of tests you’re able to run in a given period. 

Another metric your CRO team will consider is the test value, which can be measured by your win rate multiplied by your average conversion uplift. 

The combination of those three measures (velocity, volume, and value) will determine the impact of your testing program. Increase any of the three (without inadvertently causing a decrease in another measure), and you’ll see the increase reflected in the impact. 

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What Is a High-Velocity Testing Program?

A high-velocity testing program is a testing program in which the testing rate is five or more tests per month. A new testing program would reasonably begin with one to five testing cycles per month. 

Consistency is key, so it’s important to establish a sustainable testing program. Starting with one to five tests per month before introducing more is a wise way to establish the best practices for your organization and ensure that your testing program will be effective long term. 

In a high-velocity testing program, there are a few key components to success. Because these programs run quickly by definition, planning and preparation are key. Tests should be prepared to run before the current tests have concluded. 

Additionally, the tester must take decisive, informed action in a very brief turnaround window when modifying a test based on previous test results. When tests run quickly, the results come back quickly. This also means the CRO team must be prepared to implement the findings quickly. 

High-velocity testing is most effective on sites with high traffic. 

Tips Regarding High-Velocity Testing

Maintaining a high-velocity testing program requires a budget capable of supporting your desired number of tests per month. As you might expect, each test cycle has an associated set cost, so adding more tests to your program will make the program more costly.

 A CRO professional would explain that this increased cost could be considered an investment in your business’s future ROI; however, if your business is not prepared or able to make that investment at this time, do not despair. Remember that high testing velocity is excellent, but maintaining high-quality testing is critical. 

Knowledge is power, and high-velocity testing can give you the power to steer your site's conversion rate in the right direction. 

Take caution, and do your research before ramping up your testing velocity. If you begin sacrificing quality for the sake of speed, your testing program will likely see negative results in terms of accuracy and impact. Quality is better than quantity with experimentation.

If you modify your tests by reducing the period of time spent on user research, you may be able to squeeze in another test for the month, but the results of the test will be less effective in guiding your team to improve your conversion rate. 

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Why Does High-Velocity Testing Matter?

Wasting time is wasting money. Increasing your testing velocity and streamlining your testing process by hiring experienced CRO professionals can help your team maximize the value of your testing program, which will, in turn, help you increase your ROI. 

CRO testing on your eCommerce site’s UX/UI is important because continuous testing will reveal the way your consumers are currently interacting with your site and give you accurate insight into conversion barriers. 

If you want more of your consumers to cross the threshold into conversion — meaning you want them to perform the desired action — you can utilize this data to remove barriers to conversion. When applied effectively, your customers will leave your site feeling satisfied, and your engagement ROI will improve.

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What Is A/B Testing Velocity?

A/B testing entails testing multiple versions of something, whether that’s a landing page, a product page, or any other aspect of UX/UI. (There are other forms of testing such as multivariate or redirect test that for simplicity’s sake won’t be mentioned. However, these also have an impact in an overall testing program velocity.)

The testers will set up two versions (an A and B version) and split your traffic going to them. Then, we will compare the conversion rates for each version. 

Your business will then be able to use these A/B testing results to inform your decision on which version to move forward with. A/B testing velocity is the speed at which we are able to conduct A/B tests. 

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How Do You Increase Your Testing Velocity?

Now that you know why testing velocity is important, we have a few methods to help you mindfully increase your testing velocity.

Increase Testing Capacity

Your testing capacity is the maximum number of tests your company has the resources to run in a calendar year. 

You can increase this capacity by allocating your resources more effectively; one such way to allocate more effectively would be to utilize CRO professionals, like the team at Prismfly, whose expertise will directly translate to streamlined and impactful testing cycles. 

Increase Testing Coverage

Broaden the scope of your tests to increase testing coverage. By increasing testing coverage, your test cycles have the capacity to be more thorough in the information they reveal. 

Create a data-driven culture and involve other departments in the testing process, encouraging them to run tests in their workflows. 

Don’t be afraid to get creative and test outside the box. You can test copy, messaging, personalization, product recommendations, banners and imagery, alerts, and much more. 

Switch the Testing Tools You Use To Run Tests

You must use the correct tools to do a job correctly. If you find that your tests are not consistently yielding useful results, it may be time to update your toolbox. Dynamic Yield can help power multiple forms of testing. 

Dynamic Yield is an AI-powered UX optimization platform. CRO professionals utilize this test automation tool to optimize and utilize user data. Dynamic Yield’s AI, Adapt ML, adapts the digital experience to each user by analyzing customer data, extrapolating buying intent, and predicting product interests — as the name suggests.

The deep learning AI can increase retention, engagement, and session length by recommending products that it anticipates will drive conversion. Adapt ML makes A/B testing more effective by creating and managing tests at scale. 

Dynamic Yield and Adapt ML put UX and backend together, giving your CRO team all the control and flexibility necessary to optimize your site for success.  

Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment With Test Ideas

The first phase of the testing cycle is ideation. For many, this is the most exciting phase because it invites creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Democratize ideation by allowing others on your team to feed the backlog and create a culture of experimentation in your organization. 

You know your team better than anyone, and you know each member of your team will bring a unique perspective to the table. It's important to ensure people who feed the backlog are providing data on what they want to do, why they want to do it, and what they hope to improve.

If they are able to provide existing data to support their proposition, all the better. If you're worried about ideation causing an overload, come up with a transparent and easy-to-follow prioritization framework.

Use Data-Driven Insights To Understand Your Customers

It's important to share analysis data with your team, including those outside of the immediate testing team. Every member of your team will be able to apply the test results to their workflow. 

How can your UX/UI team improve their impact if they are not kept in the loop of testing insights? Sharing this data will further promote the efforts of being a data-driven company instead of just a single team. All this data will serve your company by granting you and your team insight into your customers’ experience. 

High Velocity Requires a High Budget

When planning your CRO test strategy, it’s important to consider that just as tests on different aspects have different metrics, they also have different demands on your resources and different impacts on your overall report. 

With this in mind, high-velocity testing is not available to all businesses. Resources like trained personnel, capital, and time are limited, and that makes increasing velocity difficult. 

It is easy to test several sorting or filtering algorithms of products for weeks before rolling out one that makes sense. Still, testing UX and site structure will require copy, design, development, and more thorough analysis.

Hiring an agency, such as Prismfly, can help you increase your velocity, but it’s also important to consider that velocity and budget have a direct relationship. Higher-budget clients will be able to achieve a higher velocity. However, capital is not magic; even with an eCommerce budget comparable to Amazon, maximum velocity is not reached overnight. 

Setting realistic expectations at the beginning of your agency-guided testing process is key to satisfaction upon reaching the end of the testing cycle.

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Increasing Your Testing Velocity: How We Can Help

Prismfly’s team of CRO experts will become a part of your team. We’re experts in sustainable, on-site growth. We prioritize brand-first revenue optimization over easy or fast money. We’re specialists, not generalists, and we specialize in CRO, UX/UI design, and Shopify Plus Development. 

Utilize our CRO services for access to a dedicated optimization consultant, A/B tests, thoughtful analysis, and much more. You value your customers’ experience just like we value ours. Connect with us to kick-start your eCommerce growth with A/B testing and optimization.