As Venere goes out to customers with a redesigned homepage, the AB question rears its head again with others recently opting instead for feedback via sources including the crowd and staff.
A few weeks ago easytobook underwent a website redesign without AB testing with the hotel specialist's marketing head Wouter Blok explaining the process here.
Well, there's two sides to every coin and Venere opts for the multivariate route every time. The Expedia-owned accommodation specialist is currently going through a homepage redesign.
Marketing boss Spyros Assonitis says:
"We have been focusing on internal pages in the past 18 months - checkout and hotel pages - and, we've seen an increase in conversion of more than 25% last year. We don't know how much we can expect from the home page which is why we want to test it, to see if what we've done is right. It's a way to learn about what we're doing and refine the strategy."
So here are it's current homepages - the first for traffic from paid Google advertisements:
and, the second for organic traffic:
Wanting to create just one homepage is one justification for the redesign but there are others:
- drive users to do a search
- improve the look and feel
- make it simpler and more focused by removing links
- highlight products because the venere name is not synonymous with hotels
- promote offers and deals
The two homepages being trialled are designed to be crisp and clear and give users an immediate idea of who Venere is and what it does.
New homepage A aims to be more functional and in line with the industry and is currently being tested against the two above:
New homepage B is designed to have a more emotional/inspirational feel and will be tested against A when the first round of testing is completed:
Draw your own judgement on the different redesigns but the company says AB testing will also help it determine whether perceptions of it as a brand change. Currently, bosses say, it's seen as having a laid-back and easy going personality with a face as its logo.
Ecommerce director Vito Perrone says:
"We want to see how changes are perceived by new users and returning customers. One thing we did not redesign yet is the logo. Internally we're discussing the need to refresh it but research shows we shouldn't so we're postponing that for the next phase."
NB: Yes image via Shutterstock