MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE SALES BY CONDUCTING A/B TESTING

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the application of A/B testing for measuring the effective-ness of online sales in order to determine which changes to a website's user interface have the greatest effect on the improvement of key performance indicators (KPIs) of online sales.Design/Methodology/Approach - A total of five A/B tests were conducted, four of which concerned the ma-nipulation of user interface elements whereas one ex-amined the difference in KPIs depending on the quality of the search engine used. Testing was conducted from January to July 2021 on a sample of a minimum of 7,000 visitors of the website of a company operating on the Croatian market.Findings and Implications - The conducted tests show that sometimes, as can be seen from the results of the first A/B test, the existing version of the website should be kept. However, as shown by the second, fourth, and fifth A/B test, changes to a website's user interface can be of significant help in improving KPIs. The third A/B test highlighted the need for multiple tests of the same user interface element in order to achieve the full poten-tial of an online business. Limitations - The general limitations of A/B testing, such as its focus on short-term goals, the lack of insights into real consumer behavior, and the use of CMS systems all affect the results of conducted research.Originality - As the analysis of existing research papers established the absence of a unified division of KPIs, their summarization and use for the purposes of the present research is the main contribution of this study.