A/B Testing in E-Commerce: How to Optimise Brand Partnerships for Growth

Too many e-commerce brands launch partnerships based on guesswork. They’ll partner with complementary brands, throw up some offers and hope for the best. The result? Campaigns that look good on paper but fail to move the needle where it matters most: in conversions, basket value and customer retention.

Without proper testing, even the most promising partnerships become “nice ideas” instead of revenue drivers. You might generate buzz, earn some social media engagement and feel good about brand alignment. But if you’re not systematically testing what works, you’re leaving serious money on the table.

The solution isn’t more partnerships or bigger budgets. It’s treating brand partnerships like the science-led growth engines they should be. A/B testing transforms partnerships from creative experiments into measurable, optimisable channels that deliver real ROI.

Why A/B Testing Matters in E-Commerce Partnerships

Most brand partnerships fail not because the concept is wrong, but because brands don’t test the execution. They’ll spend months negotiating the perfect partnership deal, then wing the implementation. Wrong placement, weak creative, or mismatched offers kill conversion rates before customers even engage.

The numbers tell the story. Secret Sales used systematic A/B testing to optimise their brand partnerships, achieving a 66% increase in basket completion. That’s not luck or great creative, that’s the power of testing different formats, placements and offers to find what actually drives behaviour.

Without testing, you might get lucky with a successful campaign, but you’ll never know why it worked or how to replicate it. A/B testing takes the guesswork out of partnerships and provides concrete evidence of what drives ROI.

The stakes are particularly high for e-commerce brands struggling with rising customer acquisition costs. When every conversion matters, you can’t afford to leave partnership performance to chance. Testing ensures every partnership element is optimised for maximum impact.

What to Test in Brand Partnerships

The beauty of A/B testing in brand partnerships lies in the variables you can test. Each element represents an opportunity to improve performance and understand what resonates with your customers.

Placement is critical

Should your partnership offer appear on the basket page where customers are already committed, or at checkout where they’re making final decisions? The answer varies by brand and customer behaviour, which is exactly why you need to test it.

Creative format makes a huge difference

Static offers might feel safe, but dynamic offers that respond to customer behaviour often perform better. Shark discovered this firsthand, seeing a 50% checkout completion rate when customers engaged with dynamic, A/B-tested gift offers compared to static alternatives.

Offer type testing reveals customer preferences.

Some audiences respond better to gifts such as a free bottle of wine or free subscription trials. You won’t know until you test different approaches with real customers making real purchase decisions.

Audience segmentation testing is equally important

New customers might need different incentives than returning customers. Testing different approaches for different segments maximises the impact of every partnership.

The key is testing one variable at a time to understand exactly what drives performance improvements. When you test multiple variables simultaneously, you can’t isolate which changes actually matter.

How to Run an Effective A/B Test

Running successful A/B tests for brand partnerships requires discipline and proper methodology. Here’s how to do it right.

Start with clear, measurable goals

Ninja Kitchen provides a perfect example. When they tested premium food partnerships, they focused specifically on basket completion rates. This resulted in a 58.62% uplift in basket completion because they knew exactly what success looked like and optimised for it.

Keep variables simple and test one element at a time

It’s tempting to test placement, creative, and offer type simultaneously, but you’ll never know which change drove results. Focus on one variable per test to get clear, actionable insights.

Run tests long enough to gather meaningful data

This is where many brands fail. They see early positive results and roll out changes before reaching statistical significance. Wild demonstrates the right approach, they ran a 5-million-session A/B test before fully implementing changes. The patience paid off, confirming a 10% higher completion rate that scaled across their entire customer base.

Building a Testing Culture for Partnership Success

The most successful e-commerce brands don’t just run occasional A/B tests, they build testing into their partnership strategy from the start. Every partnership launch becomes an opportunity to learn and optimise.

Start small with simple tests, then expand once results have been confirmed.

Remember that A/B testing isn’t just about finding winners and losers. It’s about understanding your customers better and building partnerships that genuinely serve their needs. When you test systematically, you develop insights that improve not just current partnerships, but future strategy decisions.

Conclusion

A/B testing ensures brand partnerships don’t just run, they perform. Instead of hoping partnerships drive growth, you can prove it with data and continuously optimise for better results.

The brands achieving exceptional partnership test placement, creative, offers and audience segments to find what actually works. They run tests long enough to gather significant data and use those insights to build increasingly effective partnership strategies.

Partnerships become a measurable, scalable growth channel when they’re grounded in testing and optimisation.

If your brand wants partnerships that deliver real, test-proven results, Tyviso has helped brands like Shark Germany see a 38.75% uplift in basket completion in just one month. The difference isn’t magic, is methodical testing and optimisation applied to partnership strategy.

Ready to transform your partnerships from creative experiments into growth engines? Book a strategy call to discover how systematic A/B testing can supercharge your partnership results.