Rebuy's General experiment type A/B tests changes to your storefront pages instead of changes to a Rebuy widget. You build each variation in Visual Editor, Rebuy's no-code storefront editor: you load a targeted page, click directly on an element, and change its text, image, color, alignment, position, or visibility. Visual Editor also includes a code editor for CSS, JavaScript, and HTML when a change goes beyond what its controls expose.
This article covers the basic General experiment setup: creating the experiment, targeting a page, adding variations, choosing a goal, scheduling, and starting, ending, and tracking the test. For the complete Visual Editor walkthrough, see Visual Editor in A/B Testing General Experiments.
A General experiment can test any of the following:
Headline, subheading, or call-to-action copy on a targeted page.
Hero images, banners, or product thumbnails.
Button color, size, font weight, or link destination.
The order of page sections, such as moving an Image Banner above a Featured Collection.
Whether an element is shown or hidden, to measure whether removing friction improves conversion.
General experiments do not use a placeholder ID. Widget, Smart Cart, Smart Flows, and Checkout Offer are separate experiment types with their own setup, and none of them are edited in Visual Editor. To test one Smart Cart against another, or a Smart Cart against your theme's native cart, use the Smart Cart experiment type instead of General — see A/B Testing | Smart Cart.
Create a General Experiment
To create a General experiment and open Visual Editor, follow these steps in the Rebuy admin:
From the Rebuy admin, navigate to Flows & A/B Testing > A/B Testing.
Click Create New Experiment, then enter a name for the experiment in the Name field so you can identify it on the dashboard later.
Choose General as the experiment type, then click Add Experiment to open the experiment settings page.
Under Page Targeting, select the page type you want to test from the dropdown (Home page, Collection pages, Product pages, Cart page, Order Status pages, Account pages, Search page, Pages, Blog pages, Article pages, or Custom), then enter the path or URL in the field beside it.
Scroll to Select Control and Variations. Each variant row (Control, Variant 1, and any added variants) has its own Edit in Visual Editor button.
Click Edit in Visual Editor on the variant you want to edit. Visual Editor opens with that variant loaded.
(Example above: the New A/B Test modal with the Name field filled in and General selected as the Experiment Type.)
Page Targeting paths
Page Targeting controls which page or pages a General experiment runs on. Selecting a page type pre-fills the path field beside the dropdown with the value below, and you can edit that path before saving.
Page type | Path |
Home page | / |
Collection pages | /collections/* |
Product pages | /products/* |
Cart page | /cart |
Order Status pages | /orders/* |
Account pages | /account/* |
Search page | /search |
Pages | /pages/* |
Blog pages | /blogs/* |
Article pages | /blogs/*/* |
Custom | Enter your own path or full URL |
An asterisk in a path is a wildcard that matches every page under that prefix. For example, /collections/* targets every collection page on your storefront. To target one specific page, replace the wildcard with that page's handle, such as /collections/best-sellers.
(Screenshot above: Rebuy Admin A/B Testing "General" experiment editor, with a red arrow pointing to the required "Page Targeting" dropdown)
Select Control and Variations
The Select Control and Variations section is where you define each version of the page the experiment serves. The Control represents your storefront as it is today and normally stays unedited, and each variation is a version with Visual Editor changes applied that gets measured against the Control.
A General experiment supports one Control plus up to two variations, for three versions total. The ADD VARIATION button is disabled once the experiment has three versions, and it is also disabled while the experiment is active.
Traffic is redistributed equally every time you add or remove a version: two versions split 50/50 and three versions split 34/33/33. You can override any split by editing the traffic percentage on that variant row. Use the Set alias name field on a row to give a variation a recognizable label in reporting.
(Screenshot above: the Select Control and Variations section with the Control and Variant 1 rows, each showing an Edit in Visual Editor button, traffic percentage field, and Set alias name field.)
Edit a Variation in Visual Editor
Visual Editor is where you make the actual changes for each variation of a General experiment. Clicking Edit in Visual Editor on a variant row opens that variant's targeted page in the editor, where you click an element to select it and then pick an action from the Choose Action panel.
The Choose Action panel offers five actions on the selected element:
Edit: change text content, URL link, font size, font weight, text color, and text alignment on a text element, or upload and swap an image and set its alt text and fit. The same panel has a Code Editor tab for CSS, JavaScript, and HTML changes to that element.
Insert Element: inject HTML, CSS, or JavaScript above or below the selected element, or at the top or bottom of its parent block.
Duplicate: create a copy of the selected element.
Move: reorder page sections and their child elements by drag and drop in the Move Element panel.
Hide/Remove: hide or remove the element from that variation.
Each change commits to the variant when you click Done, and it persists to the experiment only when you click Save in the top header bar. The Edit History sidebar, opened from the edits counter in the top header bar, lists every change with its own Undo button.
Each variant has its own Visual Editor session. Switch between Control and your variations using the Visual Editor's variant selector in the top header bar.
Select Experiment Goal
Every General experiment needs an experiment goal, which decides how the winner is measured. For General experiments the goal is Conversion Rate — the winner is the version (Control or variation) that leads to the highest percentage of order conversions. This ensures the most reliable measurement for this experiment type.
(Screenshot above: Rebuy Admin General A/B testing "Experiment Goal" panel showing "Conversion Rate (cr)" selected and "Revenue" available but unselected, with a note explaining that conversion rate is the only available goal for generic experiments since there is no causal link between JS/CSS changes and purchase behavior)
Set a Start and End Time (Optional)
Scheduling a start and end time for a General experiment is optional. If you prefer manual control over when the experiment starts and stops, leave the Test Duration section empty and start and end the test yourself.
To schedule the experiment instead, go to the Test Duration section and use the Start Date and Start Time selectors to begin the experiment in the future. Use the End Date and End Time selectors to set when it stops, which must be after the scheduled start.
You can add or change a scheduled start or end at any time before the experiment begins or concludes.
(Screenshot above: Rebuy Admin A/B testing experiment editor "Test Duration" section showing the optional "Start Date", "Start Time", "End Date", and "End Time" fields)
Dates and times use the default timezone configured for your Rebuy account. To verify your timezone, go to Rebuy Admin's Side Panel > Settings > App Settings > Time Zone Preference > Save
(Screenshot above: Rebuy Admin "App Settings" page highlighting the "Time Zone Preference" dropdown)
Start the Experiment
To start a General experiment, save your settings and click the Start Experiment button. Unlike widget experiments, General experiments do not require a placeholder ID, so no theme edits are needed before the test can run.
(Screenshot above: Rebuy Admin A/B testing "General Experiment" editor in "Draft" status, highlighting the "Start Experiment" button in the top-right corner)
End the Experiment
A General experiment ends automatically if you set an end time when scheduling it. To end one manually or to add an end time to a running experiment, use the vertical ellipsis menu on the experiment in the A/B Testing dashboard. Once the experiment is complete, its results appear in the Completed tab of the A/B testing dashboard.
Unlike widget experiments, when a General experiment completes, every variation configured for the test is removed from the storefront. Winning variation changes are not applied permanently — to keep a winning change, rebuild it in your theme or in a new experiment.
Track the Experiment
Once a General experiment is running, find it in the Live table on the A/B Testing page under Manage Your Experiments. The vertical ellipsis menu lets you end the experiment immediately or adjust its end time. Performance metrics appear in each experiment's summary blocks under both the Live and Completed tabs.
Preview a General Experiment
You can preview a General experiment on your live storefront before, during, or after the test. A General experiment only shows a preview link once a Page Target is selected under Page Targeting. If no Page Target is configured, the preview link does not appear. Previewing does not count as enrollment and does not affect the experiment's traffic split or metrics.
For the full preview walkthrough, see How to Preview an A/B Test Experiment.
(Image above: the A/B testing General Experiment edit page header with the Preview Experiment link and the per-variant Preview link in the Select Control and Variations section.)