Case Study: uSell.com validates new product expansion without harming electronics conversions with Optimizely

An A/B Test Validates New Business for uSell.com

uSell.com, an online marketplace for selling used smartphones and electronics, wanted to validate customer interest in expanding into new product categories (textbooks, gift cards, clothing, games) without harming its core electronics business. Although surveys and email click data suggested demand, the team needed hard data to ensure adding verticals wouldn’t distract customers and reduce electronics conversions.

They ran an A/B test that added new category icons and header links on the homepage for the variation while keeping the original site as control, using electronics order confirmations as the success metric with a −5% impact threshold. After two runs the variation showed between break-even and a −3% impact on electronics conversions, so uSell permanently rolled out the expanded categories, capturing incremental revenue and enabling broader marketing messaging.

uSell.com

Christian Croft

Chief Product Officer