IBE - Shop by shade

IBE sells professional hair extensions only to licensed stylists, and for a stylist the first question is always the same: do they carry the shade my client needs? Shero Commerce found shade was one of the most searched things on the IBE site, yet the shop page made it one of the least visible entry points.

Shero rebuilt shade as a visual entry point and tested it against the current experience for four weeks. Conversion rate rose 14% and revenue per visitor 10%, a $7.96 gain per visitor worth roughly $68,500 in added website revenue a month.

CRO & Optimization
SectorProfessional Hair Extensions
What we didConversion Rate Optimization, A/B testing
TechnologyShopify
View project View Site
IBE shop by shade revenue per visitor results
IBE hair extensions and brush
IBE shop by shade section on tablet
The Ask

Shade was the real starting point of the buying decision, and the shop page did not treat it that way. The idea came out of our own review of IBE analytics and customer feedback. Revenue per visitor was the primary goal because it captures the full value of the change: whether people buy, and how much they buy.

Challenges on the Shop Page

  • Shade comes first. Length, texture, and method all come after color, and getting the shade wrong means a return and an unhappy client in the chair.
  • Stylists were already looking for it. Shade was among the most common site searches and came up in about half of all product reviews.
  • The site buried it. Shade was available, but it lived inside the filters as a small, text-based option.
Finding the Solution

The hypothesis was simple: stylists shop by shade, so a prominent, visual shade entry on the shop page will lift add to cart rate and revenue per visitor. We tested it head to head: an Elevate A/B test against the current experience, October 1 to 29, 2026, website orders only, with order data cross checked against Shopify.

IBE shop by shade results by segment
Bringing it to Life

We redesigned how shade is presented and turned it into a dedicated shopping module.

  • A visual shop by shade section. Seven large swatches, Blonde, Bronde, Brunette, Black, Red/Copper, Gray, and Silver, using real hair texture photography instead of flat color chips or text labels.
  • Redesigned color filters. The shade filters and the way extension colors display were updated so stylists can recognize the right color at a glance.
  • A Color Ring callout. Directly under the swatches, a “Take the guesswork out of color matching” message points stylists to the Color Ring, so they can see shades and textures in person before committing.
Overcoming Challenges
  • The test tool mislabeled the audience. We planned to read the result on returning visitors, expecting them to match IBE pro customers. Elevate labeled 46% of orders as coming from new visitors, but Shopify order history showed 99.5% of the orders it labeled came from existing customers. Elevate identifies visitors by browser, so a stylist who returns after seven days on Safari looks new, and with iOS at 75% of test traffic that happens often.
  • So we read it on the real audience. Because hair sells only to licensed pros and 88% of orders included hair, all visitors was the closest read on the audience the shade entry was built for, and the results below use it.
  • Baskets got smaller. Average order value fell 9%, from $567 to $518. Smaller orders took back $7.47 per visitor, leaving a net gain of $7.96.
  • Desktop did not benefit. It was slightly negative, but at 954 visitors the sample is too small to call.
IBE shop by shade on mobile
IBE shop by shade swatches and Color Ring callout
The Impact
+14%
Conversion rate lift at 99% confidence
$68,500
Estimated added website revenue a month at about 8,600 visitors
+16%
Revenue per visitor on mobile, the large majority of traffic, at 98% confidence
  • Every headline metric moved. Conversion rate rose from 11.3% to 12.9%, add to cart rate from 22.6% to 24.1% at 95% confidence, and revenue per visitor from $78.03 to $85.99, a 10% lift at 93% confidence.
  • More buyers, not bigger baskets. Orders per visitor rose 21%, from 13.8 to 16.6 orders per 100 visitors, adding $15.42 per visitor. Unique buyers rose 15% and hair orders 16%.
  • The result holds under stress. The revenue per visitor lift stays between 8% and 16% after removing orders over $2,000, the top 10 spenders in each version, the busiest day, or the 71 customers who ordered under both versions.
  • Position in the visit matters. Visitors who landed directly on the shop page converted 28% more at 96% confidence, while homepage entrants barely moved on revenue per visitor, up 2%.
  • Shipped to everyone. Shero recommended shipping the shade entry to all visitors and ending the test. IBE approved, and the section has been live since November 2, 2026.

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