Want to Increase Product Discovery & Conversions? Highlight Product Categories on Your Homepage

👶 If You Add a “Shop by Category” Section to Your Homepage, Your Customers Will Explore More And Buy More

When new visitors land on your homepage, they’re often asking a silent question: “Where do I start?”

If your page only shows a few best-sellers or promotional content, you’re missing the opportunity to guide them toward entire product categories they might actually want to explore.

For our client, adding a “Shop by Category” section just above the Best Sellers created a more guided and intuitive experience, especially for first-time parents unsure of what to shop for.

🎯 What You’ll Get When You Do This

📈 This test ran for 9 days and showed a 78% probability of outperforming the control for conversion rate, a strong signal to implement it sitewide.

📱 Why It Works

✅ Shoppers don’t know what they don’t know
Instead of forcing users to scroll or guess where to start, a category section acts like a helpful concierge, giving them easy entry points into your product catalog.

🖼️ Visual categories help decision-making
Both versions tested included category labels like Ring Slings, Sleep Time, and Aerial Buckle Carrier, paired with familiar lifestyle imagery. This helped users recognize what they needed without having to overthink.

📱 Especially effective on mobile
The change made navigation more intuitive on smaller screens. Mobile users saw a +28.89% lift in conversion rate, while desktop users jumped a staggering +60.15%.

🔍 Which Version Performed Best?

Two variations were tested:

• Variation 1: “Popular Categories” with clear product name tags
• Variation 2: “Shop by Category” with larger image tiles

➡️ Variation 1 delivered the highest lift across all devices, so it’s the one to prioritize for implementation.

🛠️ Want to Take It Further?

• Add seasonal or “new parent” categories for more contextual guidance
• Personalize category blocks based on browsing behavior (“Because you looked at Ring Slings”)
• Test horizontal swipe or accordion-style categories for mobile optimization

📚 Learn More: Baymard’s Homepage UX Guidelines

🧠 Summary

If your homepage doesn’t show users where to go next, they’ll either guess or bounce. By adding a simple visual category section, our client guided shoppers into the right products faster, and saw huge gains in both conversion and revenue.

Takeaway: Product discovery shouldn’t be an afterthought, it should be the first thing your homepage solves.

📣 Want Wins Like This?

We helped our client lift conversion by 31.72% with one strategic content block. Want us to find similar wins on your homepage, product page, or checkout flow?

👉 Let’s talk CRO. Your next big lift might just be one section away.