A/B Testing on Shopify After Google Optimize: What to Use
A/B testing on Shopify no longer needs Google Optimize, which Google shut down on September 30, 2023. Since March 2026, Shopify has its own tool for it: Rollouts, under Markets > Rollouts, which runs a theme change as an experiment against your current theme for a share of visitors (Grow plan and above). For prices, Shopify’s Smart Pricing app runs A/B price experiments for eligible US stores in early access. Testing apps such as Shoplift and Intelligems add deeper options, from $69 a month.
What happened to Google Optimize
Google announced on January 20, 2023, that Optimize and Optimize 360 would no longer be available after September 30, 2023 (Bounteous, January 24, 2023). Guides that tell you to install an Optimize snippet in your Shopify theme are out of date, and old snippets do nothing. Remove them from theme.liquid if they are still there.
Native ways to test in Shopify
Rollouts experiments (themes, checkout, discounts). Shopify announced Rollouts on March 31, 2026 (changelog). You store theme edits and either schedule them or test them:
- A Launch applies changes to all visitors permanently.
- An Event publishes changes for a set period, then rolls them back.
- An Experiment shows changes to a share of visitors; the default split is 50% control and 50% treatment, and you can change it before saving.
Rollouts can edit or replace the main theme (only replacing it supports content changes), replace the checkout and accounts configuration, set a catalog active or draft, and activate or deactivate discounts. Rollouts is available from the Basic plan, but experiments need Grow or higher; targeting a specific market needs Advanced or Plus. The Help Center page on managing rollouts adds a caution: once applied, a rollout’s changes can’t be reverted, and archiving a rollout permanently deletes its theme changes.
Smart Pricing experiments (prices). Shopify’s Smart Pricing app splits your online store catalog into a control and an experimental version, sends 50% of traffic to each, and shows results about four days after the start, refreshed daily. The limits are strict: early access only, Grow plan or higher, a US store selling to US customers on the new Markets with a single US catalog, at least 10 products each with more than 25 sales a month, one experiment at a time, and up to 250 products. Other channels such as Meta and Google keep the original price during a test. Our guide to Shopify price testing goes further.
Before-and-after with a duplicate theme. Without Grow, you can still compare periods: duplicate your theme, make the change, publish it, and compare conversion rate for two equal periods. It is weaker than a split test, because the two periods differ in more than the change, but it costs nothing. Basic, Grow and Advanced stores can keep up to 20 themes in the library.
Testing apps compared
Two apps that publish their prices, as their App Store listings showed on October 23, 2026:
| Shoplift | Intelligems | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Core, $99/month: template, theme and URL tests | Smart Content, $69/month: landing pages, themes, content |
| Price tests | From Advanced, $399/month | In the Unlimited plan, $349/month |
| Other tests | Subscriptions, segmentation, GA4 integration on Advanced | Shipping rates and thresholds, discounts, bundles, upsells on mid plans ($112.10/month each) |
| Price grows with | Monthly unique visitors | Order volume |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| Rating | 4.9 (134 reviews) | 4.8 (200 reviews) |
Pay for an app when you need what Rollouts doesn’t do: price tests outside Smart Pricing’s US early access, shipping threshold tests, or tests on a store below Grow. If theme and content tests are all you need and you are on Grow or above, start with Rollouts.
Design a fair test
Whatever tool you use, design the test before you start. Shopify’s Smart Pricing documentation states the core rule: change one element and keep everything else the same, so you know what caused the difference. Then:
- Write the hypothesis first: “Moving reviews above the fold on product pages raises add-to-cart rate.”
- Pick one metric to decide on, such as conversion rate or revenue per visitor, before you start.
- Run until you have enough orders, not for a fixed number of days. A store with 20 orders a week needs weeks per test; Shopify’s price experiments have no set duration for this reason.
- Don’t change the tested pages during the test, and pause ads that show tested prices.
- Check the result in Shopify’s reports as well as the tool’s dashboard; our guide to Shopify marketing reports explains them, and the marketing and SEO hub has related guides.
Shopify facts come from the Help Center pages on Rollouts and Smart Pricing experiments, read on October 23, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What replaced Google Optimize for Shopify? Shopify’s own Rollouts, under Markets > Rollouts, runs theme experiments for stores on Grow and above. For price tests, Smart Pricing runs experiments for eligible US stores, and apps such as Shoplift and Intelligems cover the rest.
Can I A/B test prices on Shopify? You can, with the Smart Pricing app if your store is a US store in its early access and meets its requirements, or with a testing app such as Shoplift (Advanced plan) or Intelligems (Unlimited plan).
Does Shopify have built-in A/B testing? Since March 2026, yes: Rollouts experiments compare a changed theme against the current one with a default 50/50 traffic split. Experiments need the Grow plan or higher.
How long should an A/B test run? Until both versions have enough orders to compare, which for a small store can mean several weeks. Decide the metric before you start and don’t change the pages during the test.