Getting Practical with Sitecore XM Cloud’s A/B Testing: Initial Thoughts, Learnings, and Real Use Cases 

I’ve recently started experimenting with the built-in A/B/N testing capabilities in Sitecore XM Cloud, and I thought I’d share some of my early impressions – less as a step-by-step how-to (the documentation has that covered) and more as a reflection on what I’ve learned, where it works well, and where to be aware of limitations.

To make this more applicable, I’ve included four practical use cases that reflect common business optimisation goals, each tied to one of the four supported test goal types in Sitecore XM Cloud.

Why A/B Testing Matters for Digital Teams

For businesses operating in competitive digital environments, A/B testing enables evidence-based decision-making to improve user engagement, reduce friction, and drive conversions.

Whether you’re seeking to improve content clarity, simplify forms, or refine calls-to-action, being able to test and iterate quickly empowers marketing and UX teams to move from assumption to insight.

Sitecore XM Cloud’s component-level testing makes this possible with minimal overhead, even for non-technical users.

First Impressions: Easy to Use, But with Guardrails

Sitecore XM Cloud enables component-level A/B/N testing out-of-the-box, which is powerful but comes with some boundaries. The “/N” means you’re not restricted to just a single variant—you can test up to six variations of a component at once.

From here on, I’ll refer to this simply as A/B testing.

The setup is intuitive and built right into the Pages interface, making it accessible for marketers and non-technical users. You can can a variant just by duplicating the component, edit the variant content, assign goals, define traffic distribution, and hit “Start” – all from a clean and simple UI.

But, a few key caveats and considerations emerged early on:

• Testing is limited to component-level (not specific elements, or full pages).
• You cannot run personalisation and A/B testing on the same page. See the warrning message in the image below. This restricts the ability to operate optimisation strategies at scale. Although, if this is your intention, the separate Sitecore Personalize and CDP products would likely be a better fit for your organisation.

• Only four goal types are available out-of-the-box, limiting what and how you measure success.
• Tests need to be running for at least 24 hours before you can see analytics on performance.

The Four Goal Types You Can Optimise For

When setting up a test, you must define a goal. This is critical for evaluating which variant performs best. Sitecore XM Cloud offers these four options:

1. Increase page views of a specified internal page.
2. Increase form submissions (only if using Sitecore Forms).
3. Decrease bounce rate – % of users who leave after visiting only the page with the test.
4. Decrease exit rate – % of users who leave the site from the page where the test is running.

The Setup Process (in brief)

Component-based test creation is simple: select the component, click the Test icon, name the test, and decide whether you will copy, swap or hide the component for your variant.

You can do all this directly in the Pages UI, including Components built using the Components Builder in XMC.

Test configuration

• Goal selection is clear and intuitive—but limited to the four listed above.
• Traffic distribution defaults to an even split, which is ideal unless specific weighting is needed.
• Advanced settings allow sample size and audience limits, but defaults are a good starting point.
• Automated actions can trigger auto-deployment of a winning variant, but I recommend reviewing results manually.

You can easily Preview test variations, Start the Test, and then Publish the page (in that order), all direct from the Pages UI.

Once created, you can quickly identify pages have active tests by looking for the little flask icon in the content tree (see below).

Early Learnings and Reflections

• Focus on one component on each page to test, so that the impact of a variant can be properly assessed.
• Even inconclusive tests are useful. They clarify what *doesn’t* influence your desired goal.
• Once you have your tests live, avoid making further changes to the page, as it may impact your results. Thankfully, you will see prompts to help you avoid making this mistake.

Realistic Use Cases for Common Business Objectives

Use Case 1: Homepage Headline

Goal: Decrease bounce rate

Hypothesis: If we change the homepage headline to be more action-oriented and customer-focused, bounce rate will decrease.

Component Being Tested: Homepage headline section

What Was Changed:

•   Control: Headline describing the business (e.g. “Australia’s Top Skate Shop”)
•    Variant: Headline prompting user action (e.g. “Get Your Dream Deck Now”)

Setup Notes:

• Used Pages UI to select and duplicate headline component.
• Edited content in variant and assigned bounce rate as the goal.

Use Case 2: Product Image Swap

Goal: Increase page views of product detail pages

Hypothesis: If we replace the static product image with a more dynamic action shot, more users will click through to product detail pages.

Component Being Tested: Product card on the product listing page

What Was Changed:

•   Control: Static skateboard product image.
•   Variant: Image of skateboarder mid-trick using the product.

Setup Notes:

• Created using XMC Component Builder.
• Only image assets were changed to isolate visual impact on click through rates

Use Case 3: CTA Colour Change

Goal: Decrease website exit rate from product detail page

Hypothesis: If we change the ‘Buy Now’ button colour from grey to red, it will attract more attention and reduce exits.

Component Being Tested: CTA block on product detail page

What Was Changed:

•  Control: Grey CTA button.
•  Variant: Red CTA button.

Setup Notes:

• Created using XMC Component Builder.

Use Case 4: Simplified Form

Goal: Increase form submissions

Hypothesis: If we reduce the number of optional fields, more users will complete the form.

Component Being Tested: Contact form using Form Builder

What Was Changed:

•   Control: Full form (name, email, company, phone, etc.).
•   Variant: Reduced form with only name and email.

Setup Notes:

•  Created two versions in Sitecore XMC Form Builder.
•  Assigned goal to increase form submissions.

Tests Live

Once your tests are live, they are accessible from the Strategy tab in your XMC dashboard.

From there, you can view test status, dive into details, or access tests via the sitemap view in Page Builder.

Test Analytics

After your test has collected data for at least 24 hours, you can view analytics to compare the performance of each variant. This provides insight into engagement, page flows, and overall goal completion to help determine your winning version.

Takeaways and tips for other practitioners

• Start small, test often. Iterate and learn.
• Always tie your hypothesis to a supported goal.
• Export results. Build a central log of what you’ve tested and learned, along with any additional business context e.g. digital campaigns, website downtime, traffic spikes
• Expect false starts. Even neutral results reveal insights.

Conclusion

If you’re using XM Cloud and haven’t yet explored A/B testing, I highly recommend diving in. Even with some limitations, there’s a lot of value to be had—and the setup experience is surprisingly smooth for a platform of this scale.

Here is a video reviewing some of the functionality and features in Sitecore XM Cloud A/B/N testing

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