Why Your Header is Too Big
Shoppers don’t land on your site hoping for a giant search bar. They just want to find a product and feel confident hitting “buy.”
But here’s the catch: when the information they need is buried, the whole journey slows down.
We work with a large specialty retailer in the sporting goods space. Their catalog is massive, with thousands of SKUs. On paper, that makes search the hero.
Except on mobile, the header with search built right into it was hogging almost a third of the screen. And when we pulled up scrollmaps, it got even uglier. Key details on product pages, like reviews, specs, and pricing context, were shoved below the fold.
Shoppers weren’t absorbing enough of the product story to feel ready to buy.
So we asked the obvious question no one usually asks: what if the thing that’s supposed to help is actually in the way?
The Hypothesis
Maybe conversion isn’t just about removing friction. Maybe it’s about how much information a shopper can actually absorb before they decide to buy.
So we tested a simple idea: shrink the header and give that space back to the products. The bet was that if shoppers absorbed more of the right information, conversion would rise.
The Test
We ran two versions against the conrol:
V1: Shrunk the header, collapsed search into a little icon, and cleared out wasted whitespace.
V2: Did all of the above, but also made the promo “pencil banner” taller so offers were more visible.
Both were designed to put more product information in view. The question was whether promos would add value or just compete for attention.
The Results
The two versions told very different stories.
V1 (the winner):
Conversion Rate: +3.9%
Revenue per Visitor: +6.9%
Average Order Value: +2.3%
V2:
Conversion Rate: -1.4%
Add-to-Carts: -0.2%
Average Order Value: +2.3%
Shrinking the header gave shoppers more room to absorb product details, which drove more confident buying decisions. But when we stuffed that new space with a bigger promo banner, the benefit disappeared.
And because the header sits on every page, the winning version didn’t just help on product detail pages. It impacted 100% of revenue.
Why It Works
This isn’t about minimalism for its own sake. It’s about information absorption.
More product exposure. With less header clutter, shoppers absorb more of the details that actually sell products.
Higher intent search. Search usage dropped about 19 percent, but the shoppers who did search were more serious and converted at a +3.3% higher rate.
Stronger perceived value. Cleaner design aligned with premium brand patterns, which shoppers rewarded with bigger baskets.
The big signal here is that the amount of product information a shopper absorbs may be a leading indicator of conversion.
The Takeaway
This test wasn’t really about hiding search. It was about surfacing the content that matters.
If something as “untouchable” as the site header can choke off product information, what else on your site might be guilty?
That promo banner you’ve been running for years.
The navigation that buries category details.
The product pages where reviews or specs get pushed too far down.
The real question isn’t “how big should the search bar be.”
It’s: how do we maximize the amount of meaningful product information every shopper absorbs before they decide to buy?
That might be the most important leading indicator of conversion you’re not measuring.
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Digital Product Growth
At Mobile1st, we help e-commerce brands grow revenue per visitor.
We do it by combining customer-first research with testing and experimentation that cuts through the noise of dashboards and opinions. Our team uncovers what really drives purchase decisions, then runs experiments to prove impact — so you can stop guessing and start scaling
