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A/B Testing: brekz-website vs brekz-prestashop

This feature introduces an A/B test that compares the new brekz-website frontend (Laravel + Vue) against the existing brekz-prestashop frontend for a subset of pages. The goal is to measure user experience and conversion differences between the two environments.

Overview

  • What is being tested?

    Specific page types — starting with Category page 2012 variant — are served from the new brekz-website environment. All other visitors continue to see the existing PrestaShop frontend.

  • How is the test controlled?

    The AB_templating cookie determines which variant a visitor sees. When the cookie value is B, PrestaShop JavaScript redirects eligible links to the www2.* subdomain where brekz-website is running.

  • How are variants separated?

    The new brekz-website environment is served on www2.* subdomains (one per country). Regular traffic continues on www.* subdomains via brekz-prestashop.

  • Which services are involved?

    Both brekz-prestashop (cookie management + link manipulation) and brekz-website (serving the new pages) must be configured together for the test to work.

Scope

The A/B test currently targets the following page types:

Page type Status
Category page 2012 variant In scope

Expanding scope

Additional page types can be added to the test by extending the link manipulation logic in brekz-prestashop and ensuring the corresponding page types are enabled in brekz-website.

Subdomain Setup per Country

The new brekz-website is accessible via www2.* subdomains. The following countries are part of the setup:

Country brekz-prestashop (control) brekz-website (variant B)
Netherlands www.brekz.nl www2.brekz.nl
Belgium www.brekz.be www2.brekz.be
Germany www.brekz.de www2.brekz.de

Note

The exact list of active countries and their live status should be verified with the development team. Update this table as countries are added or go live.

The AB_templating cookie is the central control mechanism for the A/B test.

Property Value
Name AB_templating
Set by brekz-prestashop (server-side)
Value for variant A (control) (not set, or any value other than B)
Value for variant B (new website) B
Scope Per visitor session

How it works:

  1. brekz-prestashop sets the AB_templating cookie server-side when a visitor is assigned to a test group.
  2. A JavaScript module in brekz-prestashop reads this cookie on page load.
  3. If the value is B, eligible links (Category page 2012 variant URLs) are rewritten to point to the www2.* subdomain.
  4. The visitor is then served the page by brekz-website instead of brekz-prestashop.

Architecture

sequenceDiagram
    participant Visitor as Visitor
    participant PS as brekz-prestashop (www.*)
    participant BW as brekz-website (www2.*)

    Visitor->>PS: Request page (www.brekz.nl/...)
    PS->>PS: Set AB_templating cookie (server-side)
    PS->>Visitor: Return page with JS link manipulation

    Note over Visitor: JS reads AB_templating cookie

    alt Cookie value = "B" and page is Category 2012 variant
        Visitor->>BW: Navigate to www2.brekz.nl/... (rewritten link)
        BW->>BW: Check hostname config (env var)
        BW->>Visitor: Serve new brekz-website page
    else Cookie value ≠ "B" or page not in scope
        Note over Visitor: No redirect — stays on brekz-prestashop
    end

Service Configuration

For the technical configuration of each service, see the dedicated configuration page:

View Configuration Details