Guide
Ecommerce CRO audit
What to check on every page type, from collection to order confirmation.
Shopify CRO audit
Shopify CRO audit: what to check on your Shopify store
A Shopify CRO audit finds why visitors to your Shopify store leave without buying, from the theme and apps to the cart and checkout, and ranks what to fix first. Convertica's free CRO audit app runs on your store page while you watch: enter your store's address and email to start. Below are the seven steps to audit your store yourself.
Conversion for humans and AI agents. More than 2,000 clients since 2017.
Your Shopify store audit
Eight checks for your Shopify store page.
Each check is scored out of 100 in your audit.
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First impressions
Is your offer immediately clear?
/100, scored in your audit
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Calls to action
Are visitors guided toward the next step?
/100, scored in your audit
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Forms & friction
What's stopping visitors from converting?
/100, scored in your audit
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Trust & credibility
Are there enough reasons to believe?
/100, scored in your audit
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Mobile experience
Does everything work beautifully on mobile?
/100, scored in your audit
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Page performance
Is speed affecting the experience?
/100, scored in your audit
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AI visibility & agent readiness
Can AI agents understand your offering?
/100, scored in your audit
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SEO fundamentals
Can search engines understand your page?
/100, scored in your audit
Short answer
A Shopify CRO audit is a review of a Shopify store that finds where shoppers drop out between the collection page and the completed checkout, explains why, and ranks the fixes by revenue at stake. It also checks what Shopify adds: theme templates, installed apps and their scripts, the cart drawer and what the checkout settings allow.
- Start by reconciling Shopify's analytics with your other reports and real orders before trusting either.
- Read the funnel by device, map which templates your products use, and audit the apps and the speed they cost.
- Walk the store on a phone with test orders, and check that AI agents can read your product data.
- Rank findings by revenue at stake, and fix clear breakages in a duplicate theme.
- Convertica's free CRO audit app runs live on one store page while you watch, and the report arrives by email.
What is a Shopify CRO audit?
A Shopify CRO audit is a review of a Shopify store that finds where shoppers drop out between the collection page and the completed checkout, explains why, and ranks the fixes by revenue at stake. On top of a normal store audit, it checks what Shopify adds: theme templates, installed apps and their scripts, the cart drawer, and what the checkout settings allow.
It follows the same method as any ecommerce CRO audit, with three Shopify facts in mind. One product template usually serves every product, so a single fix reaches the whole catalog. Most of the checkout belongs to Shopify, so most of the room to improve sits before it. And every app can add code to every page, so the app list is part of the audit.
It is narrower than a general Shopify store audit, which often covers SEO, theme code and settings. A Shopify CRO audit judges every finding by one thing: its effect on sales. If the store is new, check the basics on the Shopify store checklist first.
What the free CRO audit checks on a Shopify page
Convertica's free CRO audit is an app that reads one page of your store, a product page for example, the way a shopper and an AI agent would. It runs eight checks, each scored out of 100. On a Shopify store, two of them matter more than usual:
- Page performance picks up the weight that themes and app scripts add to a page.
- AI visibility and agent readiness picks up content an app adds with a script, such as review stars or delivery estimates, that an agent reading the page may never see.
The free report shows three fixes you can make now; the full report, $97, has every finding, including the high impact ones. The app reads the page only: it cannot see your Shopify analytics, so for where real shoppers drop off, follow the steps below.
How to do a Shopify CRO audit in 7 steps
To do a Shopify CRO audit, reconcile Shopify's analytics with real orders, read the funnel from session to completed checkout by device, map the templates your products use, audit the apps and their effect on speed, walk the store on a phone with test orders, check the product data AI agents read, then rank every finding by revenue at stake.
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Reconcile your numbers
Shopify's analytics and Google Analytics count sessions and orders differently, so expect a gap. Find out why it exists before trusting either. The orders in your Shopify admin are the ground truth for revenue; refunds, test orders and missing purchase events usually explain the rest.
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Read the funnel by device
Shopify's analytics include a conversion funnel showing how many sessions added to cart, reached checkout and completed checkout. Split it by device and traffic source, and note the step with the biggest drop on mobile.
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Map the templates
List which template each type of page uses, including any alternate product or collection templates. A product line that converts far worse than the rest may simply be on an older template that nobody updated.
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Audit the apps and the speed they cost
List every installed app, what it shows on the storefront and whether anyone still uses it. Look for apps doing the same job, and for code left in the theme by apps you removed. Run your product and collection pages through PageSpeed Insights and note which scripts are heaviest.
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Walk the store on a phone, with test orders
Go from a collection page to the order confirmation as a first-time shopper. Open the cart drawer, try a discount code, use each accelerated payment button you offer, such as Shop Pay, and check out as a guest. Note every surprise, every extra tap and every question the page did not answer.
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Check what AI agents can read
View the product page source. Shopify themes build the page on the server, so the price and variants are usually there. Content added later by apps often is not. Test the product structured data with Google's Rich Results Test, and review your robots.txt template so the AI crawlers you want can get in.
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Rank the findings by revenue at stake
Write each finding as a change, an expected result and a reason. Score it on impact, confidence and effort, weighting impact by the traffic on that template. Fix clear breakages in a duplicate theme, and A/B test the uncertain changes with a tool that supports Shopify themes.
For the general audit method and the ICE and PIE scoring models, see the CRO audit guide. For what to check on each page type, see the ecommerce CRO audit.
Common Shopify CRO audit findings
The most common Shopify CRO audit findings are app scripts that slow every page, leftover code from removed apps, product lines stuck on old templates, a cart drawer that hides the shipping cost, review content loaded too late to help, and theme customizations lost in an update. Each one is specific to how Shopify stores are built.
- Overlapping apps. Two or three apps doing the same job, each loading its own scripts.
- Leftover app code. Snippets from apps you uninstalled still loading in the theme.
- Forgotten templates. Alternate product templates missing the improvements made to the main one.
- A cart drawer that hides costs. Shipping and the free shipping threshold shown only at checkout.
- Late reviews. Review stars and badges that appear after the shopper has already scrolled past.
- Competing buttons. Accelerated payment buttons and Add to Cart fighting for attention on the product page: test which order works for your store.
- Lost customizations. Changes made directly in the live theme and overwritten by a theme update.
- Sold-out confusion. Out of stock variants that look selectable until the shopper taps them.
What can you change after a Shopify CRO audit?
After a Shopify CRO audit you can change almost everything before the checkout: templates, sections, collections, the cart and the app list. In the checkout itself, every plan can change settings, payment options, required fields and branding, and add approved apps. Deeper changes to the checkout steps are reserved for Shopify Plus.
| Part of the store | Who can change it | How |
|---|---|---|
| Theme templates and sections | Any plan | Theme editor or code, in a duplicate theme first |
| Collections, search and navigation | Any plan | Admin settings, theme and search app |
| Cart and cart drawer | Any plan | Theme and cart apps |
| Apps | Any plan | Install, configure or remove, then clean up the theme |
| Checkout settings and branding | Any plan | Checkout settings, payment settings and approved apps |
| Deeper checkout step changes | Shopify Plus | Checkout customization available on Plus |
CRO advisory
After your Shopify CRO audit
Fix what is broken in a duplicate theme, A/B test what is uncertain, and judge every change on revenue per visitor. Your developer or Shopify agency can do the building.
If you want help deciding what to change and reading the results, Convertica's CRO advisory turns your free audit into a plan. It is led personally by founder Kurt Philip, with Convertica's CRO team. Advisory is priced after your audit, and places are limited.
I was very impressed by how specific and to the point Convertica was in their audit. They really don't beat around the bush and they provide you with clear objectives that will improve your conversion rates and provide you a return on your investment.
Related
More for Shopify stores
Guide
Increase your Shopify conversion rate
Tactics to try once the audit shows where your store leaks.
Free tool
A/B test sample size calculator
Check whether your store has the traffic to test a finding before you start.
Shopify CRO audit FAQ
What is a Shopify CRO audit?
A Shopify CRO audit is a review of a Shopify store that finds where shoppers drop out between the collection page and the completed checkout, explains why, and ranks the fixes by revenue at stake. On top of the usual store audit, it checks the things Shopify adds: theme templates, installed apps and their scripts, the cart drawer, and what the checkout settings allow.
How do I audit my Shopify store for conversions?
Reconcile Shopify's analytics with your other reports and real orders, read the funnel from session to completed checkout by device, map which templates your products use, audit the apps and their effect on speed, walk the store on a phone with test orders, check that AI agents can read your product data, then rank the findings by revenue at stake.
Is a Shopify CRO audit the same as a Shopify store audit?
Not quite. A Shopify store audit often means a broad health check: SEO, apps, theme code and settings. A Shopify CRO audit asks one question: why do visitors who reach the store not buy, and what should change first? It overlaps on apps and speed, but every finding is judged by its effect on sales.
What tools do you need for a Shopify CRO audit?
You need Shopify's own analytics and order reports, Google Analytics 4 if you use it, a heatmap and session recording tool that works on Shopify, a way to poll shoppers, PageSpeed Insights for speed, and Google's Rich Results Test for product structured data. A testing tool that supports Shopify themes comes after the audit.
Can a Shopify CRO audit cover the checkout?
Yes, but what you can change there depends on your plan. On every plan you can review checkout settings, payment options, required fields and branding, and place test orders. Deeper changes to the checkout steps themselves need Shopify Plus, so on other plans most fixes land on the product page and the cart.
Is Convertica's free Shopify CRO audit available now?
Yes. The free CRO audit is an app that works on any store page, Shopify included. Enter your store's address and your email on this page, and it runs right away: you watch it check your page live, and Convertica emails you the report too.
How much does a Shopify CRO audit cost?
Convertica's CRO audit is free. CRO advisory, if you want help acting on the findings, is priced after your audit. A Shopify CRO audit you run yourself costs your time plus any recording or poll app you add for it.
How often should you run a Shopify CRO audit?
Run a full Shopify CRO audit about once a year, and again after a theme change or major theme update, after adding or removing several apps, before peak season, or after a drop in revenue per visitor you cannot explain.