There are two major ways to increase your Shopify store’s sales. Increasing the number of people visiting the site in the first place and increasing your conversion rate so that a higher percentage of site visitors make a purchase. In this blog, we’re going to be looking into strategies that increase your conversion rate.
What is Conversion Rate, and Why Does It Matter?
Think about how many site visitors your Shopify store gets per day. Maybe it’s 100, 1000, 10,000. Of those, how many check out? That’s your conversion rate.
Benchmark numbers from IRPCommerce suggest that the average ecommerce website converts at around 4-5%, which means for every 100 visitors to a site, only 4 or 5 make a purchase. In other words, roughly 95% don’t make a purchase.
Whilst incremental improvements can sound small, if your conversion rate were to increase from 4% to 6% (and nothing else change) that would be a 50% increase in total sales. If that doesn’t make you want to increase your conversion rate, nothing will.
A higher conversion rate makes all of your other performance-based metrics look better too. You’ll have a higher ROAS, a lower cost per acquisition, and be able to invest more back into your business too. You may think of CRO as being isolated within the customer Journey on your website, but it makes your SEO, paid social, and even your email marketing more effective too. Whether you're working with a Shopify agency, an ecommerce marketing agency, or handling your Shopify conversion rate in-house, a Good CRO is the ultimate goal.
What is a Good Conversion Rate?
There is no across-the-board, “good” conversion rate. Whilst the above metric stated 5% as the average, we tend to say a 2-3% conversion rate is good for a Shopify Store.
But your product’s price and industry will impact your conversion rate. So, it’s key to look at your conversion rate in context. Maybe you undercut the market average for your niche, and therefore have a higher conversion rate. But that doesn’t mean you’re more profitable.
So, it’s best to look at your current conversion rate and aim to improve from there. And improve in isolation. If you reduce your prices, your conversion rate will surely increase, but that doesn’t net you more profit.
How to Improve Your Shopify Conversion rate
Find Where Customers are Dropping Off
The first step to understanding, and therefore improving, your conversion rate is finding where customers are dropping off within the purchase journey.
There are a series of “Micro Conversions” that a site visitor needs to complete on their way to making a purchase.
The main ones being:
- Landing on the site
- Viewing a product
- Adding a product to the cart
- Beginning the checkout
- Completing their purchase
By tracking and improving each micro conversion, we can improve the overall user experience, increase trust, and ultimately lift your final conversion rate. For example, if you find that a lot of customers are viewing products but not adding them to their cart, your product page may be the primary issue.
We actually have benchmark metrics for each micro conversion, which we measure against in our ecommerce scorecard.
If you’d like to learn more about how an industry-leading ecommerce agency reviews Shopify stores, our ecommerce scorecard reveals all.
Strategies to Increase Your Online Store’s Conversion Rate.
1 - Build Trust
Trust between a brand and customer has always been valuable, but in a world full of AI-generated content and more, it’s more important than ever. In the ecommerce world, there are many ways to build trust with the customer and these can be displayed across your entire site.
Site Appearance and Brand Perception
Starting off with an aspect of your site that’s harder to measure. If your site doesn’t look professional and clean, customers are unlikely to trust it.
Your product imagery and brand play a large role here, but so do the elements a customer expects to see on an ecommerce site across the board - accepted payment icons, “as featured in” badges, and more all help reassure a customer that a site is worth trusting.
Reviews and Social Proof
Few things do a better job of building trust than seeing a product be tried and tested by other customers. Customer reviews, either text-based or featuring imagery, can be a big boost to your conversion rate - particularly if there’s a good mix.
For example, a product with 10 five-star reviews, 2 four-star reviews, one three-star review, and even a one-star review seems more “real” and trustworthy than one with 15 five-star reviews.
Additionally, customers have become more ecommerce-literate in the modern age, and are increasingly wary of product imagery. Therefore, being able to see a product in action - either within a review or in UGC via a link to your social channels - will place their mind at rest.
Clear Returns and Shipping Policies
Despite what some reports from the late 2010s may have told you, most customers don’t buy products with the intention of returning them afterwards. However, if the information on returns and shipping is missing from the checkout, it can reduce trust and make them abandon the shopping journey.
Whether it’s through a scrolling announcement bar, USP icons, or elsewhere, make your return policy, shipping options, and customer service promise easy to find. This type of reassurance helps reduce friction, especially for first-time visitors or high-intent buyers comparing different brands.
2 - Site Speed
Leading on nicely from building trust with prospective customers, we have your ecommerce site’s speed. A slow-to-load website causes a number of issues, including reducing trust between you and the customer, but it also makes it harder for them to complete their purchase.
Unless a customer really wants a product, they aren’t going to stick around with a slow site for long. Here are some strategies to boost your site speed.
Reduce File Sizes
Big web files like video files and image files can be one of the biggest culprits in a slow-loading site. It can be as simple as exporting images as JPGs instead of PNGs or videos as .mp4s rather than .movs
Reduce the Number of Third-Party Apps on Your Site
Shopify is known for its large app library, but that doesn’t mean you should just add as many bolt ons to your website as you can. Not only will this ramp up the costs, but it requires a web browser to load much more information than if the code was baked into your site. If you're unsure which apps are weighing your store down, a Shopify development agency or our own Shopify experts can carry out a full audit of your theme and integrations.
3 - Discoverability
When setting out on their purchasing journey, a customer likely has an idea of what they want to purchase. Equally, different customers are going to purchase in different ways.
So making it easy for each customer to find what they want is key to boosting your conversion rate. Some key things to consider here are product recommendations, collections, search, and filtering.
Product Recommendations
As a customer explores a site, there are multiple opportunities to serve them product recommendations. From product pages, to your homepage, cart, to even the empty cart state. “Complete the look” or other suggestions help improve site discoverability.
On-Site Search
Your search bar should be a product discovery hub, and it should intelligently serve customers products based on what they’re searching - not just product names. fast navigation for high intent visitors and leads to better conversions from search led journeys.
Product Collections
Some customers may land on your site with the intention of only browsing an individual product category. Therefore, building a series of collections and subcollections lets them shop in the manner they intend to.
Tied into this, intelligent product filters let them refine their search further. Prioritise filters like size, fit, availability, colour, and sort order. Make sure filters update quickly and reflect what is actually in stock. On mobile, keep filtering accessible and easy to dismiss. These tools are essential for collections with broad product ranges and improve both experience and sales.
4 - Mobile Experience.
Even though the majority of ecommerce store development takes place on a desktop, the majority of browsing is done on mobile devices. Therefore, your site needs to be optimised for mobile for your conversion rate to be in with a fighting chance.
Mobile Site Speed
We’ve already mentioned the importance of site speed, but Google places even greater importance on how quickly your website loads on mobile devices than on desktop. Try to punch for a speed above 80 on Google Page Speed Insights.
Mobile UX
With a smaller screen size, you have to make the user experience of your ecommerce site on mobile devices more intuitive. Simplifying the navigation, making buttons more obvious, and designing for mobile-first gestures such as swiping and pinching are key here.
Shopify does most of this by default, - one of the main reasons it's the platform of choice for Shopify website builders across the UK - but there are some content population considerations here too, so be sure to be extra careful when naming your collections and choosing what symbols you use to represent what.but there are some content population considerations here too, so be sure to be extra careful when naming your collections and choosing what symbols you use to represent what.
5 - Shoppability
Customers are increasingly becoming more ecommerce-savvy, but we shouldn’t design as if this is the case. We ultimately want to encourage the customer to go through the purchase journey, so your site should call out the key actions they need to complete.
Even something as simple as “add to cart” needs to be obvious and easily accessible.
Visual Cues
Much like browsing through products in a store, we don’t tend to read much when shopping on an ecommerce site, we skim - and it’s a much more visual experience. So we want to lean into this experience and enhance our site for instant skimmability. Product call outs such as “Best Seller” & “50% off” and thumbnail previews are two easy additions to highlight what matters most.
Streamline Product Discovery Across Your Store
Once customers land on your site, the goal is to help them move through your store with ease. If browsing feels confusing or gets interrupted, even interested shoppers can lose momentum and drop off.
Small touches like breadcrumb navigation, the ability to revisit previous filters, and quick access to recently viewed items can help shoppers stay oriented.
By reducing friction and creating a smoother browsing experience, you’re more likely to encourage continued engagement, which can support both conversions and overall order value.
6 - The Home Page
Conversions aren’t happening on the homepage, but your homepage plays a critical role in getting the ball rolling for the rest of the customer journey. If a customer doesn’t move from the home page to a collection or product page, your home page is directly impacting your conversion rate.
Product Thumbnails on the Home Page
Your home page may already link out to collections and new arrivals, but you can also highlight some of your best-performing pieces directly within the home page, too. This gives customers something to hook their attention and by presenting products sooner, there’s a higher chance they’ll be added to a cart
Brand-Focused USPs and Trust Markers
Some ecommerce businesses want to stand on their own successes and not lean on the name recognition of other businesses and publications. That’s all well and good, but if you want to give your site the best shot at converting, featuring an “As seen in” or “featured in” section on your site, can help customers feel at ease and trust your site.
Equally, eye-catching, product-focused USP sections can do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to getting a customer onto a product page. There’s a reason they’re a mainstay of our Cake Shopify Theme.
7 - Collection Pages
If a customer has landed on your collection pages, that shows they have a level of interest in what your brand has to offer. Capitalising on that interest is crucial, and there are steps you can take to make it happen.
Product Ordering
Before a customer has assigned any sorts or filters, what order are your products appearing in? The default sort order matters more than people realise. Leading with bestsellers, high-reviewed products, or in-season items means the first products a customer sees are the ones most likely to convert. Burying your best performers on page two or behind a load more button is a quiet conversion killer.
Page-Level Messaging
Most collection pages are just a grid of products with a title. Adding a brief intro - even 2-3 sentences - can set the context for the customer. A "Waterproof Jackets" collection page that mentions "built for the British weather" is doing more work than a collection page that just shows products.
Out of Stock Handling
How you handle out-of-stock products has a big impact on your conversion rate. Rather than removing products that are sold out, marking them as sold out keeps the page looking full, and generates interest. Plus - assuming they’re going to be restocked - a "notify me when back in stock" prompt captures intent on a product that would otherwise leave.
8 - The Product Page
If a customer has landed on a product page, they’ve already taken the first major step in their journey to checking out. In fact, there are entire CRO agencies that specialise entirely in product page design. Let’s look at some steps you can take to boost your conversion rate, specifically within your ecommerce store’s product page.
Variant User Experience
How customers select product variants - size, colour, etc - can have a big impact on your conversion rate. Your best option will depend on the specific kind of product you sell, but some general rules of thumb, are
- Colour swatches beat dropdowns
- Cross out clearly unavailable options
Size and Fit Guides
For apparel and fashion brands especially, uncertainty about sizing is one of the biggest reasons customers don't convert.
A well-designed size guide - ideally with real model measurements referenced against the product - can meaningfully reduce this friction. Even a simple "model is 5'9 and wears a Medium" goes a long way.
This can easily be achieved using Shopify’s metaobject functionality.
Urgency and Scarcity Signals
Low stock warnings such as "only 3 left" work particularly well - especially when they’re genuine.
However, modern ecommerce customers have become good at spotting fake urgency, and it damages trust even if the content is actually correct. This is why a recently viewed or “x people have bought this today” prompt is more subtle and can achieve a similar effect without feeling manipulative or fake
Cross-Sells and Upsells
The product page is one of the highest-intent pages on your site, which makes it a good place to introduce complementary products - either as a "frequently bought together" bundle or a "you might also like" recommendation.
9 - The Checkout
If a customer has made it all the way to the checkout, they are only one step away from converting. However, only 50% of customers who make it to the checkout actually complete their purchase.
It’s usually a case of a customer having doubts, but let’s look at what you can do to reduce friction and boost your conversion rate.
Shopify Checkout
If your business is on Shopify, you already benefit from the best-performing checkout of any ecommerce platform out of the box. However, if you’re on another platform and struggling with a low conversion rate, a Shopify migration may be a significant investment, but it could rescue your business long-term.
Shopify doesn't let businesses edit the checkout process unless they're on the Shopify Plus plan - and for brands that need deeper customisation, working with a Shopify Plus Agency unlocks a suite of additional tools, including Checkout Extensibility, custom branding, and post-purchase upsells. However, that's not to say your conversion rate can't be improved on a standard plan either.
Upselling in the Checkout
Upselling within the checkout is a tried and tested strategy to boost your average order value. But, by using third-party apps like Rebuy, you can add dynamic product suggestions to complement a customer's existing cart and potentially boost your conversion rate too.
10 - Additional Incentives
We can build trust, optimise our site for mobile, and improve product discoverability as much as we like - but sometimes, the offer just isn’t good enough for a customer to check out. This is where we can introduce some additional incentives to help push those trickiest-to-please customers over the line.
Bundles
Product bundles are one of the most common added incentives you’ll see on an ecommerce website. Not only do they help customers understand how products work together - so there is a customer education aspect in some cases - but they also give customers an additional incentive to complete their purchase and increase the average order value of the customers who would have checked out anyway.
Incentives over discounts
Sure, an easy way to boost your conversion rate is to reduce prices, but that’s not the point of this guide. However, offering additional incentives can boost your conversion rate, without eating into your margins as much. This can be free shipping, easy returns, and loyalty points - all of which are large, business-impacting integrations, but do they positively impact your conversion rate? Absolutely.
Why you Should Work with a Shopify CRO Agency
Yes, you can go about implementing these optimisations on your own, but you won’t have experience integrating them, and you won’t understand how they can impact your business. Agency ecommerce expertise means pattern recognition built across dozens of stores - and that's hard to replicate in-house. Working with a specialist ecommerce agency - whether that's a dedicated ecommerce digital agency, an ecommerce advertising agency, or a full-service digital marketing agency ecommerce team - means benefiting from strategic experience that goes far beyond a single store. A Shopify agency, ecommerce services agency, or specialist Shopify CRO Agency will know how to strategically roll out the optimisations that are going to impact your business the most. They'll be able to diagnose what areas of the website are underperforming the most, and what opportunities need to be filled first.
At Cake Agency, we are the Shopify agency Birmingham businesses - and brands across the UK - trust to deliver real results. Recognised as one of the best Shopify agencies and ecommerce marketing companies in the UK, we help ecommerce businesses roll out incremental improvements to their storefront, boosting CRO and AOV over time. From optimising product pages and checkout flows to designing award-winning loyalty programs to keep customers coming back, our Shopify experts know how to position your ecommerce store for success. Whether you need a Shopify Plus Agency to scale, a Shopify development agency to build, or an ecomm agency to help you grow - we can help.
Want to discuss how we can boost your conversion rate, contact us! We’d love to hear from you.
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