31 Essential Shopify Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) Checklist

Shopify Conversion Rate Optimisation is one of the most important task as getting traffic to your ecommerce store is an increasingly expensive activity. Too few ad networks, dominated by Google, FB, TikTok control the digital inventory while competition amongst advertisers is growing everyday.

To truly maximize your potential for success, you need to focus on converting more visitors into customers. The top 20% Shopify stores tend to have a very high conversion of 3.2% vs .04% for the bottom 20%. High conversion makes all the difference when it comes to growing the business to profitably. Higher conversion helps you generate more money with the same investment that further helps you fuel your growth journey.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving your website to increase the percentage of visitors who make a purchase. Here are 21 essential tips for optimizing the conversion rate of your Shopify store.

Overall Website Optimization

1. Loading Page Speed: A slow-loading website can lead to high bounce rates. A study by Walmart says that 1 second improvement in load times can improve conversions by up to 2%. Optimize images, minimize scripts, and leverage caching to ensure your website loads quickly.
2. Navigation Clarity: Ensure your top menu is intuitive and consistent across your website. Make it easy for visitors to find their way around.
3. Logical Product Categories: Organize your product categories in a way that makes sense to your audience. Shopify offers a multi tiered menu and collections to organize all your products, use that to avoid overwhelming customers with too many categories.
4. Ad-Relevant Landing Pages: Familiarity is critical, especially for a user who visits your store for the first time. If the customer lands via ads, make sure they land on the same product page, or offer page that they clicked on in the ad. Landing on another page, such as a home page, will make them feel lost.
5. Clear Shipping and Return Policies: Display shipping costs and return policies prominently. Transparent policies instill confidence in potential buyers.

Optimization for Mobile Shoppers

6. CTA Optimization: Make your Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons clear, prominent, and easy to tap on mobile devices.
7. Mobile Pop-Ups: If you use pop-ups, make sure they are mobile-friendly and don't obstruct the user’s experience.
8. Sticky Header: Implement a sticky header that hides as users scroll down and gets visible as they scroll up. This makes navigation more convenient.
9. Visible Product Rows: Ensure that at least 2-3 rows of products are visible on category and search pages, reducing the need for excessive scrolling.

Building Social Proof

10. Product Reviews: Display genuine product reviews to build trust and provide insights to potential customers.
11. Show Purchases by Other Customers: Highlight recent purchases to showcase real-time activity and create a sense of urgency.

Effective Discounting and Offers

12. Strategic Discounting: Leverage discounts and sales strategically. These can be very effective for new users, cart abandonment, slow moving items etc. At the same time, avoid overuse which can lead to devaluing your products.
13. Upselling Complex Products: For intricate products like skincare or food, consider including user-friendly forms to collect necessary information for customization and providing personalized offers
14. Product Bundles: Offer product bundles to increase the Average Order Value (AOV) by encouraging customers to purchase complementary items.

Optimisations on the Listing & Product pages

15. Highlight all sales and discounts: Use bright colors for showcasing the products that are on SALE. You can also strike though the price for discounted products and include percentage discounts
16. Category specific filters like size, color, price etc help the customer narrow down on what they exactly want
17. Use trust building badges. These help nudge the customer towards purchasing - Like 30 day return guarantee, 100% chemical free etc.
18. Homepage Personalization: Tailor your homepage to returning visitors, suggesting products based on their previous interactions. This could include cart abandonment messages, feed of products based on what they have scrolled before amongst other things
19. Product images are the most important element on your product page.  Having multiple product images, from different angles helps the user visualize the product better. High resolution images help the customer see the product closely, and trust you as a high quality brand.

Cart Page Improvements

20. Sticky Cart - Ensuing the customer knows what they have in their cart.  A sticky cart helps the customer remember that they have added products in their cart and improves the likelihood of them checking out
21. Social Validation: The customer is in the final stages of making their mind about the purchase. Use social validation via reviews and ratings to help them in their decision to purchase
22. Allow easy modification of cart contents such as order quantity and size
23. Ensure transparency about shipping and returns especially on this page.  This further helps build trust.

Checkout Process Refinement:

24. Create urgency during the checkout step using discounts and product availability
25. Guest Checkout: While signing up helps create a long term customer; but keeping the option of guest checkout is important to ensure min dropout
26. Shipping details: Optimize the shipping details form for efficiency, and offer pre-filled fields when possible
27. Payment Methods Diversity: Offer various payment options, catering to regional preferences such as BNPL options in the US/EU or UPI in India
28. Minimize Distractions: Keep the checkout page focused by minimizing links and distractions that might lead customers away.

Post-Purchase Engagement

29. Order Confirmation: Send clear order confirmations with delivery timelines to manage customer expectations.
30. Upselling After Purchase: Provide non-intrusive recommendations for related or complementary products after the purchase is complete.
31. Requesting Reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews after their purchase, contributing to social proof and influencing future buyers.

Conversion rate optimization on Shopify Store is an ongoing process that requires careful observation, analysis, and iteration. By implementing these 31 essential tips, you'll be well on your way to creating a Shopify store that not only attracts visitors but also successfully converts them into loyal customers. Remember, small improvements can have a significant impact on your conversion rates and overall business success.

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