Why Is Your Shopify Conversion Rate Low?

If your Shopify conversion rate is 0.5% or less, this article is for you. 

This post covers 16 most common reasons why Shopify stores have low conversion rate (and how to solve them). 

16 Fixes for Low Conversion Rate on Your Shopify Store

1. Lack of company/brand information 

A customer new to your brand won't know what to make of your authenticity if you don't clarify it for them.

The following is an email a friend, who runs an apparel store, found in his inbox one day:

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Since brand information drives immediate trust, Shopify businesses that don’t carry this proof suffer consistently low conversions.

The solution: 

Shopify’s own customer trust research has proved an undeniable truth—when customers want more information about a brand, they invariably look for an “about us” page—when you create yours, ensure you talk about your values, how you operate, where you source from etc. to build an authentic picture. 

Shopify brand Allbirds offers a classic example of a great about us page:

Additionally, superlative imagery and a clear unique value proposition (UVP), starting right from the homepage—don’t make the mistake that this Shopify brand does in not differentiating themselves:

2. Unhealthy image:text ratio

Either too much text or too many images or the imbalance in contrast can cause visitors visual distress and they’re likely to bounce off—one Shopify store we found that seemed to have this problem is Sofa Mania, especially in their hero header section: 

The solution: 

Maintain a text: image ratio of 60:40 to fix a low conversion rate on Shopify. 

Here’s a quick checklist that can help:

3. Not justifying the prices you’re charging

If you’re charging high for products, but shoppers don’t know why exactly they should pay, then it’s a problem. 

This is especially true if you’re a relatively new store selling luxury items or selling through channels where competitors sell only moderately priced items. 

The solution:

To fix this low conversion issue on your Shopify website, you’ll have to justify:

✔what sets your products apart

✔what goes into their making, and 

✔what added value/perception you create through them

Basically, as the following suggestion points out, you’ll have to work towards creating a greater sense of association between the product and the shopper:

4. No free shipping or free shipping threshold

It’s no secret that 80% of shoppers expect free shipping when they spend a certain dollar amount on your Shopify eCommerce store. 

Which means if you’re not offering this feature you’re probably facing a low Shopify conversion rate. 

The solution: 

Set up a free shipping threshold—offer free shipping when cart is over $X value, or do what this Reddit suggestion says: 

5. Lack of convincing product details 

Considering 87% of shoppers will buy if they’re satisfied with your product content, you’re in trouble if it doesn’t match up. 

It’s not so much about quantity as it is about what you choose to highlight about the features and benefits and what the shopper will derive buying it. 

The solution:

Ensure your product details carry the following aspects:

✔Technicalities (materials used, ingredients etc.)

✔Benefits (how the components come together to offer the shopper a full experience)

✔How the product is to be used for best effect

✔Steps the shopper can take to care for the product 

Shopify brand Topicals offers an example of how convincing product content can lead to better conversions—notice the sections they cover and also the highlights they feature:

6. No quantity discounts 

Just a reduced price on a product may not be enough to fix your low conversion rate on Shopify. 

Most shoppers look for incentives to buy more, and without one, they’ll not want to. 

The solution:

✔Offer quantity discounts and make sure the cues are easy to spot. 

✔Explain the tiered discounts carefully and make it easy to choose each tier with radio buttons. 

✔Even if you don’t want to tier it, offer a simple quantity discount like Shopify brand Chubbies does:

Don't forget to check out: How To Drive Traffic To Shopify Stores: 14 Proven Strategies

7. Pop-ups hampering the mobile experience

Over 83% of the total shoppers on mobile devices abandon their carts—and one of the major reasons seems to be ill-timed and ill-placed pop-ups. 

Interestingly, when we spoke to our clients using Shopify and also looked at what users across were discussing, this became more prominent: 

The solution: 

Our audit experiments have proved that on mobile, pop-ups work better when visitors have added some items to cart. So best not to use a full-screen pop-up and hide crucial buttons when they’re just browsing. 

In this case, you can:

✔Make the pop-up vanish if the visitor keeps scrolling (we noticed Shopify brand Montville Coffee using this super UX friendly tactic)

✔Use the right hand bottom corner space to announce “20% off on first order” and make expanding/collapsing the visitor’s choice

✔Ensure the shopper has scrolled at least 60% of the page before showing them (especially pop-ups for newsletters or sale notifications)

✔Feature a clear “X” sign for exiting the pop-up—your visitors will hate you if they can’t do this easily

8. Lack of social proof

Shopify’s own research proves that 63% of shoppers will buy more if they’re able to depend on the featured social proof. 

In fact when we looked at community discussions, this theme came up again and again as a resolution to fix a low conversion rate on Shopify:

The solution:

To fix your low conversion rate on your Shopify store, you may have to do more than featuring reviews on product pages:

✔Show the logos of brands you have collaborated with

✔Show how many people are viewing a collection or a product

✔Label images with “X bought the past month”

✔Highlight the most relevant part of a review & call it out as a separate snippet

One Shopify brand that has a strong social proof game going is Loot Crate:

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You should also read: Reducing Fashion eCommerce Cart Abandonment: 12 Proven Strategies

9. No context to homepage recommendations 

When you’re trying to fix a low conversion rate on Shopify, you may have to look into what kind of context you’re setting on the homepage. 

Recommendations that carry just the product name and no context can feel less convincing for shoppers. 

The solution:

‍Feature a short one-line descriptor for every product you recommend on the homepage or better still, a label that does the job—check out how Shopify brand Huel does it:

10. Contact information hidden away

While studying a number of smaller Shopify stores, we noticed some of them offer no visible contact information or no visual cues that can help. 

If you’re a relatively newer brand or shoppers know your category through your competitors, this will make you suffer a low conversion rate on Shopify. 

The solution: 

Offer a separate “contact” link on the main menu—however, there’s another option to fix low conversion rate on Shopify: use a “?” as a visual cue. 

Also feature microcopy like “help” or “contact” right beneath the product description on product pages. 

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11. No feedback button to report a bad experience

Be it a slow loading website or unexpected 404 pages or even out of stock products that still show up on your category pages, shoppers need to be able to report. 

So if you’re trying to figure out what's causing a low conversion rate on Shopify, it could well be the lack of a distinct feedback button—customers simply drop off and never come back. 

The solution: 

Integrate a sticky feedback button across your site—alternatively make your chat button sticky and ensure you tell shoppers how soon they can expect a response. 

Shopify brand Gymshark clearly mentions they will get back to any message typically in 2 hours’ time: 

12. No "accelerated checkout"

Asking your shoppers to create an account when all they want to do is pay and get out, is contributing to your low conversion rate on Shopify. 

On the other hand, what they’re looking for is accelerated Shopify checkout and your store doesn’t have one. 

The solution:

Consider integrating Shop Pay as a secondary CTA—Shopiffy’s own studies have shown that this method improves checkout by more than 50% compared to other guest checkout alternatives. 

In fact historically, Shop Pay has generated over 30 million in sales during the Black Friday period. 

Here’s how Shopify brand Goodfair features Shop Pay as a secondary CTA on their product pages:

13. Checkout triggers when add-to-cart happens

Across multiple Shopify stores we went browsing, we noticed checkout triggers as soon as we add-to-cart. 

This is a complete no-no because adding to cart is usually just one step amongst many steps for the usual shopper. 

The solution:

‍Make checkout optional through a separate CTA button in the mini cart drawer—have the drawer open as a cue whenever the shopper adds a product. 

14. Checkout that shoppers can’t trust

While Shopify’s checkout feature is considered the best in the world, if not optimized well from the business’ side you may still experience low conversions. 

Typically, lack of payment options, non-transparency about price break-up and lack of clarity around payment security leads to low Shopify conversion rates. 

The solution: 

As a Shopify brand, to fix low conversion rates at checkout, you’ll have to:

✔Feature multiple recognized payment options

✔Feature express checkout as an option

✔Feature flexible payments (if possible)

✔Display product details (thumbnail image, name of product, size)

✔Display all relevant policies (privacy, shipping, refund etc.)

✔Have discounts automatically applied & clarify that

✔Offer a “review order” CTA

We recommend reading: The Best One Page Checkout Examples in eCommerce (2024)

15. No post-purchase survey

If you don’t ask customers who’ve bought from you already where they came from and what made them buy, then you won’t get a peek into the typical shopper’s psyche. 

And this is likely to affect how you try to fix a low conversion rate on your Shopify store. 

The solution:

Feature a post-purchase survey either through email or show it as a pop-up on the order confirmation page. 

A highly rated Shopify post purchase survey app you can use to embed a short survey into your Thank You page is Hulk NPS. 

Also check out: 46 easy-to-copy confirmation email templates (eCommerce)

16. Conversions don’t directly happen from email

Shopify clearly states that one of the ways to revert abandoned carts is to offer a seamless shopping experience. 

And yet many low conversions on Shopify stores happen because abandoned cart emails send shoppers back to the store—and for the latter, it’s a repetition of the same old tiring process. 

The solution: 

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) emails can be a real savior to bring back cart abandoners—all they need to do is click on the email and that’ll take them to payments. 

Get some great ideas in: 40 Abandoned Cart Email Examples That Actually Win Back Lost Customers

How to make your Shopify store high converting

1. Make your product pages more convincing

Pay special attention to what you feature above the fold, including images, product labels, review snapshots, product descriptions, recommendations and even microcopy. 

2. Feature strong product guarantees

This would include guarantees around where you source your products from, a specific certification that recognizes your business or even a money back guarantee that newly developing Shopify businesses sometimes feature. 

3. Offer social proof beyond reviews

And don’t be under the impression that social proof is meant only for the product page—feature them everywhere relevant, be it through press mentions on the homepage or review highlights featured alongside your social wall across the website (exactly what Shopify brand Loreta does.)

4. Use a theme that’s geared for conversions

Choosing a Shopify theme with multiple in-built tools for reviews, trust badges and countdown timers for urgency, typically converts better than those that are less functional for business growth. It’s also ideal to choose a theme that allows you to move around or edit blocks as page features. 

Many stores shift to well-known themes like Wokiee, Aurora and Shella when they have to fix their low Shopify conversion rate. 

5. Optimize live chat for all key pages

Design it to be easily spottable and optimize it to include suggestions on products, discounts, policies etc. Choosing a chat tool that can integrate well with your Shopify store is essential—one that maintains all customer interactions across channels in a single inbox for support professionals to access and offer quicker responses. 

Recommended reading:

How To Get More Sales on Shopify: 31 Proven Hacks

Shopify Upselling Ideas for Product page, Cart, Checkout

How to Increase Average Session Time on Your Shopify Store

Optimize your Shopify Store for Mobile: Proven ideas + Examples

First things first: UX

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Even on the best Shopify stores.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.