by Narmina Balabeyli
Updated:
5 min
We build conversion apps for Shopify stores, and the store data we see keeps showing the same thing: most visitors do not leave because they dislike the product. They leave because a small doubt stops them, like an unclear size, a shipping cost that appears too late, or a price that feels like too much to pay at once.
Each tip below removes one of those small doubts, and each one comes with an app suggestion, so you can apply it without writing code. <mark>The size of the prize is well documented: Baymard Institute estimates that an average large ecommerce site can lift conversion by more than 35% through better checkout design alone.</mark> You do not need all 34. Pick the ones that match the doubts your own visitors show, and add more later.
Make your store fast and easy to browse
1. Compress your images
Heavy images slow down every page, and when a page takes long to load, many visitors leave before they see the product at all. When you compress images, pages open faster and more visitors stay to browse. <mark>Portent's study of more than 100 million page views found that an ecommerce site loading in 1 second converts about 2.5 times better than a site loading in 5 seconds.</mark>
App for this: TinyIMG
2. Improve your store search and filters
When a visitor finds the right product in two clicks, the chance of a sale goes up. When search returns nothing useful, they go back to Google and often buy somewhere else.
App for this: Shopify Search & Discovery (free, made by Shopify)
3. Show prices in the visitor's currency
When people see prices in a foreign currency, they hesitate, because they need to calculate the amount and they worry about conversion fees. Local currency removes that extra step from the decision.
App for this: Shopify Markets (built into Shopify)
4. Put your current offer in an announcement bar
An announcement bar at the top tells every visitor about your active offer without them searching for it, so more of them shop with the discount already in mind.
App for this: Hextom: Quick Announcement Bar
Fix the product page first
5. Add a size guide
When shoppers are unsure about sizing, they either leave or order two sizes and return one. A clear size guide on the product page removes that doubt, so more people add to cart with confidence and fewer orders come back.
App for this: vevy Product Sections
6. Answer objections in a product page FAQ
Every product gets the same few questions: how long is shipping, what is the return policy, what material is it. When you answer them right on the product page, the visitor can decide without leaving the page.
App for this: vevy Product Sections
7. Show testimonials near the buy button
A short customer quote next to the add to cart button works because the doubt and the reassurance sit in the same spot. The visitor reads that someone like them was happy, and clicking feels safer.
App for this: vevy Product Sections
8. Add a "how it works" section
People do not buy what they do not understand. When the product is not self-explanatory, a simple three-step "how it works" section teaches them in ten seconds, and that understanding turns into orders.
App for this: vevy Product Sections
9. Collect and display product reviews
Reviews answer the question every shopper silently asks, which is whether the product actually works for real people. When they see other buyers were satisfied, the purchase feels less risky, so more of them complete it. <mark>Northwestern University's Spiegel Research Center measured this with data from a high-end gift retailer: a product with five reviews had a 270% higher purchase likelihood than the same product with no reviews, and for higher-priced products the lift reached 380%.</mark>
App for this: Judge.me
10. Show customer photos and videos
Studio photos show the product at its best, but customer photos show how it looks in real life. When shoppers see both, they trust the product page more and order with fewer doubts.
App for this: Loox
11. Make the add to cart button sticky on mobile
On long mobile product pages, the buy button scrolls away, and a visitor who has to scroll back up sometimes never does. A sticky button keeps the next step visible at every moment.
App for this: Vitals
12. Recommend frequently bought together products
When you show products that naturally go together, shoppers discover items they would have needed anyway, and the order value grows without any pressure.
App for this: BX Bundle
Make the offer easier to say yes to
13. Offer volume discounts
"Buy 2, save 10%" gives shoppers a reason to increase the quantity on their own. The discount pays for itself, because you sell more units in a single order.
App for this: BX Bundle
14. Show a free shipping progress bar
When the bar says "you are $12 away from free shipping", many shoppers add one more item to reach it. Surprise shipping costs are <mark>the top fixable reason for abandonment in Baymard Institute's surveys</mark>, and the bar removes the surprise early.
App for this: Hextom: Free Shipping Bar
15. Give a free gift over a threshold
A free gift at a spending threshold works like the shipping bar, because people would rather add one more product than feel they missed something free.
App for this: BX Bundle
16. Let shoppers pay a deposit on expensive products
For high-ticket products, the full price is often the only barrier. When you let people pay a part now and the rest later, the same product becomes affordable to more visitors, and orders that would never happen start happening.
App for this: Deposit
17. Take pre-orders with a deposit
A sold-out or upcoming product does not need to lose the sale. When you take a deposit as a pre-order, you capture the buyer at the moment of interest instead of hoping they remember to come back at launch.
App for this: Deposit
18. Offer subscribe and save
For products people buy again, a small subscription discount turns a one-time buyer into a repeat customer, and repeat customers convert much more easily on every next order.
App for this: RecurrinGO
19. Use countdown timers only for real deadlines
A countdown works when the deadline is true, because the visitor understands the offer changes after it ends. Fake timers that reset do the opposite, because shoppers notice and stop believing your offers.
App for this: Hextom: Countdown Timer Bar
Build trust everywhere
20. Add trust badges and payment icons
Payment icons and security badges answer a quiet worry, which is whether it is safe to enter card details on this site. When that worry is answered, checkout feels normal.
App for this: Vitals
21. Add live chat for pre-sale questions
Some visitors are one answer away from buying, and when nobody is there to answer, they leave. A chat widget catches that question in the moment it appears.
App for this: Shopify Inbox (free)
22. Show recent purchase notifications
Small popups like "someone in Berlin bought this 20 minutes ago" show that the store is alive and other people are buying, which makes new visitors more comfortable to be the next one.
App for this: Fomo
23. Reward loyalty with points
When customers earn points on every order, coming back has a built-in reason. Returning customers already trust you, so they convert far more easily than first-time visitors. <mark>The classic research by Bain & Company's Frederick Reichheld, published in Harvard Business Review, found that when retention grows by just 5%, profits grow by 25% to 95%.</mark>
App for this: Smile.io
Capture visitors before they leave, and bring them back
24. Use a spin wheel popup to collect emails
A plain "10% off" popup gets ignored, because everyone has seen it. When the visitor spins a wheel and wins the discount, the same 10% feels earned, so more people leave their email and more of them actually use the code. <mark>Wisepops' analysis of one billion popup displays backs this up: spin-to-win popups converted at 10.15% on average, while the average popup converted at 4.82%, and the top 10% of wheels reached 30.38%.</mark>
App for this: PopupBoost
25. Show a game on exit intent
The moment a visitor moves to close the tab is your last chance. A scratch card or a mystery box at that moment gives them a reason to stay for ten more seconds, and some of those ten seconds end in a purchase.
App for this: PopupBoost
26. Add a wishlist
Not everyone is ready to buy today. A wishlist saves the intent, and reminder emails about saved items bring shoppers back when they are ready.
App for this: Wishlist Plus
27. Send back in stock notifications
A sold-out product page usually means a lost visitor. When you add a "notify me" button, you save that demand, and the alert on WhatsApp, SMS, or email brings the shopper back at the exact moment the product is available again. These visitors convert very well, because they asked for the message themselves. <mark>In one analysis of Klaviyo's benchmark data, back-in-stock automations converted at around 6.7%, the highest rate of any common email flow.</mark>
App for this: Remind
28. Recover abandoned carts with email
Most carts get abandoned<mark>, about 70% of them according to Baymard Institute</mark>, and a good recovery flow wins a part of them back. A reminder within a few hours, then one more with a small incentive, brings back the shoppers who were interrupted rather than uninterested. <mark>Klaviyo's benchmarks show abandoned cart flows earn more than any other automation, with a 3.33% average placed-order rate and 7.69% for the top 10% of brands. A real example comes from the jewelry brand Manly Bands, which asks abandoners why they did not buy and follows up with a personalized coupon, and that flow's placed-order rate came out 4.8 times the median of its peer group.</mark>
App for this: Klaviyo
29. Recover carts with SMS
An SMS gets read within minutes, while an email can wait until tomorrow. For time-limited offers, that speed decides whether the shopper returns before the interest fades.
App for this: Postscript
Smooth the checkout and the moment after
30. Turn on express checkout
Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay let returning shoppers skip the forms. Every field you remove from checkout keeps more buyers inside it. <mark>An external study by a Big Three consulting firm found that Shop Pay converts up to 50% better than guest checkout, and even its presence on the page lifts lower-funnel conversion by about 5%. Everlane's numbers show what that looks like in practice: Shopify measured Shop Pay conversion rates of up to 70% on Everlane's checkout, and Shop Pay orders carried a 15% higher average order value.</mark>
App for this: none needed, these are built into Shopify
31. Upsell on the thank you page
The thank you page is the safest place to sell, because the buyer already paid and one more tap adds the offer to the same order. It raises the order value without touching the conversion of the main checkout.
App for this: ThankBoost
Turn content into conversions
32. Sell through blog posts with product cards
Blog posts catch shoppers who search questions and comparisons before they are ready for a product page. When you place a product card inside the post right where it answers the reader's problem, the post starts selling. We wrote a full guide on this in How to sell through blog posts on Shopify.
App for this: vevy.ai Blog Builder
Measure first, then improve
33. Watch session recordings and heatmaps
Recordings show where real visitors hesitate, rage click, or leave. When you fix the exact spots people struggle with, the conversion rate grows for a reason you can name.
App for this: Lucky Orange
34. A/B test prices and pages
Opinions about what converts are guesses until you test them. When you test two versions on live traffic, the data decides, and every change you keep is a proven one.
App for this: Intelligems
FAQ
What is a good conversion rate for a Shopify store? <mark>Littledata's benchmark across 2,800 stores puts the average Shopify conversion rate around 1.4%, the top 20% above 3.2%, and the top 10% above 4.7%.</mark> Benchmarks still vary a lot by industry, price point, and traffic source, so compare this month to last month, and treat every fix above as a way to move your own baseline.
Won't 34 apps slow my store down? Yes, if you install all of them. Pick the few tips that match the doubts your visitors actually show, install those apps, and remove the ones you stop using. Tip 1 exists exactly because app weight adds up.
Which tips should I start with? Start with tip 33 and watch a few session recordings, because they show where your visitors struggle. Then fix that exact spot, whether it is sizing doubt, shipping surprise, or a lost buy button on mobile.
The bottom line
Conversion rate is the sum of many small decisions your visitors make, and each decision goes your way more often when you remove the doubt behind it. Give shoppers the information they need on the product page, make the offer easier to accept, stay reachable, and bring back the ones who leave. Do a few of these well, measure the result, and then take the next few.
