We’ve audited a lot of Shopify stores. The same mistakes turn up again and again — and most of them are 30 minutes of work to fix. Here are the top 10, ranked by how often we find them.
1. The hero is selling the brand, not the product
The hero on most stores is a beautiful brand image with a vague tagline (“Crafted for life,” “Where elegance meets ease”). Customers landing on it can’t tell what’s being sold without scrolling.
Fix: the hero should answer “what is this and what’s in it for me” within 2 seconds. Brand images are fine; pair them with a sub-headline that names the product and the benefit.
Found in: ~85% of audits.
2. PDP photos don’t show scale or context
Hero photo of a leather bag against a white wall. Then a second photo, also against a white wall. No model holding it. No interior shot. No size reference.
Fix: every PDP should have at minimum: hero shot, lifestyle/in-use shot, scale reference (with a model or context), detail shot, and what’s-in-the-box shot.
Found in: ~75% of audits.
3. Reviews aren’t visible until you scroll three screens
Reviews live below the description, below the related products, below a “you may also like” carousel. By the time the customer sees them, they’ve already decided.
Fix: show review snippet (rating + count) under the title. Show reviews above the fold on mobile. The full review section can stay where it is, but the signal needs to be near the buy button.
Found in: ~70% of audits.
4. Trust signals are invisible
No mention of returns until the footer. No mention of shipping cost until checkout. No mention of how long shipping takes anywhere on the PDP.
Fix: add a small icon row under the buy button: “Free returns within 30 days. Ships within 24h. Trusted by 50,000 customers.” This earns conversions you don’t realise you’re losing.
Found in: ~70% of audits.
5. Variant pickers are confusing
“S / M / L” buttons all the same colour, even when one is sold out. No size guide link. No “out of stock” state — just clicks that do nothing.
Fix: sold-out states with a strikethrough or muted colour. “Notify when back in stock” instead of dead-end. Size guide as a small link directly under the picker.
Found in: ~65% of audits.
6. The cart drawer is missing critical info
No estimated delivery date. No discount code field. No upsell. No progress toward free shipping.
Fix: add a free-shipping progress bar (“Spend $20 more for free shipping”) — this lifts AOV by 5–15% on its own. Show the discount code field. Show the customer they made a good decision.
Found in: ~60% of audits.
7. Checkout sends the customer back to fix one thing
Customer reaches payment, realises they entered the wrong email, can’t fix it without going back two steps. Sometimes goes back too far and loses cart context.
Fix: ensure the One-Page Checkout is enabled (Settings → Checkout → Customer information). It’s the default for new stores; older stores often still have Three-Page Checkout from migration.
Found in: ~55% of audits.
8. Page speed is bad
Mobile Lighthouse score under 60. LCP over 4 seconds. Cumulative layout shift visibly bouncing the screen as content loads.
Fix: see Why your Shopify store loads slow. Most fixes are 1–2 hours of work for substantial gains.
Found in: ~50% of audits.
9. The 404 page is wasted
Customer hits a broken link → sees Shopify’s default 404 → bounces.
Fix: custom 404 page with: homepage link, search bar, top categories, featured products. We’ve measured 3–5x recovery on stores after a custom 404.
Found in: ~50% of audits.
10. Email flows aren’t set up
Welcome flow: missing or single email. Abandoned cart: maybe one email. Browse abandonment: nothing. Post-purchase: nothing beyond the receipt.
Fix: baseline Klaviyo flows: 3-email welcome, 3-email abandoned cart, 2-email browse abandonment, 4-email post-purchase. This is roughly 10–25% of total revenue for most stores once running.
Found in: ~45% of audits.
What an audit doesn’t tell you
A CRO audit shows you the failures. It can’t tell you which fix to do first — that depends on your traffic mix, your AOV, and your brand. But the top 5 are universal: hero clarity, PDP photography, review visibility, trust signals, variant UX.
If you fix only those five, your conversion rate goes up. Everything else compounds the lift.