Shopify and Shopify Plus CRO
Shopify conversion rate optimization
OUXP helps Shopify and Shopify Plus brands turn the traffic they already pay for into more orders. We find where shoppers drop out between the landing page and checkout, fix the obvious leaks first, then test bigger changes and ship the winners as clean theme code. The engineers who find the problem build the fix.
Signs your store has a conversion problem
Most stores don’t have a traffic problem – they have a conversion problem. Six problems merchants bring to us, and what we do about each. If one sounds like your store, the conversion audit is where we’d start.
-
Traffic grows, revenue doesn’t
- What you see
- Ad spend goes up while the conversion rate stays flat, so every customer costs more to acquire.
- What we do
- Map the funnel from landing page to order, by device and channel, and fix the biggest leaks first.
-
Redesigns based on opinion
- What you see
- The last redesign reflected someone’s taste, and nobody measured what it did to conversion.
- What we do
- Treat every change as a hypothesis with a metric agreed before it ships – and test a new theme against the old one before you switch.
-
Mobile converts far worse than desktop
- What you see
- Most of your traffic is on phones. Most of your revenue isn’t.
- What we do
- Report phones separately, then fix what holds them back: slow pages, buttons out of thumb reach and too many steps to checkout.
-
Shoppers drop out in cart and checkout
- What you see
- Shipping costs that appear late, forced account creation, missing express payment options.
- What we do
- Fix what every plan controls in the cart and checkout settings, and on Shopify Plus build and test changes inside checkout itself.
-
Nobody owns testing
- What you see
- Everyone agrees you should A/B test, but nobody owns it, so nothing ships.
- What we do
- Run the whole loop for you: hypothesis, build, test, analysis – and the winner shipped.
-
Insight and code live in different teams
- What you see
- Consultants hand over slide decks. Developers build without knowing why.
- What we do
- One team: the engineers who find the problem also design, build and ship the fix, so nothing is lost in a handover.
How a CRO engagement runs – and how it’s priced
Three phases, in this order – and you can stop after any of them.
-
01
Conversion audit
A fixed-scope review of where shoppers drop out and why: tracking checks, funnel analysis by device and channel, session recordings and a page-by-page usability review of your product, collection and cart pages and checkout.
- You get
- Findings and a backlog ranked by impact, confidence and ease
- Price
- Fixed, agreed in writing before the audit starts
-
02
Quick-wins sprint
We fix the obvious leaks the audit finds before testing anything – this is often where the biggest early gains are. Each fix is measured before and after.
- When
- Straight after the audit
- Price
- A fixed quote once the audit shows what to fix
-
03
Continuous testing
A monthly testing cadence on product, collection, landing, cart and checkout pages, speed work tied to conversion, and winners shipped as production code.
- Report
- Monthly: what ran, what won, what shipped, what’s next
- Price
- Included in the Growth ($5,000/month, 45 hours) and Dedicated ($9,500/month, 90 hours or a dedicated engineer) retainers
- Not in
- The Essential tier ($2,500/month), which covers maintenance, bug fixes and theme customization
- Terms
- Month-to-month, 30 days’ notice
Not sure conversion is the main problem? Start with a store audit instead: $2,500 flat, with a written report in 5 business days covering speed, code, SEO, apps and security as well as conversion. Its conversion findings go straight into the testing backlog if you continue, while the conversion audit goes deeper into analytics and session recordings.
Honest note
We won’t quote an uplift before we’ve seen your data. What you can hold us to is the process: a measured baseline, a ranked backlog, a monthly testing cadence and a report that shows every result – the losing tests included.
How we decide what to change
Five steps behind every change we make, so you always know why it was made and whether it worked.
- 1
Research
Where shoppers hesitate: funnels, session recordings, on-site surveys, support questions and customer interviews. AI helps sort recordings and survey answers at volume; an engineer reviews every conclusion.
- 2
Analytics quality
We check the numbers before acting on them: purchases counted once, revenue that matches Shopify orders, devices and channels split out.
- 3
Prioritization
Each idea is scored for impact, confidence and ease, and the backlog follows the score – not whoever asked last.
- 4
Implementation
We build each change cleanly in a preview theme, so it can be measured, then kept or removed without leftovers.
- 5
Evaluation
We compare the result with the measure agreed before launch, report it as a win, a loss or inconclusive, and feed the lesson into the next hypothesis.
What we measure
- Product discovery: how often visits reach a relevant product page from navigation, search or collections
- Product page to cart: how often a product view leads to choosing an option and adding to cart
- Cart to order: how many carts reach checkout, and how many of those complete it
- Conversion by device, with phones and desktop reported separately
What we log, so a change isn’t credited for something else
- Campaigns and changes in ad spend
- Promotions and price changes
- Seasonal peaks and product launches
- App, theme and tracking changes
Will testing slow the store or mislead you?
Four ways A/B testing goes wrong, and what we do about each.
-
Tracking quietly misses or double-counts orders
How we handle it
Before the first test we place test orders and reconcile analytics with Shopify’s own order data. Since Shopify retired additional scripts on the Thank you and Order status pages (Shopify Plus in August 2025, other plans in August 2026), purchase tracking runs through web pixels in Customer events or server-side events – stores that never moved it can drop purchases from reports or count them twice.
Pixels set to require consent don’t fire for shoppers who decline tracking, so analytics under-count orders in markets that require consent. Shopify’s order data stays the reference for every result.
-
The testing tool slows down the pages it tests
How we handle it
We use the lightest tool that can answer the question and check its cost on Core Web Vitals before a test goes live. Speed is a conversion lever in its own right, so if pages are already slow, performance optimization usually comes before testing – a faster store makes every later test cleaner.
-
A test is called too early
How we handle it
Sample size and run time are set before launch, and tests run in full weeks so weekday and weekend shoppers both count. We don’t stop a test the moment it looks good, and a test that can’t reach a clear answer is reported as inconclusive, not as a win.
-
Winners live on as test-tool code
How we handle it
A winning variant is rebuilt as clean code in your theme – reviewed, documented and published from a preview theme, the same way as our theme customization work. The test code and any app it needed come out, so nothing extra keeps loading on your pages.
How much traffic does an A/B test need?
More than most stores expect. As a rough floor, a test needs a few thousand sessions per variant – and many times that when the change is small or the conversion rate is low. Low-traffic stores still have plenty to gain; they just need different methods.
| Change to detect | Sessions per variant |
|---|---|
| Order rate from 2.0% to 2.2% (a 10% lift) | About 81,000 sessions per variant |
| Order rate from 2.0% to 2.4% (a 20% lift) | About 21,000 sessions per variant |
| Order rate from 2.0% to 3.0% (a 50% lift) | About 3,800 sessions per variant |
| Add-to-cart rate from 8.0% to 8.8% (a 10% lift) | About 19,000 sessions per variant |
| Add-to-cart rate from 8.0% to 9.6% (a 20% lift) | About 4,900 sessions per variant |
Standard calculation for a two-sided test at 95% confidence and 80% power, with traffic split evenly between two variants. Your own rates change the numbers, so we calculate them for each test before it starts.
To turn sessions into time, divide by the weekly sessions on the page you test. A product page with 10,000 sessions a week gives each of two variants 5,000, so detecting a 20% lift in orders at a 2% conversion rate needs just over four weeks of traffic – a five-week test, because tests run in full weeks. At 2,000 sessions a week, the same test would take about five months, which is when we switch to the methods below.
An A/B test fits when…
- The tested page reaches the sample size within a few weeks
- The change is big enough to move the number you measure
- Other changes to that page can wait until the test ends
When traffic is too low, we…
- Test bolder changes, which need fewer sessions to show
- Measure a step closer to the change – add to cart instead of orders
- Use test designs with checkpoints set before launch, so a test can stop early when the difference is large (sequential testing)
- Run usability research: recordings, surveys, support questions and interviews
- Ship best-practice fixes and compare comparable periods before and after, with campaigns and seasons logged
Not sure your traffic is enough for A/B tests? Tell us roughly how many sessions your key pages get, and an engineer will say which method fits.
What can you change in cart and checkout?
Every Shopify plan lets you change the cart, checkout branding and checkout settings. Changing what appears on the information, shipping and payment steps takes Shopify Plus. Here is what we can change and test on each plan.
| What you want to change | Basic, Grow and Advanced | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Cart page and cart drawer | Full control Built in the theme | Full control Built in the theme |
| Checkout logo, colors and fonts | Checkout editor | Checkout editor Plus deeper styling through the Checkout Branding API |
| Express payment buttons and sign-in options | Settings | Settings |
| Content and app blocks on the information, shipping and payment steps | Not available | Available Checkout UI extensions |
| Thank you and Order status pages | Available Checkout UI extensions | Available Checkout UI extensions |
| Custom discount, shipping and payment rules | Public apps only App Store apps that contain Shopify Functions | Custom apps too Shopify Functions built for your store |
| Built-in A/B experiments (Shopify Rollouts) | Grow and Advanced Not on Basic | Available |
Platform facts as of October 2026. Shopify has retired checkout.liquid and the additional scripts on the Thank you and Order status pages, so checkout changes on every plan are built with Checkout Extensibility. Rollouts experiments cover discounts and changes made in the theme, checkout and customer account editors – not edits to Liquid templates, and not vintage themes. Larger checkout builds sit with our Shopify Plus development team.
What merchants say about our CRO work
Quoted word for word from the Shopify Partner Directory.
“We brought in OUXP for some CRO fixes and theme/app compatibility issues, and they absolutely overdelivered. They didn't just patch things - they tracked down the real root causes, cleaned up our theme and got all the key apps working together smoothly. The store works faster, more solid, and we're seeing a clear bump in conversions.”
About this project
Brief: CRO fixes plus theme and app conflicts on a live store. Related service: theme customization.
-
“They did A/B test for old theme vs new theme, the result showed that the conversion rate is very higher than old theme. Great work!”
Say Bye Bugsvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)CRO -
“We reached out to OUXP to help us with our conversion rate on our website and he went above and beyond… He was efficient and speedy. Could not recommend him more.”
Rudes Denimvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)CRO
Reviews sometimes name our engineers – everyone named is part of the OUXP team.
Emergency support
Store down? Checkout broken?
- Store down or showing errors
- Checkout or payment failures
- A theme or app update broke something
- ERP, inventory or fulfillment sync stopped
Commerce engineers, not a help desk. Every request gets a first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours. Retainer clients with the 24/7 emergency add-on are covered around the clock. Not a client yet? Call anyway.
+1 (818) 651-3226 Emergency line 24/7 · Business hours Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET
Conversion rate optimization questions
Something else? Ask an engineer – first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET).
What results can we expect from CRO?
We don’t promise a number before seeing your data – anyone who does is guessing. What OUXP commits to is a measured baseline, a backlog ranked by impact, confidence and ease, a steady testing cadence and an honest report of every result, including tests that lose or end inconclusive. The earliest gains usually come from fixing the friction the conversion audit finds in the first month; tested changes build on them after that.
How much traffic do we need for A/B testing?
As a rough floor, a few thousand sessions per variant on the page being tested – and far more when the change is small or the conversion rate is low. At a 2% conversion rate, detecting a 20% lift in orders takes about 21,000 sessions per variant. Below that, we test bolder changes, measure earlier steps such as add to cart, run usability research and ship best-practice fixes with before/after measurement.
Is CRO a one-off project or ongoing?
Both, in sequence. The conversion audit is a fixed-scope project, and the quick-wins sprint after it gets a fixed quote. Results compound when testing runs every month, so most clients continue through the Growth ($5,000/month, 45 hours) or Dedicated ($9,500/month) retainer, where CRO and A/B testing are included alongside maintenance and theme work. The Essential tier ($2,500/month) doesn’t include CRO. Retainers are month-to-month with 30 days’ notice.
Do you use CRO apps or custom code?
Both, deliberately. We test with the lightest tool that answers the question – Shopify’s built-in Rollouts experiments (Grow plan and above) for theme-editor, checkout-editor and discount changes, or a testing app for changes to theme code. Winners are then rebuilt as clean code in your theme and the test code is removed, so the store doesn’t collect app bloat that slows pages and quietly costs conversions.
Can you optimize checkout without Shopify Plus?
Partly. On every plan we can improve the cart, checkout branding in the checkout editor, express payment buttons, sign-in options and the Thank you and Order status pages. Content and app blocks on the information, shipping and payment steps need Checkout UI extensions on those steps, which only Shopify Plus allows – and only Plus can run custom apps with Shopify Functions for discount, shipping and payment rules; public App Store apps that use Functions work on every plan. On Plus, we build and test those checkout changes directly.
How is this different from hiring a CRO consultancy?
A consultancy analyzes and recommends; you still need developers to build what it suggests. At OUXP the same engineers find the problem, design the change, build it, test it and ship the winner. Nothing gets lost between a slide deck and the code, and a winning test reaches your live store as production code in the theme, not as a script running inside a testing tool.
Is ongoing support the same as CRO?
No. Maintenance keeps what you have working: bug fixes, app and theme updates, small changes. CRO investigates where shoppers drop out and tests changes to the buying journey. The two can share a monthly plan and the same engineers – that is how the Growth and Dedicated retainers work – but each has its own goals, and test results are reported separately from maintenance work.
Find out where your store loses buyers
Book a free 30-minute call with an engineer, or start with a conversion audit – the findings and the ranked backlog are yours to keep, whether or not we run the tests. First reply within 30–60 minutes during business hours.