How to improve your Shopify store and sell more
Most Shopify sellers optimise in the wrong order. They spend on ads before fixing the store that's supposed to convert them. They write better product descriptions before sorting the images that buyers see first. They chase traffic before removing the friction that's already sending visitors away.
This guide works backwards from that mistake. Ten improvements, ordered by the impact they actually have on sales not by how easy they are to implement. Whether you've just launched or you've been live for a year, the same friction points are costing you sales. The difference is how many of them you've already fixed.
In this guide:
1. Start with site speed: it affects everything else
A slow store loses visitors before they see your product, your reviews, or your price. Deloitte and Google research is unambiguous: a 0.1-second improvement in load time increases retail conversions by 8.4% and average order value by 9.2%. For most Shopify stores, the cause is the same: large uncompressed product images, too many third-party apps, and theme scripts running on pages that don't need them.
Four fixes you can apply today:
Remove unused apps. Even inactive ones load scripts on every page.
Compress product images before uploading. Target under 200 KB. If you're processing images through Photoroom, compression is handled automatically.
Enable lazy loading on collection pages — available in most modern Shopify themes.
Audit theme scripts. Features your theme shipped with but you don't use are still running in the background.
Measure your starting point with Google PageSpeed Insights. Run it again after each fix so you can see what actually moved the needle.
2. Make your product pages work harder
Your product page is the moment of decision. Everything on it either moves the buyer toward purchase or gives them a reason to hesitate.
The above-the-fold area — everything visible before the buyer scrolls — should contain exactly five things: the primary product image, the product title, the price, a review summary, and the add-to-cart button. Nothing else should compete for attention at this stage.
Shopify's own research shows 33% of buyers want multiple product photos and 60% want to see the product from multiple angles. A single hero image is not enough.
Product descriptions are where most sellers get it wrong. They write spec sheets instead of buyer-focused copy.
Compare:
"100% linen, 130 × 170 cm, machine washable."
"Woven from 100% stonewashed linen, this throw softens with every wash. Ideal for draping over a sofa or adding warmth to a guest room. Machine washable."
The second tells the buyer what the product does and who it's for. Write every description from that angle.
Product titles should be keyword-informed but buyer-readable.
"Natural linen throw blanket — 130×170cm" works. "Best Premium Luxury Linen Throw Blanket For Home Decor Couch" does not.
Show your shipping cost or free shipping threshold on the product page before checkout begins. Buyers who discover a surprise charge at step three of checkout abandon. Buyers who know the cost upfront don't.
On mobile, enable the sticky "Add to Cart" button so it stays visible as the buyer scrolls. It's a setting in most Shopify themes. If it's not on, turn it on now.
3. Upgrade your product visuals: the conversion lever most stores ignore
Of all the improvements in this guide, product visuals have the largest and most immediate impact on conversion. Yet most guides reduce this to a single bullet point: "take better photos." Professional product imagery is more specific than that.
It means clean backgrounds, accurate colours, visible variants, natural shadows, and a consistent style across every product in your catalog. Miss any one of these and buyers notice — even when they can't articulate why. A catalog where quality varies signals an unmanaged store before a buyer reads a word.
Most sellers know their images aren't good enough. The barrier isn't knowledge — it's fixing a full catalog one product at a time.
Photoroom's Shopify integration automates the full visual workflow across your entire catalog. Cluttered backgrounds are replaced with studio-clean white or custom backgrounds in a single pass. Color variants are generated from one product photo: no separate shoot for each option. Natural shadows are added automatically so cut-out images don't look flat. Colour correction normalises images taken under mixed lighting, which is one of the most common drivers of returns. For apparel, products are placed on AI-generated models with diverse body types so buyers can see the fit. And SEO-optimised alt text is generated for every image including your existing catalog.
The result is a store where every product looks like it belongs in the same catalog. That consistency is what separates stores that convert from stores that don't.
4. Build trust before the buyer hesitates
Fast pages and strong product images get buyers to the decision point. Trust is what gets them past it. For a first-time buyer who doesn't know your brand, trust isn't built by how your store looks — it's built by specific signals that tell them they're safe to spend money here.
Reviews are the most important signal. 72% of buyers read reviews before purchasing — but only if they can see them. Reviews buried in a separate tab or below the fold don't convert. Display review stars and review count directly alongside the add-to-cart button.
Return policy clarity matters more than most sellers expect.
A single line on the product page — "30-day returns, no questions asked" — does more conversion work than a detailed policy page no one reads. State it next to the CTA, not just in the footer.
Trust badges (secure checkout icons, payment method logos, money-back guarantees) reduce purchase anxiety for first-time buyers. Keep them visible near the checkout CTA without cluttering the page.
Your About page is also a trust tool. Buyers who navigate to it are actively deciding whether your brand is credible. "We're passionate about great products" is a missed opportunity. Explain who you are, why you started, and what customers can expect — that's what turns a sceptical browser into a buyer.
5. Fix your checkout before you lose the sale
Around 70% of shoppers who add something to their cart don't complete a purchase. Most of that loss is fixable. According to Baymard Institute research, the three biggest abandonment triggers are unexpected shipping costs (48%), forced account creation (26%), and a checkout process that feels too long (22%). Each one has a direct fix in Shopify.
Enable guest checkout. If your store requires account creation to purchase, this is the single highest-priority fix in this entire guide. Shopify lets you disable forced account creation in Settings → Checkout.
Show shipping costs before checkout. Display your shipping cost or free shipping threshold on the product page and cart page. The buyer who finds a surprise charge at step three abandons. The buyer who knows the cost upfront doesn't.
Enable multiple payment methods. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal each reduce friction for different buyer segments. Fewer clicks to payment means fewer opportunities to leave.
Add a progress indicator. A "Step 1 of 3" bar reduces abandonment by showing buyers how close they are to finishing. Most Shopify themes support this without custom development.
Set up abandoned cart recovery. Shopify Email includes a built-in abandoned cart flow at no additional cost. An email sent one to two hours after abandonment, with a follow-up at 24 hours, recovers a meaningful percentage of lost sales at zero incremental ad spend.
Buyers who can't find what they want don't ask for help — they leave. Every product should be reachable within three clicks of the homepage. Keep your top-level navigation to five to seven categories; more than that creates decision paralysis.
For stores with more than 30 products, a visible search bar is essential: buyers who use search have significantly higher purchase intent than browsers. Add one or two genuinely related product recommendations per product page to increase average order value.
Test everything on mobile before publishing. Desktop menus and mobile menus behave very differently, and most navigation problems show up on mobile first.
7. Use email to recover lost sales and retain customers
Email is the highest-ROI marketing channel available to most Shopify sellers — and unlike paid ads, it doesn't depend on a third-party algorithm or rising CPCs. Litmus research puts the average return at $36–$42 for every $1 spent. That return comes from automation, not list size: three well-built flows will outperform a large list with no strategy.
Abandoned cart sequence. Send a recovery email one to two hours after abandonment, with a follow-up at 24 hours. Keep both short — acknowledge what the buyer left behind, address a likely concern, and make it easy to return to checkout. Well-written sequences recover 5–15% of abandoned carts.
Post-purchase email. The buyer who just purchased has the highest likelihood of buying again. Thank them, set delivery expectations, and introduce the next logical product while purchase intent is still warm. It also reduces post-purchase anxiety — one of the more common causes of returns.
Welcome series. A two-part sequence — one email introducing your brand, one leading to your best-selling product — is enough to establish the relationship and significantly improve first-purchase rates.
Once these three are running, add a win-back campaign for customers who haven't purchased in 90 days. One well-timed email with new products or a reason to return beats letting lapsed customers go silently.
Shopify Email, included in all plans, handles all of these flows. Third-party tools add segmentation and analytics when your list outgrows the basics.
8. Use SEO as the compound traffic engine
SEO doesn't deliver results in the first month. But sellers who ignore it eventually find themselves entirely dependent on paid traffic, with no organic foundation when ad costs rise. The three on-page basics apply to every Shopify store and take an afternoon to implement:
Meta titles and descriptions. Every product and collection page needs a unique, keyword-informed meta title and description. Shopify makes this straightforward — it's the "Search engine listing preview" at the bottom of every page editor.
Original product copy. Write your own descriptions. Google deprioritises pages with duplicate supplier copy, and so do buyers who can find the same text on five other stores.
Image alt text. The most neglected on-page SEO element on most Shopify stores and the one Photoroom automates entirely across your catalog, including existing products.
These three won't get you to page one on their own. Technical site structure, keyword research, internal linking, and content strategy are what compound over time. For the full treatment, see our dedicated Shopify SEO guide.
9. Track the right metrics
Improvements only matter if you can measure them. These five metrics tell you whether your store is moving in the right direction and where to look when it isn't.
Conversion rate (CVR). The percentage of visitors who complete a purchase. The average Shopify store converts at 1.4%; a good store at 3.2%; top performers at 4.8% and above. Find it in Shopify Analytics → Overview. If you're below 1.4%, product visuals and checkout are your immediate priorities.
Average order value (AOV). The average amount spent per transaction. The absolute number varies by category — what matters is tracking its direction over time. Improve it with product bundles on the cart page, upsell recommendations on product pages, and a minimum-spend free shipping threshold.
Cart abandonment rate. The industry average is approximately 70%. Find yours in Shopify Analytics → Checkout. Significantly above 70% means the checkout section is your next fix.
Bounce rate. The percentage of visitors who leave after one page. Above 70% on product pages signals a speed or first-impression problem. Track it via Google Analytics (Shopify → Online Store → Preferences) and cross-reference with Google PageSpeed Insights to find the cause.
Customer lifetime value (LTV). Total revenue generated per customer over time. Stores with active email flows typically show LTV two to three times higher than stores without. Track it in Shopify Analytics → Customers.
Check these before and after each improvement. If a change doesn't move any of these numbers, it either needs more time or wasn't the right priority.
Reviews on your product page tell buyers what previous customers thought. Social proof goes further — it shows them that real people bought, used, and liked the product enough to share it.
User-generated content (UGC) is the highest-trust format available to most Shopify stores. A customer photo of your product in a real home, worn by a real person, or used in a real context converts better than studio imagery for one reason: it's not yours. Buyers discount what brands say about themselves. They don't discount what other customers show.
The practical approach: email customers seven to ten days after delivery asking for a photo or a short review. Most won't respond — but enough will. Feature the best submissions on your product pages, your homepage, and your social channels. A store with ten genuine customer photos has a trust asset that no ad budget can replicate.
Press mentions, awards, and third-party features work the same way. A single "as seen in" line with recognisable logos near your header communicates credibility to first-time buyers before they've read a word about your product. If you've been featured anywhere — a blog, a gift guide, a trade publication — put it where buyers can see it.
The principle across all of it is the same: the most persuasive thing you can show a new buyer is evidence that someone like them already made the same decision and didn't regret it.
Shopify store improvement checklist: 10 fixes prioritised by impact
Not every fix delivers the same return. This table maps every improvement in the guide to its priority level and flags which ones Photoroom automates so you can see where to start and where the effort is lowest.
| Improvement area | Action | Priority | Automated by Photoroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site speed | Compress all product images | High | YES |
| Site speed | Remove unused Shopify apps | High | NO |
| Site speed | Enable lazy loading on collection pages | High | NO |
| Product pages | Restructure above-the-fold layout | High | NO |
| Product pages | Add sticky add-to-cart button on mobile | High | NO |
| Product pages | Rewrite product descriptions (buyer-focused) | High | NO |
| Product visuals | Remove backgrounds — apply studio-clean white | High | YES |
| Product visuals | Generate all colour variant images | High | YES |
| Product visuals | Add natural product shadows | High | YES |
| Product visuals | Correct product colour accuracy | High | YES |
| Product visuals | Apply virtual models to apparel listings | High | YES |
| Product visuals | Add SEO alt text to all product images | High | YES |
| Trust | Add visible reviews near the add-to-cart button | High | NO |
| Trust | Display return policy on product page | Medium | NO |
| Trust | Add payment method logos near checkout CTA | Medium | NO |
| Checkout | Enable guest checkout | High | NO |
| Checkout | Show shipping costs before checkout begins | Medium | NO |
| Set up abandoned cart recovery sequence | Medium | NO | |
| Create post-purchase follow-up flow | Medium | NO | |
| Social proof | Collect and feature customer photos (UGC) | Medium | NO |
| Social proof | Add press mentions or third-party features | Medium | NO |
| SEO | Update meta titles and descriptions for all pages | Medium | PARTIAL |
Guest checkout, shipping cost visibility, and image compression are the three highest-priority fixes that take the least time. Product visuals have the highest conversion impact overall and the most automation available. Trust signals, email flows, and SEO compound once the foundations are in place.
Start improving your Shopify store today
The stores that convert best aren't the ones with the most features but the ones that have removed the most friction. Most of what's in this guide costs nothing to implement. It costs time, and it costs the discipline to fix the unglamorous things before chasing the next traffic source.
Start with the basics: guest checkout, shipping transparency, and image compression. They take an afternoon and they move the needle immediately. Then work through product visuals : the area with the highest conversion impact and the most automation available. Everything else compounds from there.
If you're ready to fix your product visuals, connect Photoroom to your Shopify store and run it across your existing catalog before you photograph a single new product.
Shelley BurtonI write about Photoroom’s newest AI tools, which help businesses create professional product visuals.
