How to Fix Low Conversion Rate on Shopify [2025]

Every eCommerce entrepreneur cares about this critical metric — the conversion rate.

It indicates the effectiveness of your marketing, advertising, and even website performance. But most importantly, it directly impacts your revenue and profit.

So, we understand — it can be daunting when you see a low conversion rate on your eCommerce or Shopify store. But we’re here to help you fix that.

In this blog post, we’ll share a detailed guide on how to fix the low conversion rate on Shopify. This guide will help you understand the reasons for low conversion rates, their solutions, tools, and best practices to achieve a high conversion rate.

Let’s get started!

Is My Conversion Rate Low or Good?

First of all, you need to know where you stand with your current conversion rate.

Now, what’s a good conversion rate? Well, that depends! 

The average conversion rate varies from industry to industry. So, whether your conversion rate is good or bad needs to be defined based on the industry you operate in. 

Here’s the latest industry-wise average conversion rate shared by Dynamic Yield:

As you can see, the “food & beverage” industry has the highest average conversion rate (7.22%). The reason is simple — food and beverage items are like an instant purchase. Typically, it doesn’t require a huge evaluation process before the purchase.

On the other hand, the “luxury & jewelry” industry has the lowest conversion rate (1.04%) because those are typically expensive products.

How to Fix Low Conversion Rate on Shopify

In order to fix this issue, first, you need to understand the reasons for the low conversion rate on Shopify. So, we’ll discuss all the potential causes and pro tips on how to increase website conversion rate for your Shopify store:

Reason 1: Lack of Conversion-Focused Elements

We can’t expect the fruits for which we haven’t sown the seeds, right?

So, ask yourself this question — Is my website, especially the product and landing pages, designed with conversion-focused elements?

These elements could be a countdown timer, stock counter, promotional banners, coupon code section, trust badges, etc. The thing is — if you don’t entice your visitors to complete the conversion action, they’ll switch to some other website.

Solution: Use GemPages to Design Conversion-Focused Website

GemPages offers various conversion-focused elements that you need to design your Shopify store and landing pages for high conversions. Also, GemPages has a library of professionally designed templates that cover these elements by default.

And on top of all that, you can customize your store or landing pages with other elements with a simple, drag-and-drop, visual editor. You could design your store or landing pages with no coding or web design experience.

With an excellent rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from more than 2,500 reviews, GemPages is loved by thousands of Shopify merchants.

Check out this case study about how Hystar achieved a whopping 200% increase in its conversion rate using GemPages:

We tried two different page builders, but the other two just lacked an easy way to customize while everything in GemPages was pretty easy. I like the preset templates of GemPages as well. I can just click one and then edit it the way I like. And the overall price for what you get from it is really good compared to the other ones."

 - Josh Moore, CEO at Hystar

Reason 2: Frictions in the Cart and Checkout Experience

After all those efforts, it hurts to see visitors leave your site at the end. So close—yet so far!

That happens when your cart and checkout pages aren’t optimized for conversion. Now, there could be multiple reasons for such frictions, such as:

• Long checkout form, i.e., too many fields

• Unexpected steps required to complete checkout

• Requiring the user to create an account

• Non-responsive checkout page design, especially a lack of mobile optimization

Solution: Optimize Your Cart & Checkout Experience

First, review or audit your cart and checkout flow. Use a heatmap tool to observe and study the customer behavior on these pages. Identify if any of these frictions are troubling your potential customers. Once you’ve identified the issues and made changes, re-evaluate the performance of your cart and checkout pages.

Reason 3: High Shipping Fees or Other Costs

So, the customer loved your product, went to checkout to complete the purchase. And immediately stopped as soon as he found it would cost an extra $9.50 for shipping!

Again, frustrating to get the customer this far only to lose the sale, right?

Unexpected or more than expected costs associated with the product amount (e.g., shipping, handling, taxes, etc.) are a major reason for abandoned carts. According to the popular Baymard Institute study, it accounts for 39% of all cart abandonment reasons.

Solution: Reduce Extra Costs or Educate Visitors About Them

Here are some ways to minimize the lost sales:

• Test with a free shipping offer to see whether it can increase the conversion rate.

• Provide a brief explanation for the cost if it’s an unusual charge.

• Highlight the benefits that let customers know why they should buy from you.

Condor Cycles displays a note on its checkout page stating, "We guarantee no additional charges on delivery." The brand understands its customers could be concerned about additional charges, considering it sells expensive products.

Learn more: How to Do Free Shipping on Shopify? + Evergreen Tips

Reason 4: Slow Page Loading Speed

No matter what product or service you have to offer, if your page doesn’t load within 3-4 seconds, most visitors won’t care about your offerings.

Slow site speed can damage the conversion rate.

Solution 1: Audit and Optimize Your Store Speed

Analyze your site speed and identify the blockers or factors reducing your page load speed. Optimize your site speed following all the best practices.

Learn more: 

Optimize Your Shopify Store Speed for Peak Performance

Dropshipping Page Speed Optimization — Tips & Tools

Solution 2: Use a Headless Commerce Solution

Headless commerce is a tech architecture for building eCommerce stores in which the frontend is separated from the backend to optimize speed and performance. 

GemPages offers an Instant Landing Page (ILP) feature to leverage the benefits of the headless commerce technology.

Reason 5: Poor Mobile Optimization

If you’re not optimizing your site for mobile, you’re leaving money on the table.

According to Dynamic Yield, Mobile has the highest cart abandonment rate (78.26%), followed by tablet (69.74%), and desktop with the lowest among all (66.3%).

Issues with mobile user experience can kill your conversion rate. Also, since mobile screens are much smaller in size, you need to ensure that your copy and design are optimized for mobile. For example, a poorly designed CTA can often be ignored due to its tiny size.

Solution: Design Your Site with a Mobile-First Approach

Review your entire site and process flows on mobile. Identify issues with mobile user experience and fix them. A page builder app like GemPages can help you create a responsive design for all device types, especially mobile.

Learn more: Mobile Conversion Optimization: 10+ Proven Tactics 

Reason 6: Lack of Trust and Credibility Factors

To make an online shopper your customer, you must win their trust, especially if you’re relatively new in the market and haven’t established your brand yet.

Here are some of the signs that might be impacting the trustworthiness of your site:

• No customer reviews

• No trust or security badges

• Unclear or not-so-attractive policies

Solution: Use elements of social proof and trust badges

• Gain reviews and place them where customers can see them immediately. If you’re a new brand and don’t have reviews yet, you can send your products to influencers and share user-generated content with their genuine reviews.

• Use GemPages to insert trust and security badges on your store and landing pages.

• Make sure your policies are not just clearly defined and documented but also easily accessible. Also, offers a sense of security with a robust returns policy, e.g., a 30-day returns policy or money-back guarantee.

Tropic Skincare has done a great job at displaying trust elements on its homepage. Right below the hero section on the homepage, you can see the trust badges along with the huge number of reviews it has received on Trustpilot.

Also, when you scroll down on the homepage, you can see the Tropic Skincare products in action, along with the product links and “Add to cart” buttons.

Reason 7: Poor Quality Product & Landing Pages

When talking of product or landing pages, there are multiple reasons, within this factor as a whole, to be considered. So, let’s review each of them one by one:

7.1. Product Images

Low-quality product images, stock media, or even AI-generated media can damage the perceived value of your brand. If visitors don’t feel a sense of authenticity, they won’t convert.

Solution: Use high-quality product images. Also, you can add an element of authenticity with user-generated content (UGC).

7.2. Product Copy/Description

If your product copy is written like a long wall of text, where visitors have to search for the essential information, it’s not going to convert. 

Solution: You need to put creative storytelling in your product copy. Prioritize benefits over features. Also, you can cover your unique selling proposition (USP) to make your copy more compelling.

7.3. Page Layout/Structure

It’s not just about what information you have on your product page — you must ensure those sections are placed in a strategic structure. For example, if your CTA button is not visible in the above-the-fold section, there’s a problem to be fixed.

Solution: Design a conversion-optimized page structure. Use professionally designed templates from GemPages.

7.4. Key Product Information

Are you missing out on displaying key information? For example, simple information like a size chart is also important for customers to make a buying decision.

Solution: Create a checklist of all the essential elements to be covered on product pages. Review or audit your product pages to ensure none of them are missing out on key information.

Overall Solution: Use A/B Testing to Optimize Your Product & Landing Pages

A/B testing is a great tool to optimize your product and landing pages for a high conversion rate. To identify the areas of improvement, you can use an advanced A/B testing tool like “GemX: CRO & A/B Testing”.

Try the GemX app with a 14-day free trial offer now!

Reason 8: Limited Payment Options

While customers have limitations with available payment options, some want to use their preferred mode of payment only. For example, a lot of customers prefer to use PayPal when shopping from new businesses.

Solution: Offer All Popular Payment Options

Integrate the popular payment options based on your target market. Also, offer an express checkout option to speed up the checkout process.

Learn more: 10 Best Shopify Payment Options for Your Business 

Reason 9: Poor User Experience

User experience (UX) is a crucial factor to keep visitors engaged on your website.

Mainly, navigation and search experience can also affect your conversion rate. For example, if customers are not able to easily find products that they’re looking for, they’ll switch to another website.

Solution: Optimize User Experience

Create the website design with a proper layout. Optimize your navigation and search experience with a proper structure and organization of products and collections. Also, you can look into an AI-powered search experience.

Learn more:

AI-Powered Website Optimization — Guide, Tools, Tips

AI Solutions for eCommerce: Challenges, Risks & Future

Reason 10: Targeting the Wrong Audience

The volume of inbound traffic is one thing and the quality of that inbound traffic is another. While traffic volume is essential, you need to ensure they’re actually your potential customers.

Solution: Perform Research on Your Target Audience

Make sure you’ve done your homework about understanding the target audience before running marketing and ad campaigns. Define your buyer persona and research the platforms they hang out on. This will help you market and advertise to the right audience.

Reason 11: Lack of Personalization

Customers expect personalization at every step of the buying journey.

If your website visitors can’t relate to the offerings or even the messaging, it can negatively impact your conversion rate.

Solution 1: Build a Quiz Funnel to Create a Personalized Experience

Implement personalization using different strategies and tools. A quiz funnel is a great way to create a personalized experience for your customers.

Living Proof is a great example of a brand that’s using a quiz to personalize the customer experience. As you can see, the quiz asks about visitors’ primary concern, which is vital information to personalize their experience.

Learn more: Shopify Quiz Funnel — Guide, Examples, and Apps

Solution 2: Build a Personalization Engine for Your Shopify Store

You can build a personalization engine on your Shopify store using an app. Search “Personalization Engine” in the Shopify App Store, and you’ll find multiple apps that can help you create personalized product recommendations for your store.

Learn more: How To Build a Personalization Engine for a Shopify Store

Reason 12: Poor Pricing Strategy

Pricing is one of the most significant factors in buying decisions.

If your brand’s pricing strategy is not strategically defined, it can result in a low conversion rate despite other factors being in good shape.

Now, just to be clear, it’s not to say that you should have the lowest price to increase your conversion rate. It depends on the type of products or services you’re selling.

Solution: Define and Implement a Sharp Pricing Strategy

Make sure your pricing strategy is well-defined based on your target audience and the type of product or service. For example, if you’re selling jewelry items, it’s considered a premium product. Thus, customers are not necessarily looking for the cheapest items.

On the other hand, if you’re selling fashion and apparel items, those products could fall on both sides of the spectrum—the lowest and the highest. You need to see who your customers are and if they’re looking for cost-effective options or premium options.

Also, one of the recent trends in the eCommerce space is to use a dynamic pricing strategy. This pricing strategy allows the brand to adjust the pricing on a real-time basis, depending on factors like market conditions, demand, inventory, etc.

Learn more: 

How to Test Your Pricing Strategy Effectively: A Comprehensive Guide

Dropshipping Pricing Strategy: The A-Z Guide for Beginners

Final Thoughts on Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization is an ongoing process. As an eCommerce business owner, you must constantly evaluate the opportunities to enhance your conversion rate.

Last but not least — install GemPages — Landing Page Builder — if you haven’t already, and start creating stunning product and landing pages that actually convert.

To learn more about other eCommerce marketing strategies, tools, and best practices — check out more resources on the GemPages Blog. Also, join the GemPages Facebook community to network and learn from like-minded entrepreneurs and experts.

FAQs About Shopify Conversion Rate