Most ecommerce UX problems are invisible to the people who own the shop. You log into your Shopify admin, browse the front end, click through a few product pages, and everything looks fine. Except your customers aren’t you. They’re squinting at a 6-inch screen on the bus, filling out a checkout form with one thumb, getting ambushed by shipping costs they didn’t expect.
That gap between how a shop feels to its owner and how it performs for its visitors is where revenue goes to die.
Running UX audits across Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento builds for the better part of a decade has taught me that conversion problems cluster around four pressure points: checkout friction, poor browsing experience, weak average order value, and abysmal repeat purchase rates. Most shops have issues in all four areas, but the fixes aren’t equal. A checkout improvement that takes two hours to implement might recover more lost sales than a full site redesign.
This guide works through each pressure point in order of revenue impact. The changes most likely to put money in your till this month come first.
The Four Problems That Drain Ecommerce Revenue
Before jumping into fixes, it helps to understand what each symptom actually tells you. Cart abandonment, for instance, rarely means people didn’t want the product. It means your checkout created enough friction or doubt that leaving felt easier than finishing. Low average order value usually isn’t about stingy customers either. It’s about a shop that hasn’t given people reasons to spend more.
The four clusters are cart abandonment, low browse time, weak AOV, and no repeat purchases. Each one points to a specific set of UX failures, and each has a different fix. Trying to solve all four with a single redesign is a false economy. Targeted fixes, tested individually through A/B testing, deliver faster results and tell you exactly what worked.
Fixing Your Checkout to Stop Cart Abandonment
Your customer has browsed and compared and decided. They’ve clicked ‘Add to Basket’. Everything up to this point has been working.
Then the checkout loses them.
Baymard Institute’s aggregate research across 50 studies puts the average cart abandonment rate at 70.19% globally, and the reasons behind that number are remarkably consistent year after year.
Kill surprise costs before they kill the sale
Fees that only appear at checkout cause 48% of cart abandonments, according to Baymard’s 2024 research. That makes surprise shipping the single biggest conversion killer in ecommerce, and it’s the easiest to fix.
A shipping calculator on your product page, where customers enter their postcode and see the delivery cost before they even think about checkout, removes the nasty surprise entirely. Shopify apps like Calcurates or the built-in Shopify Shipping profiles let you display real carrier rates on the product page itself. WooCommerce shops can pull the same trick with the WooCommerce Shipping Calculator on Product Page plugin.
Which tool you pick matters less than the principle: a customer who sees ‘£4.99 delivery to M1’ while still reading the product description has already absorbed that cost into their purchase decision. By the time they reach checkout, there’s nothing left to shock them.
Make guest checkout the obvious choice
Forcing account creation before purchase is still one of the most common checkout mistakes I spot during audits, and Baymard’s data shows it causes 26% of abandonments. The maths is brutal. For every four customers you lose to forced registration, you might convert one into an account holder.
That’s a terrible trade.
In Shopify, this is a single setting under Settings → Checkout → Customer accounts, where you select ‘Accounts are optional’. WooCommerce has a similar toggle in WooCommerce → Settings → Accounts & Privacy. Make the guest checkout button visually larger and position it above the login option.
Your customer has already decided to buy. Introducing a new decision at this stage (‘do I want to create an account?’) pulls them out of buying mode and into evaluation mode. After the purchase completes, that’s when you offer account creation using the details they’ve already entered. Conversion from guest to account holder at this point is surprisingly high, because you’re asking someone who just had a good experience.
Sort your mobile checkout forms
Mobile conversion rates sit around 2.85% compared to desktop’s 3.85%, and clunky forms are a massive part of the gap. Most of the fixes are technical details that desktop-first developers miss entirely.
When a customer taps a phone number field, the keyboard that appears should be a numeric keypad, not the full QWERTY layout. The HTML fixes are small but make a proper difference:
- Phone fields: add
inputmode="tel"to show the numeric keypad - Email fields: add
inputmode="email"so the @ symbol sits on the primary keyboard - Card number fields: add
inputmode="numeric"for digits only
Button positioning matters just as much. Your ‘Continue to Payment’ button needs to live in the natural thumb zone, which means the bottom two-thirds of the screen. If it’s sitting at the top of the form, anyone using their phone one-handed has to reach or shuffle the phone in their grip. That moment of physical awkwardness is enough to break the buying flow.
Place trust signals where doubt peaks
Payment is the anxiety high point. Baymard found that 25% of shoppers abandon because they don’t trust the site with their card details, and that number climbs for brands customers haven’t bought from before.
Security badges need to sit right next to your payment fields. Not in the footer. Not on a separate ‘Security’ page. Right beside the card number input, where they calm fears at the exact moment those fears spike.
Shopify’s checkout already displays payment provider logos (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal), but adding your SSL badge and any industry-specific trust marks beside the card entry form takes this further. For smaller brands without broad name recognition, this matters even more. A progress indicator above the form (‘Step 2 of 3: Payment’) also reduces anxiety by making the process feel finite rather than open-ended.
Be easy to contact
Buried contact details breed suspicion. If a customer hits a snag during checkout and can’t find a way to get help, they’ll assume the worst. Your phone number should sit in the header. Live chat, whether that’s Tidio, Gorgias, or Shopify Inbox, should be visible on product pages and during checkout.
Placement matters more than presence here. A chat widget in the bottom corner of every page is standard. A chat prompt that appears when someone has been on the checkout page for more than 60 seconds, or when they move their cursor toward the browser’s close button, is targeted support that catches people at the point of dropping off. That’s the difference between a box-ticking exercise and something that actually saves sales.
Keeping Visitors Browsing Your Shop
Getting traffic to your site is only half the job. If your ecommerce web design makes it hard to find products, visitors leave before they discover anything worth buying. Making your catalogue feel browsable rather than overwhelming is the challenge, especially when you’re carrying hundreds or thousands of SKUs.
Show product counts on every filter option
Filters that don’t show how many products they contain are a gamble for the customer. Clicking ‘Red’ and getting zero results is frustrating enough that people leave the site rather than clearing the filter and trying again.
Counts next to each option (‘Red (47)’ versus ‘Blue (3)’) give customers confidence before they click. As filters stack, those counts should update in real time. If someone selects ‘Red’ and the size options refresh to show ‘Small (12), Medium (23), Large (12)’, they understand exactly how their choices interact.
Shopify’s default filtering is limited here, which is why apps like Smart Product Filter & Search by Sparq or Boost Commerce exist. On WooCommerce, AJAX Product Filters by Starter Sites handles this well. Filters should feel responsive and predictable, not like a lucky dip.
Put product images in your search dropdown
A text-only search dropdown forces customers to guess. Someone typing ‘wireless headphones’ could mean over-ear cans or tiny earbuds, and a list of product names doesn’t help them tell which is which.
Product thumbnails in the search dropdown fix this. Klevu and Searchanise both offer visual search results that display an image alongside price and stock status directly in the dropdown, so customers click through to the right product without loading a full results page first. Algolia is another solid option.
Keep dropdown results to five or six items and include a ‘View all results’ link at the bottom for broader searches. Speed is critical. Results need to appear as the customer types, not after they press Enter.
Make cross-sells relevant, not random
‘You might also like’ followed by completely unrelated products. Every ecommerce shop owner has seen it, and most customers just scroll past.
Below your product description is valuable territory for suggestions that make logical sense. For a winter coat, that’s matching scarves or gloves rather than random products from a different category. The difference between a useful recommendation and a rubbish one comes down to data. Shopify’s ‘Related Products’ section uses basic product tagging, but apps like Frequently Bought Together by Code Black Belt or Also Bought by Minesoft pull from actual transaction data to surface combinations that real customers have purchased together.
WooCommerce handles this through its built-in ‘Cross-sells’ field on the product edit screen, but you’ll get better results from a plugin like Product Recommendations by SellBeyond that analyses purchase patterns rather than relying on manual curation.
Bestseller badges and social proof on the homepage
Your homepage is where product discovery starts for most visitors. Bestseller badges (‘Top seller this week’ or ‘#1 in category’) give uncertain shoppers a starting point. Position them consistently in the top corner of product images and update them weekly from your actual sales data. A badge on a product that’s been out of stock for three months does more damage than having no badge at all.
Colour matters too. A small, bold tag in a contrasting colour catches the eye during a quick scroll without making the page look cluttered. Get this right and the badge becomes a trust signal that guides first-time visitors toward products other customers have already validated.
Increasing Average Order Value and High-Ticket Sales
Your average order value directly affects profitability. Shipping and handling a £20 order costs nearly as much as shipping a £200 one, which means low-AOV shops work harder for every pound of profit. AOV improvements often come from presentation changes rather than product changes, though. Customers frequently want to spend more. They just need the right nudge.
Give your expensive products the content they deserve
Most shops display a £500 product with the same two-paragraph description and three photos they’d give a £15 accessory. Then they’re gutted when customers pick the cheaper option. The issue isn’t price sensitivity. It’s that the expensive product hasn’t justified its price tag.
High-ticket items need dedicated content sections on their product pages. For a leather bag, that means explaining the tanning process, close-up photography of stitching and hardware, an origin story about where the leather is sourced. For electronics, comparison tables against competitors should go beyond specs to cover warranty terms, support levels, and total cost of ownership over three years.
When your £800 product includes free lifetime repairs while the £600 alternative charges £50 per fix, the value argument shifts dramatically.
Lifestyle photography makes a real difference here. Your £2,000 sofa shouldn’t just exist in a white studio. Photograph it in actual rooms with natural light at different times of day. If you can show photos after six months of use demonstrating how the product ages, even better. That kind of content takes effort to produce, but it’s the difference between a product page that sells and one that just displays.
Display monthly payment amounts next to prices
Sticker shock kills high-ticket sales. A £200 price tag feels like a major expense, but ‘4 payments of £50’ reframes the same purchase as a manageable commitment. Klarna, Clearpay, and PayPal Pay in 3 all offer widgets that display monthly payment amounts directly on the product page, and they should be visible from the moment a customer sees the price rather than buried in checkout.
Shopify’s Klarna integration places the payment breakdown directly below the price field with no custom coding required. WooCommerce has equivalent plugins for each provider. The psychological shift from ‘Can I afford £200?’ to ‘Can I afford £50 this month?’ is the difference between a bounce and a conversion for a significant chunk of your traffic.
Bundle products that belong together
Position bundle suggestions directly below your add-to-basket button, where customers are already in buying mode. Show the main product plus two or three related items with pre-selected checkboxes, so adding everything takes one click. Display the bundle price alongside crossed-out individual prices so savings are immediately obvious.
Build bundles from real purchase data rather than guesswork. If customers frequently buy a coffee machine with a descaler and a bag of beans, that’s your bundle. Show savings in pounds (‘Save £47’ feels more tangible than ‘Save 15%’). Shopify apps like Bundle Builder by Mani or Bundler handle this natively. Label them ‘Complete your setup’ rather than a generic ‘Special Offer’.
Show real stock numbers and add quantity discounts
When stock drops below ten units, displaying the exact number creates genuine urgency without manipulation. ‘Only 3 left in stock’ is specific and believable. Round phrasing like ‘Limited stock!’ feels manufactured and erodes trust.
For products sold in multiples, quantity discount tables on the product page encourage larger orders:
Pricing it as ‘1 for £30, 2 for £54, 3 for £72’ is clearer than percentage discounts because customers don’t have to do the maths.
Display the per-unit price at each tier, and once items are in the basket, show a progress bar: ‘Add 1 more to save £6’. Discounts should apply automatically. Making customers hunt for a coupon code at checkout is friction you don’t need.
Post-purchase upsells before the thank-you page
Right after a customer completes their purchase is gold for additional sales. Their card details are in, trust is established, and buying momentum is at its peak. Instead of jumping straight to the confirmation page, present one carefully chosen offer that complements what they just bought.
Someone who bought running shoes sees: ‘Complete your kit. Add moisture-wicking socks and a water bottle for 30% off. One click to add to your order.’ That single click is the critical bit. They don’t re-enter payment details or go through checkout again. Shopify apps like ReConvert or AfterSell handle this flow, and the conversion rates are cracking precisely because the mental barriers are gone.
Keep the offer relevant and include a clear ‘No thanks, continue to order confirmation’ link. Testing different discount levels is worth the effort. Sometimes 20% off converts better than 40% because it feels more credible.
Building Repeat Purchase Habits
Acquiring a new customer costs significantly more than retaining an existing one, yet most shops treat the post-purchase experience as an afterthought. The order confirmation email goes out, and that’s the end of the relationship until the customer decides to come back on their own.
A few straightforward UX improvements to your account area and order tracking can change that entirely.
Visual order history and one-click reorders
Customers remember ‘that blue dress I wore to the wedding’, not ‘Order #4837291 from 15th June’. When they open their order history and see only order numbers and dates, finding a previous purchase becomes a proper faff.
Visual order cards that display product thumbnails, order totals, and delivery dates match how people actually remember what they bought. This is particularly effective for consumables. Someone who can’t recall the exact name of their favourite coffee will recognise the packaging instantly.
Shopify’s default account page is bare bones, but apps like Customer Accounts Hub by JEEKA add visual order cards and, crucially, one-click reorder buttons. When a customer logs in to check a previous order and spots a ‘Reorder’ button next to their regular purchases, you’ve turned an admin task into a sale.
Branded order tracking that keeps them on your site
Sending customers to a courier’s website to track their order is a missed opportunity. They’re at peak engagement with your brand, excited about their purchase and checking tracking several times a day. And you’re handing all of that attention over to Royal Mail or DPD.
Branded tracking pages keep customers on your site during that window. Instead of a generic courier page, they see your branding, your product recommendations, and your support contact details. Shopify apps like Parcel Panel or Rush create branded tracking pages that pull real-time data from carriers but present it within your shop’s design. Include a visual timeline showing each stage from processing through dispatch to delivery, with clear times at each step.
The tracking page is also a natural spot for related product suggestions. Someone waiting for running shoes might be keen on running socks or a water bottle. These aren’t random suggestions. They’re items specifically related to what’s in the post. That relevance makes the difference between a recommendation that converts and one that gets ignored.
Where to Start
Trying to fix everything at once is a recipe for fixing nothing properly. Pick the pressure point that’s costing you the most revenue right now. For most shops, that’s checkout friction: surprise shipping costs and forced account creation. Those two fixes alone can recover a meaningful chunk of abandoned baskets without touching anything else on the site.
Once your checkout is sorted, work backwards through the browsing experience, then AOV, then retention. Each improvement compounds on the one before it. Better checkout converts more of your existing traffic. Better browsing means more products discovered per session. Higher AOV means more revenue per conversion. And repeat purchases mean you’re not constantly paying to acquire new customers.
If an ecommerce SEO audit or a full ecommerce web design and development review would help you identify which pressure points to tackle first, that’s the kind of work we do daily. Even without outside help, though, the fixes in this guide are specific enough to start implementing this afternoon.
