Before You Redesign: Run This CRO Checklist
Redesigning your Shopify site is a big investment—financially, strategically, and emotionally. But before you dive into pixels, layouts, and typography, ask yourself: are you solving for aesthetic preference or actual performance gaps?
Ie’ve conducted dozens of in-depth Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) audits for high-growth consumer brands—ranging from beauty to fashion to home—and here’s the truth: most redesigns are reactionary, not strategic.
This guide will help you avoid that trap.
Here’s the CRO checklist we run with every brand before they invest in a redesign.
1. Do You Know Where Your Revenue is Leaking?
Before changing your site layout, first identify where users drop off—and why.
Look at:
Funnel drop-offs: Where do users abandon the flow?
Cart and checkout abandonment rates
Bounce rates by page type (Homepage, PLP, PDP, etc.)
Session recordings of high-exit pages
Toolset: Shopify Analytics, VWO/Hotjar, Google Analytics 4
Red flag: You're redesigning your homepage as a priority, but 70% of traffic lands on PDPs or collection pages.
2. Have You Analyzed Landing Page Conversion by Device?
Your redesign must prioritize the real behaviors of your audience—not just desktop mocks.
Checklist:
Audit mobile vs. desktop session distribution
Compare conversion rates by device
Identify mobile-specific friction points (e.g., nav, load speed, filters)
Real Case Insight: In our audit of clean bodycare brand, we found that mobile generated 76% of sessions and 65% of revenue—but the mobile PDP had a 72% bounce rate. That insight alone changed the redesign focus.
3. Is Your Navigation Helping or Hurting?
Redesigning navigation is often a top priority—but is that backed by data?
Look for:
% of users interacting with menu vs. search
Click map data on top nav elements
Accordion vs. exposed link engagement
Misalignment between menu clicks and top sales categories
Real Case Insight: In our audit of a top streetwear brand, “Hats” drove 21% of revenue but got only 1.8% of navigation clicks. That insight helped us recommend a restructure before any design overhaul.
4. Are Your PDPs Doing Their Job?
If your product pages aren’t converting, a full redesign won’t fix that.
Checklist:
Do they clearly communicate value?
Are important details (shipping, returns, size) buried?
Are you using cross-sells like “Complete the Look”?
How many sessions start on PDPs?
Real Case Insight: In our audit of a golf apparel brand, over 50% of sessions began on PDPs, yet conversion lagged sitewide. Elevating product transparency and repositioning “Polos” above the fold lifted conversion significantly—without a full redesign.
5. Is Your Search Experience Helping Users Convert?
Search isn’t just a utility—it’s a high-intent conversion path.
Audit:
% of users using search (goal: 10–15%)
Search-to-purchase conversion rate
Top search terms with no results or clicks
Misalignment between search results and curated collections
Pro insight: Across audits, we consistently find that search users convert 2–3x higher, yet many brands under-leverage this path. Fixing this pre-redesign gives you major upside with minimal dev lift.
6. Do You Have a Revenue-First Roadmap?
A beautiful redesign without a CRO roadmap is just expensive guesswork.
Build or request:
A list of specific, prioritized optimizations
Estimated impact (conversion rate or revenue)
Level of effort for implementation
A/B test opportunities
When you start with CRO insights, you ensure your redesign solves actual friction points—not aesthetic hunches.
In Summary:
Don’t Start With Design. Start With Data. Before You Redesign, Ask:
Where am I losing money?
What are the biggest missed opportunities by page or journey?
Which changes will actually impact conversion and AOV?
Want to Run This Audit First?
I offer a CRO Audit + Roadmap tailored for 7–8 figure Shopify brands ready to scale. It’s built from deep analytics, behavior mapping, and category expertise—not just opinions.
Shoot me an email if you are interesting in a CRO audit or full DTC ecosystem audit ($10-15k) at hello@shanfitz.com
