Conversion rate optimisation is the highest-ROI lever available to an established ecommerce brand. While acquisition costs rise every year, improving your store’s conversion rate from 1.8% to 2.7% increases revenue by 50% with zero incremental ad spend. The math makes CRO one of the most important investments a growing brand can make.
This checklist covers 48 specific checks across every part of the customer journey. Work through it systematically. Not every item will apply to every store — but if you can’t confidently check off 80% of this list, you have meaningful revenue sitting untouched in your current traffic.
Homepage and navigation checks
Above-the-fold value proposition is clear and specific. The visitor should know within 3 seconds what you sell, who it's for, and why it's different. Test your headline with someone who's never seen your store.
Primary CTA is above the fold and visually prominent. "Shop Now" or a category CTA should be impossible to miss. Not buried below a hero video, not hidden after a carousel.
Navigation is product-first. Primary nav links to categories, not to About, Blog, or Contact. Save those for the footer or secondary nav.
Trust indicators appear in the header or hero. Free shipping threshold, review count, returns policy, and Australian ownership are the most impactful. Specifically for AU: "Australian owned" and "ships from AU" reduce hesitation.
Homepage loads in under 3 seconds on mobile. Measure with Google PageSpeed Insights on a mobile profile. A 1-second improvement typically drives a 3–5% conversion lift.
Best-sellers or featured products are surfaced immediately. Don't make visitors browse to find your best products. Feature your 4–8 highest-converting products on the homepage.
Product page checks
Main product image is high-resolution and zoom-enabled. The main image is the single highest-impact element on a product page. Minimum 1,500px on the longest side.
Lifestyle images show the product in real-world use. For physical products, include at least two lifestyle shots showing the product being used by a person in the target demographic.
Price is clearly displayed with shipping cost visible before checkout. Hidden shipping costs are the #1 cause of checkout abandonment in AU ecommerce. Show free shipping eligibility on the product page.
Add to cart button is sticky on mobile scroll. The "Add to Cart" CTA should remain visible as the customer scrolls through images and description. Sticky ATCs consistently lift mobile conversion by 8–15%.
Product description answers the top 5 buyer questions. What is it made of? What sizes/variants are available? How does it compare to alternatives? What's the delivery timeline? What if I need to return it?
Reviews are visible above the fold on mobile. Social proof at the product level is the single most-tested CRO element in ecommerce. Average rating + review count should appear near the product title.
Stock scarcity indicators are accurate, not fake. "Only 3 left" is powerful when true and brand-damaging when fabricated. If you use stock indicators, they must reflect real inventory.
Delivery estimate is shown on the product page. "Ships in 24 hours — estimated delivery 3–5 business days to Melbourne" is much more converting than "standard shipping."
Related products drive AOV without distracting from conversion. Cross-sells and upsells placed below the add-to-cart button or post-add-to-cart improve AOV without harming the primary conversion.
Checkout and cart checks
Guest checkout is the default option. Forcing account creation before purchase is the second most common cause of checkout abandonment. Offer it; don't require it.
Checkout supports all major Australian payment methods. Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Afterpay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Afterpay penetration in Australian ecommerce is extraordinarily high — especially for purchases over $80.
Cart page shows free shipping progress indicator. "Add $18 more for free shipping" is one of the simplest AOV levers in ecommerce. Implement it on the cart page and in the cart drawer.
Checkout has a visible security badge and trust copy. "Secure checkout — 256-bit SSL encryption" and payment method logos reduce anxiety at the highest-risk point of the purchase journey.
Abandoned cart email sequence is active and converting. A three-email sequence (1 hour, 24 hours, 72 hours) with a discount offered only at the final email is the standard for recovering 10–15% of abandoned carts.
Checkout form field count is minimised. Every additional form field reduces checkout completion by 1–2%. Only ask for what's genuinely necessary for shipping and payment.
Trust and social proof checks
Review count exceeds 10 on your best-selling products. Products with under 10 reviews convert significantly worse than those with 10+. Invest in post-purchase review request sequences.
Return policy is visible without scrolling to the footer. Include it in the product page trust bar. "30-day hassle-free returns" near the buy button consistently improves conversion.
UGC or customer photos are integrated on product pages. Instagram feed widgets or customer photo reviews add authenticity that studio photography can't replicate.
Press or media mentions are displayed if available. "As seen in..." with recognisable logos (even regional publications) builds authority at a glance.
Mobile experience checks
Tap targets are large enough for fingers. Minimum 44×44px for all buttons and links. Pinch-to-zoom checkout forms kill mobile conversion.
Font sizes are legible without zooming. Body copy at minimum 16px. Product prices at 18–20px. Anything smaller on mobile creates friction.
Mobile checkout uses native keyboard types. Email fields should trigger the email keyboard; phone fields should trigger the number pad; postal code fields should trigger the number keyboard. Shopify handles this correctly if your theme is well-built.
Images don't cause layout shift during load. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is both a Core Web Vitals metric and a conversion killer. Images that shift page content while loading create a janky experience that signals low quality.
A/B testing framework
CRO without testing is assumption-based optimisation — sometimes right, often wrong. The testing framework that produces reliable results:
What to test first
Prioritise tests by traffic volume × impact potential. High-traffic pages with large conversion impact: main product page CTA, homepage hero, checkout first step. Don’t test blog pages or low-traffic collections first — you’ll wait months for statistical significance.
Test one variable at a time
A/B test headline changes separately from CTA changes. Multivariate tests require enormous traffic volumes to reach significance. For most Australian ecommerce brands, pure A/B tests are the right approach.
Minimum sample size
Run tests until you have at least 500 conversions per variant (not sessions — conversions). Most Australian ecommerce stores need to run tests for 2–4 weeks minimum before results are statistically significant. Stopping early based on early data is the most common CRO mistake.
Australian ecommerce benchmarks for 2026
Knowing where you stand relative to the market helps prioritise. Australian ecommerce benchmarks:
- Average conversion rate: 1.5–2.0% (Shopify stores, all categories)
- Top-quartile conversion rate: 3.0–4.5%
- Average cart abandonment rate: 68–72%
- Average order value: AU$95–$180 (varies heavily by category)
- Mobile traffic share: 70–78% of sessions
- Mobile vs desktop conversion gap: Mobile converts at roughly 60–70% of desktop CVR on average — closing this gap is one of the highest-leverage CRO opportunities for most stores
If you're below the average benchmarks in your category, a CRO audit from Sellevate will identify the specific bottlenecks in your funnel using heatmaps, session recordings, and quantitative funnel analysis — not guesswork. We typically identify 8–12 high-impact opportunities in the first audit, with a prioritised roadmap for implementation.
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