12 of the Best Ways to Improve Ecommerce Conversion Rates: A/B Tests and Best Practices We've Proven to Work

Theory is great, but ideas that have actually worked in the wild dozens of times are better. If you’re looking for the best ways to increase ecommerce conversion rates, it makes sense to start with the ideas that keep proving useful on actual Shopify stores.

Tried and tested CRO best practices that just work because of their grounding in the fundamentals of design, psychology, UX and behavioural economics. This article gives you 12 of our greatest hits that increase conversions in ecommerce time and again, as proven by our work on over 300 Shopify stores.

Some are standard CRO principles. Others come from our A/B test library, where we document the tests we’ve run and the questions we have put in front of real shoppers - over 80 at the time of writing.

The useful thing about CRO is that most conversion problems are more ordinary than they first appear. The product is not quite clear enough. The next step is slightly awkward. The shopper has a question that nobody answers until checkout. Key trust signals are missing. The mobile experience works, but asks for too much patience. The store looks polished, but the content and user journey don’t quite help someone decide.

Those are the sorts of problems these 12 techniques are designed to fix.

1. Clarify Your Value Proposition Above the Fold

The first job of any ecommerce landing page is to help someone understand where they are, what you sell, and whether it’s relevant to them.

That doesn’t mean your above-the-fold section has to be plain or stripped of personality. But you need to balance the brand work with commercial effectiveness. A headline that sounds good but leaves the visitor thinking, “Fine, but what do you actually sell?” is asking the rest of the page to rescue the session - and it rarely will.

A useful above-the-fold section usually answers a few basic questions quickly:

• What is this product, category, or brand?

• Who is it for?

• Why would someone choose this over a similar option?

• What should the visitor do next?

This is one of the best ways to increase conversion rate bar none, because it deals with a problem that appears before the shopper has properly started browsing. If the proposition is fuzzy, your website is fighting an uphill battle for the rest of the journey.

Get some inspiration with our A/B test on above-the-fold homepage optimisations that delivered a 26% increase in desktop conversion rate.

2. Make Your Product Page CTA the Most Obvious Next Step

Product pages sometimes become crowded because different stakeholders want something represented. Reviews, variants, delivery messages, subscriptions, bundles, loyalty points, payment options, recommendations, brand claims, social proof, guarantees. Most of those things can be useful. The problem comes when they all compete equally.

The buy button has a simple responsibility. When someone is ready to act, they shouldn’t have to search for it, interpret it, or wonder whether they are pressing the right thing.

A strong product page CTA usually has:

• Button copy that matches the action

• Enough contrast to stand out from the rest of the page

• Placement that follows the natural decision sequence

• Nearby reassurance where hesitation is likely

• A mobile layout that keeps the buying action close to the product decision

This gets more sensitive when a product page has subscriptions or other purchase options. In those cases, the CTA is part of the decision architecture. It has to help the shopper understand what kind of purchase they are making, not just move them to the next screen.

Learn more from our A/B test Subscription CTAs vs Add to Cart on PDPs, where the question isn’t only which CTA gets more clicks, but which version helps the customer to understand the buying choice and decide which is the best option for them.

3. Reduce Choice Overload with Better Product Guidance

Choice is useful up to a point. But every one of us has probably experienced choice overload in ecommerce at some point. Ecommerce metrics show us time and again that too much of a good thing is definitely not good.

Choice overload shows up a lot on product pages with several variants, bundles, refill options, subscription frequencies, sizes, flavours, finishes, or technical specifications. Your store can technically provide all the information someone needs, while still making the decision feel way harder than a shopper wants, needs or expects it to be.

But the good news is you can give better guidance and make the purchase decision far easier with small tweaks. You might:

• Pre-select the most commonly chosen option

• Label a subscription plan as best for a particular use case

• Add bestseller-type badges

• Add a short comparison table

• Rewrite variant names so they describe the difference in shopper language rather than your internal brand language

Useful guidance often answers questions like:

• Which option do most people choose?

• Which one is best for a first order?

• Which size is better value?

• What is the difference between these two plans?

• What can I save over 12 months?

• What happens if I choose the subscription option?

This is a practical way to improve conversions in ecommerce, especially when the products themselves are good but the buying decision has become more complicated than the customer expected.

Related reading:

• Increase Conversion Rate and Customer Lifetime Value with CRO Implementation for Shopify Stores

• A/B Testing 101: What It Is and How to Run Your First Test

4. Surface Shipping, Returns, and Payment Information Earlier

A shopper can like the product and still hold back because the practical details are vague, or not there at all.

Shipping cost, delivery time, return conditions, payment methods, and payment flexibility are not small-print issues from the customer’s perspective. They shape the perceived risk of buying. If those details only appear late in checkout, the store has allowed uncertainty to build up for too long.

This is especially relevant for:

• Higher-ticket products

• First-time buyers

• International customers

• Products where sizing, fit, compatibility, or suitability matter

• Categories with a lot of comparison shopping

But hold on just a sec. Don’t go spraying the page with every operational detail. Be selective and be super useful. By that we mean: put the most decision-relevant information close to the point where the shopper is weighing up whether to buy.

That might mean a short delivery line near the CTA, a returns note under the price, payment logos near the buy box, or a concise FAQ section on the product page. Small pieces of buying information, placed early enough, can remove objections before they turn into cart abandonment.

For more on this theme, see these winning A/B tests:

• Highlighting Payment Options

• Testing Payment Cues on High-Ticket PDPs

5. Strengthen Trust Before the Customer Needs It

Trust signals - you know you need them. But often they get added to ecommerce stores as a kind of decoration. A row of icons. A review widget. A secure checkout badge. A guarantee line. Some of them help, while some barely register.

The more useful question is: where is doubt likely to enter the journey? A first-time customer might be wondering whether the product works or even how to use it, whether your brand is legitimate, whether the reviews are credible, whether the item will arrive on time, whether returns will be painful, or whether the price is justified.

A good trust signal answers one of those questions at the moment it becomes relevant.

For example:

• Review volume near the product title can help with legitimacy

• A returns message near the size selector can reduce worries around whether the product will fit

• A payment cue near the price can reduce affordability hesitation

• A warranty note near a technical product can instil the confidence to buy

• Delivery reassurance near the CTA can stop the shopper waiting until checkout to check the basics

It can help to think of this way: your page isn’t a layer cake where trust is one layer of many. It’s more like an essential ingredient baked into the whole thing - the egg that binds everything together. It’s a set of well-placed answers that can take different forms all over your site and different pages, whether collections pages or PDPs.

If your goal is to find the best ways to increase ecommerce conversion rates, this one ranks high on the list because it affects first-time buyers in particular. They have less history with the brand, so the page has more work to do.

See this principle in action in Strengthening Trust Signals Above the Fold.

6. Make Search, Navigation, and Filtering Work Harder

A lot of ecommerce friction happens before the shopper reaches a product page.

So here’s a key principle of good UX and conversion performance: write your navigation labels for the customer, not for your business. Sounds obvious, but how often does this get overlooked? (Hint: a lot.) Then there’s search - often treated as a nice-to-have utility instead of what it really is - a key buying path. And sure, you might have filters, but have you verified they’re the right ones, and truly helpful? Sorting options might be there, but often they fail to match how people actually want to narrow their choice - substyles, categories, minute variables are missing.

For a customer with intent, this gets annoying fast.

Search, navigation, and filtering should help visitors do three things:

• Get to the right category quickly

• Reduce the catalogue to a manageable set of options they’re actually interested in

• Find their way back when their first path doesn’t lead to the right product

This matters most on mobile, where browsing patience is less and mistakes cost you more. A user who opens a menu, taps a vague category, lands on a broad collection, then has to fight through weak filters is being asked to do too much before the product has made its case. Our analysis of hundreds of thousands of heatmaps and reams of analytics shows that suboptimal search, navigation and filtering has a huge negative impact on ecommerce conversion rates.

Useful related reading:

• Exposing the Search Bar on Mobile Devices

• Improving Mobile Navigation Clarity with Supporting Imagery

Book a CRO Mapping call

7. Expose the Search Bar on Your Mobile Site

Hiding mobile search behind an icon can look tidy. It can also make one of the most commercially useful actions on the site far too easy to miss.

Search is often a high-intent behaviour. Someone who searches for a specific product, ingredient, collection, size, colour, replacement part, or use case is giving you a valuable signal - they already know what they want, so they’re inherently likelier to buy. The less effort required to search, the easier it is for that intent to turn into a conversion.

This is especially relevant for stores with:

• Large catalogues

• Repeat customers

• Products bought by name

• Technical products

• Replenishment products

• Categories where shoppers compare by ingredient, size, fit, or compatibility

Exposing the search bar doesn’t guarantee a conversion lift in every context. It does, however, remove a small but meaningful piece of interaction cost for people who already know what they want, or at least know how they want to start looking.

For a specific example from our own testing work, read Exposing the Search Bar on Mobile Devices.

8. Strengthen Trust Signals Above the Fold

Above-the-fold trust signals are useful because they meet the customer early, while they’re still deciding whether the page deserves more attention.

There is a difference between a visitor who is actively evaluating a product and one who is still deciding whether the site feels credible enough to continue. The second group might never reach the lower-page review section, the detailed FAQ, or the brand story. If the first screen gives them no reason to trust the store, they’re likelier to bounce and the rest of the page won’t even get read.

Strong above-the-fold trust signals can include:

• Star ratings

• Review counts

• Delivery reassurance

• Returns information

• Payment method cues

• Warranty or guarantee messaging

• Press mentions or credentials (where they are genuinely meaningful)

The placement matters because trust is cumulative. A shopper’s not realistically going to consciously think, “I trust this brand because the returns policy was visible near the CTA.” What really happens is the page just feels less risky. That’s enough.

For a Blend example, check out our A/B test on Strengthening Trust Signals Above the Fold.

9. Highlight Payment Options on Product Pages

Payment information is a checkout detail right? Not a chance. It’s a great way to influence purchase decisions and instil trust and confidence way before the checkout.

This is especially true when the price is high enough to make the customer pause. If a shopper is already thinking, “Can I justify this?” or “Do I want to pay all of that today?”, payment information can change how manageable the purchase feels.

That might involve:

• Showing accepted payment methods

• Making digital wallet options visible

• Explaining buy now, pay later options carefully

• Placing payment cues close to the price

• Keeping the presentation calm and ordered

The final point matters. Payment logos can help, but they can also clutter the buy box if you overdo them. The aim is to answer the affordability and convenience question without making the page feel like a payments billboard.

Check out these winning Blend A/B tests:

• Highlighting Payment Options

• Testing Payment Cues on High-Ticket PDPs

Book a CRO Mapping call

10. Improve Mobile Navigation Clarity with Supporting Imagery

Mobile menus have to do a lot with very little space. Text labels alone can work perfectly well when the categories are familiar and distinct. Think tops, shorts, trousers - no one needs to be shown what these look like to quickly parse them.

But categories become less useful when products are highly visual, unique or not widely known, category names are similar, or the shopper is still learning how the range is organised. Essentially, unless your catalogue is likely to be highly familiar to most shoppers, adding imagery could help your navigation.

Supporting imagery can help in those cases because it lets the customer recognise a path faster. A small image beside a category can reduce hesitation, especially when the label is broad or the product type is easier to identify visually than verbally.

This can help with:

• Category recognition

• Faster menu scanning

• Fewer wrong turns

• Better movement from homepage or menu into product discovery

There is a caveat. Menu imagery can slow the experience down or make the interface feel crowded if the images are decorative rather than useful, and the exact content of the image is very important. Busy lifestyle shots are not ideal at 30px x 30px. This is the sort of change worth testing because the result depends on the catalogue, the audience, and the quality of the mobile navigation before the change.

A good example from our library: Improving Mobile Navigation Clarity with Supporting Imagery.

11. Reduce Decision Friction with Strategic Product Badges

Product badges are easy to misuse because they feel harmless. Add “Best Seller” here, “New” there, maybe “Limited Stock” somewhere else. Before long, every product is shouting and none of the labels mean much.

Used properly, badges should help the shopper interpret a product list or choice set. They should make comparison easier.

The most useful badges usually do one of a few jobs:

1. Point to a product with strong demand, such as “Best Seller”

2. Identify a product suited to a particular need, such as “Best for Sensitive Skin”

3. Explain value, such as “Best Value” or “Save 20%”

4. Indicate real availability constraints, such as “Low Stock”

This can be useful on collection pages, product cards, bundle selectors, and subscription plan choices. The shopper is often scanning quickly, so a good badge can help them decide where to look first.

The test is whether the badge helps the customer make a better decision. If it only helps the business push a product, shoppers usually sense that.

See how we approached this in:

• Reducing Decision Friction with Strategic Product Badges

• Guided Subscription Choices with Badges

12. Introduce Urgency Without Discounting

Urgency is a classic tactic for improving ecommerce conversion rates. Ask anyone with a passing familiarity and they’ll cite this as one of CRO’s greatest hits. But as always, there’s a caveat: urgency is only useful for conversion when it is based on something real. If you try to manufacture urgency, manipulate it, or game it in any way, it’s a huge no - customers will see through it, you’ll get caught out, and destroy trust.

A constant sale, a fake countdown timer, or vague “hurry” messaging may create short-term pressure, but it also teaches customers to distrust the store. Many brands then end up needing heavier discounts to get the same reaction later, and there you are in a discounting doom spiral.

The best sources of urgency include:

• Genuine shipping cut-off times

• Real low-stock messaging

• Seasonal buying deadlines

• Limited production runs

• Expiring bundle availability

• Use cases tied to a specific date or occasion

This kind of urgency helps customers make a decision they were already close to making. It gives the purchase a time context without pretending the sky is falling. It gives them a valid nudge where they were looking for one already.

For many stores, this is a more useful way to increase conversion rate because it protects margin and brand trust while still giving shoppers a reason to act now rather than drift away and forget.

Further reading: Introducing Urgency Without Discounting

Final Thoughts: Start Increasing Your Ecommerce Conversion Rate

The best ways to increase ecommerce conversion rates tend to come from paying close attention to where the buying journey becomes harder than it needs to be.

Maybe a customer is interested but unsure. Ready to buy but can’t find the right product. Convinced by the product but worried about delivery or returns. Happy with the price but hesitant about payment. These are ordinary moments, and they’re often where conversion work becomes commercially useful. Like we often say, CRO is frequently highly unglamorous and unsexy. But these principles can be wildly effective when you get them right.

That’s why the 12 ideas above keep returning in our CRO work. They deal with the small, specific bits of friction that accumulate across a store. So if you’re getting traffic but not seeing the conversions you’re expecting, give them a go.

If you want to increase conversion rate in a way that holds up over time, start by identifying the places where shoppers have to guess, wait, search, compare without help, or continue without reassurance. Then test changes that make those moments easier.

For more on how we approach this, have a look at:

• A/B Testing 101: What It Is and How to Run Your First Test

• Increase Conversion Rate and Customer Lifetime Value with CRO Implementation for Shopify Stores

• Blend CRO Services