Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a crucial focus for e-commerce store owners. Whether you're gearing up for a product launch, expanding your store’s audience, or looking to improve performance overall, CRO can often feel overwhelming–especially if you’re unsure where to begin.
A/B testing is one of the most effective ways to discover winning solutions while minimizing the risk of costly decisions. But what happens when your experiments fall flat—or worse, when you don’t even know what to test next? Frustration can quickly take hold.
When Testing Falls Short: How to Find the Right Solution
If your experiments aren’t yielding answers, you might be wondering: What’s going wrong? What should I test next?
Imagine being able to sit down with your Shopify store and have it tell you exactly where it hurts. What if you could pinpoint the moments where shoppers get confused, frustrated, or flustered—the times that lead to cart abandonment or lost sales?
The good news is, you don’t have to be a User Experience (UX) expert to gather these insights. All you need is a Usability Scorecard.
What Is a Usability Scorecard?
A Usability Scorecard is a tailored playbook designed to uncover usability issues on your website. It organizes recommended changes into two actionable categories:
- Quick Wins: Easy-to-implement fixes that can deliver immediate improvements.
- Testing Opportunities: Hypotheses for further testing, based on real customer feedback and behavior.
This tool helps create a clear testing roadmap, allowing you to plan months of CRO improvements without the guesswork.
How Usability Scorecards Help Shopify Store Owners
Strategic UX agency Surefoot, known for helping brands like Hydro Flask, Brooklinen, and Mizzen+Main, has been crafting Usability Scorecards for over seven years. According to Surefoot CEO Brian Schmitt, the insights these Scorecards uncover often surprise both the team and their clients.
Here are some of Brian’s favorite takeaways from recent Usability Scorecards:
Include human hands in product images
For items like tools, drinkware, and sports equipment, shoppers want to size comparisons and visualize how products feel in their hands.
Add smiling human faces to product photos
In categories like CPG, kids' toys, and home goods, this simple change makes products feel friendly and relatable. It helps shoppers imagine themselves using your product.
Declutter the buy box
Overloaded product detail pages (PDPs) are a major point of friction. Too much product information or too many checkout options in this area harms the add-to-cart rate. Pro tip: Move Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options to the checkout page. Shoppers aren't thinking about payment methods when deciding to add an item to their cart.
Add skeleton loading screens
A blank loading screen frustrates shoppers. Simple low-code solutions for skeleton loaders make a big difference in user experience.
Question "best practices"
Techniques like sticky mobile add-to-cart buttons, quizzes, or homepage hero images don't always convert as influencers claim. Regularly evaluate these features to ensure they actually support your CRO goals.
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Fresh Eyes for Better Conversion Rates
When you spend all day staring at your website, it’s easy to overlook—or fixate on—certain pain points. A Usability Scorecard offers a fresh perspective, helping you identify and address the most critical areas that impact your store’s performance.
Surefoot is giving away their step-by-step guide, How to Run a Usability Scorecard, for free.
-Brian at Surefoot is offering the following:
-Claim the free Scorecard linked above
-Reply to the email from Brian
-Mention “Shoplift”
-Brian will go through your homepage, collection page, and PDP and send you back 10 ideas you can start testing today
