Conversion Works by TauristJoseph Nguyen · CRO Audit
Turning storefront friction into a prioritized CRO roadmap.
Summary
A comprehensive Shopify audit connected funnel analysis, storefront usability, merchandising, and tracking into one actionable plan. The work delivered 70 scored recommendations and options, a 90-day roadmap with three proposed experiments, and technical handoff documents for the measurement gaps uncovered along the way.
Services
- CRO Audit
- Funnel & UX Analysis
- Tracking Review
- Experiment Roadmap
- Industry
- Author & creator commerce
- Platform
- Shopify
- Engagement
- CRO Audit
Audit
- Scored recommendations/options
- 70
- Storefront areas
- 6
- Tracking components assessed
- 10
- Critical tracking gaps documented
- 2
Priorities
- Checkout clarity
- Checkout
- Guided product discovery
- Discovery
- PDP decision hierarchy
- PDP
- Tracking reliability
- Tracking
Deliverables
- Full audit report
- Full audit
- ICE priority sheet
- ICE
- 3-experiment roadmap
- 90-day
- Technical handoff documents
- 2
01 Client & Context
Joseph Nguyen’s Shopify store brings together physical books, ebooks, journals, bundles, and courses. Visitors can arrive knowing a particular title or looking more broadly for help with overthinking, anxiety, and decision-making. Those different starting points make clear navigation and product guidance especially important.
The engagement examined how that audience moved from discovery into a purchase. It combined a historical performance review with an audit of navigation, the homepage, collections, product pages, cart and checkout, and supporting content pages. The goal was to give Joseph and his team a practical order of work, with the reasoning behind each recommendation.
02 Challenge & Goals
Challenges
- The homepage centered on the flagship book, while visitors with broader interests had limited guidance toward other relevant products, formats, and bundles.
- Product discovery required shoppers to interpret format-based navigation and distinguish similar-looking editions before they had much context.
- The product decision area mixed purchase information, long titles, proof, and a separate bundle offer. The audit identified opportunities to make the primary purchase and higher-value options easier to understand together.
- Shipping expectations, free-shipping messages, and bundle pricing needed closer review across the journey to avoid uncertainty as shoppers approached checkout.
- The tracking review documented two critical measurement gaps: GA4 was not collecting data as intended, and the server-side endpoint was returning an SSL certificate error.
Goals
- Make it easier for shoppers to find the right book, format, or bundle and understand their next step.
- Identify opportunities to improve conversion and order value without adding purchase friction.
- Prioritize measurement repairs so future changes could be assessed with more dependable data.
- Deliver a scored backlog and focused testing sequence the client could use with a development team.
03 Discovery
- The audit reviewed historical funnel performance, landing-page behavior, device patterns, acquisition channels, and the product mix. These views helped connect individual interface findings to the parts of the journey that deserved attention first.
- The storefront review followed the shopping path across six areas: global navigation, homepage, collection pages, product pages, cart and checkout, and other content pages. It looked at orientation, product differentiation, proof, CTA hierarchy, bundle presentation, and the clarity of pricing and shipping messages.
- A separate tracking inventory assessed ten components, including analytics, ad pixels, tag management, server-side tracking, Shopify Customer Events, Microsoft Clarity, and Klaviyo. The GA4 and server-side findings were documented as issues observed during the audit, with technical work scoped for a later implementation.
- Recommendations and alternative approaches were recorded in an ICE spreadsheet, scoring impact, confidence, and ease. Its 70 populated entries included 10 navigation, 13 homepage, 13 collection, 19 product-page, 10 cart/checkout, and five other-page recommendations or options. The roadmap then narrowed that wider backlog to three major experiments in a deliberate sequence.
04 Solutions
Make the product decision easier to scan
- Observed experience
- The product page separated the main purchase area from a prominent bundle offer below it. On mobile, the long title and stacked elements extended the decision area; on desktop, unused space beneath the gallery offered little help with understanding the product.
- Recommended direction
- Create a compact purchase unit with a clear order: title, reviews, price, format, package choice, and one primary CTA. Bring a simple pricing ladder into that unit so shoppers can compare a standalone book with relevant higher-value packages. Follow it with concise information about what the product is and who it is for.
- Proposed experiment
- Test the decision-block redesign and pricing ladder as one cohesive PDP experiment. Use revenue per PDP session to evaluate the combined conversion and order-value effect, supported by add-to-cart rate, package selection, checkout starts, and AOV.
- Guardrails
- Check that packages add correctly, prices stay consistent in the cart, and inventory and fulfillment rules remain clear. Monitor bundle confusion, refunds or complaints, and page performance alongside the primary metric.
The roadmap turned a broad product-page critique into a focused first experiment with a defined purchase unit, measurement plan, and implementation checks.
Original product-page screenshot from the audit. The proposed decision block and pricing ladder were recommendations for a future experiment.Turn the homepage into a guided starting point
- Observed experience
- The homepage hero focused on Don’t Believe Everything You Think with a single shopping CTA. That gave visitors a direct route to one book but less help if they arrived interested in the author, another topic, a different format, or a bundle.
- Recommended direction
- Keep the flagship book in context while explaining what the store offers and providing two or three intentional shopping paths. Pair that clearer entry point with relevant product collections and visible proof so visitors can choose a next step without first knowing the entire catalog.
- Proposed experiment
- Compare the current single-product hero with a guided-entry version. Track meaningful hero clicks and progression into collection or product pages, with revenue per homepage session, bounce rate, and new-versus-returning behavior as supporting measures.
- Guardrails
- Keep the number of choices restrained and the mobile hero easy to understand. Preserve quick access for returning visitors and monitor email capture if that becomes one of the entry paths.
The audit gave the homepage a clear job: help different visitors find a relevant shopping path while retaining the flagship product’s role in the business.
Original homepage screenshot from the audit. The guided-entry hero was the second experiment proposed in the 90-day roadmap.Give collection pages more context and reassurance
- Observed experience
- Collection browsing depended heavily on product titles, images, and sale prices. Similar book covers and editions were difficult to distinguish at a glance, while the surrounding collection experience offered limited guidance about the right product or format.
- Recommended direction
- Use benefit-led collection introductions, clear titles, breadcrumbs, and concise value propositions. Improve product-card differentiation with useful context, ratings where available, and clearer format information. Keep alternative shopping paths on the store where practical.
- Proposed experiment
- Test a cohesive collection upgrade after the PDP and homepage experiments. Measure collection-to-PDP clickthrough, supported by add-to-cart behavior, revenue per collection session, and engagement with links to alternative formats.
- Guardrails
- Keep headers and breadcrumbs compact on mobile. Optimize any new imagery and monitor layout stability so added context does not make browsing slower or push products too far down the page.
The collection brief connected merchandising and trust improvements to a specific next action: helping more shoppers confidently choose a product to explore.
Original collection-page screenshot from the audit. It illustrates the product differentiation and browsing context reviewed in the recommendations.
05 Implementation & Development
- A documented handoff
- The delivered audit explained the findings and recommended directions, while the ICE sheet gave the client an ordered backlog. This engagement produced the audit and plan; the source materials do not establish that the proposed storefront changes were implemented.
- Measurement dependencies
- The server-side plan prioritized the SSL certificate issue, verification of the server container, and end-to-end purchase-event checks. It then outlined platform configuration, deduplication, and data-quality validation. These were implementation requirements, not completed repairs.
- Technical specifications
- The data-layer document described standard ecommerce events, author-business events such as course enrollment and email signup, tag-manager configuration, and validation checks. Together, the two technical documents gave a developer a defined starting point for the tracking work.
- One major experiment at a time
- The 90-day roadmap sequenced the PDP decision block first, guided homepage entry second, and collection merchandising third. Each month’s brief included a hypothesis, variant concept, metrics, guardrails, and design, development, and QA steps.
- A deliberate launch sequence
- The plan called for finalizing the concept and event requirements, designing the mobile experience, developing and checking cart behavior, then launching and monitoring the experiment. A test could continue beyond a calendar month when more evidence was needed before deciding the next step.
06 Results & Impact
- Scored recommendations/options
- 70
- Storefront areas reviewed
- 6
- Experiments in the roadmap
- 3
- Technical handoff documents
- 2
The outcome was a complete decision-making package: a detailed CRO audit, a scored priority sheet, a 90-day experimentation roadmap, and technical handoff documents for tracking. The client could see both the wider opportunity set and a manageable place to start.
The work connected storefront recommendations to the questions an experiment should answer. It also identified measurement dependencies before those experiments, helping the team plan how to evaluate purchase behavior, order value, and product discovery rather than relying on visual preference alone.
Joseph’s feedback recognized the depth of the audit and the clarity of the suggested plan, giving the team a practical foundation for its next round of conversion work.
This case study documents the completed audit and its recommended roadmap. The 70 scored entries include alternatives; no post-implementation performance is reported.
One of the most thorough, thoughtful, and insightful audits I've received on our website and business. I know that if we implement the suggested plan, our conversion rates will drastically improve.
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