Shopify Plus performance and CRO

Launch is the point at which a store starts producing data, and it is also the point at which most stores stop being worked on. The theme is handed over, the agency moves on, and the numbers that would show where money is leaking sit in analytics unread. Optimisation is the work of reading them and acting on them, month after month.

It is also the work most easily done badly. A CRO agency produces tests it cannot build and recommendations that wait for a developer. A developer without the data makes the store faster and never finds out whether it mattered. This is both halves done by the same person, so a hypothesis on Monday can be a live change by Friday.

What gets worked on

Speed. Core Web Vitals on the devices customers actually use, measured in the field rather than in a lab. Most of the gains on a Plus store are in the app stack and the third-party scripts, not the theme, and being straight about which apps are costing you is part of the job.

The path to purchase. Collection filtering, product page structure, variant selection, the cart, and the checkout extensions Plus allows. Small, unglamorous fixes here compound: a clearer size guide, a faster add to cart, one fewer step before payment.

Testing. Proper A/B tests where traffic supports them, and honest before-and-after measurement where it does not. Most stores outside the very top tier cannot run a valid split test on a single product page, and pretending otherwise produces confident nonsense.

Merchandising logic. Bundles, tiered pricing, gift with purchase and free shipping thresholds built as Shopify Functions, so the offers marketing wants to run do not need a new app or a developer each time.

What it is measured against

Revenue per session, conversion rate by device and by traffic source, average order value, and the speed metrics that feed them. A monthly note sets out what was changed, what moved, and what is queued next. If something was tried and did not work, that is in the note too.

The numbers on the case studies below came after full rebuilds, not from optimisation alone. They are here because they are the same levers: speed, a cleaner path to purchase, and logic built into the platform rather than bolted on to it.

How it fits with the other work

Optimisation usually runs inside a retained arrangement, where the days are already reserved. It can follow a custom theme build, or start on its own once an audit has shown where the leaks are.

Who it is for

Brands on Plus with steady traffic and a team that wants the store to improve rather than just keep running. If the store has not launched yet, or is about to be rebuilt, start with the build and come back to this.