Ads aren't your conversion problem. Checkout is. Here's how to find out for sure.
10-point checkout CR gain. No extra ad spend.
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You audit your ad account every week. CPA, ROAS, CPM, hook rate.
You know your numbers cold.
But when's the last time you pulled your checkout conversion rate?
If the answer is never, you're optimizing CPA upstream while the sale is dying at the last mile
Across 14 years of checkout research, global cart abandonment is at 70.19%.
A chunk of that is recoverable, and the part you're not recovering is sitting inside your CAC as a leak you've never measured.
The ads aren't the problem. The checkout is.
Open Shopify Analytics now. Leave it open while you read this.
Most brands are still managing creator campaigns out of spreadsheets and one-off PDF briefs.
That's not a strategy. That's a bottleneck.
Your team is spending hours building briefs, chasing deliverables, and tracking who posted what, while your best creator relationships sit underutilized.
SuperBrief by Superfiliate fixes this. It turns a static brief into a complete workflow — from deliverables to gifting to content approval to payment. All in one tool.
No more switching between platforms. No more hiring headcount just to manage the chaos.
If your influencer program is still mostly manual, you're leaving revenue on the table.
The Two Numbers Shopify Buries
Shopify shows you site CR by default. That tells you whether the whole funnel is working, but it won't tell you where it's breaking.
Checkout CR (orders divided by checkouts started), is what isolates the final three steps: contact info, shipping, payment.
It lives two clicks deep in Analytics, which is why it goes unchecked for months.
A store can have a healthy site CR and a catastrophic checkout CR at the same time. You need both numbers to know where the problem actually is.
To find it:
> Shopify Analytics > Reports > Conversion funnel> Set the window to 90 days
Pull both numbers and write them down before you read further.
Everything from here builds on your own baseline.
Read the Drop-Off by Step
The conversion funnel shows drop-off at every step:
- Sessions to product views
- Product views to cart additions
- Cart additions to checkout initiated
- Checkout initiated to purchase
The step with the steepest drop tells you what to fix before you change anything.
When customers are adding to cart but not initiating checkout, the culprit is usually shipping cost appearing for the first time in the cart.
Research across thousands of checkout audits shows 39% of cart abandonment.
A secondary reason is carts being used as wishlists, not as active purchase intent.
When customers start checkout but don't complete it, the issue shifts to payment friction and checkout UX.
Forced account creation drives 24% of checkout abandonment. An overly complicated checkout process adds another 18%.
Both drop points have different causes and different fixes.
Applying the wrong solution to the wrong step costs you time and revenue.
Find the single step with the steepest drop. That's the project this week.
The Device Split
Your blended checkout CR hides a device-specific failure.
Mobile drives the majority of your traffic and loses more checkouts than desktop.
A blended number drags your overall CR down without telling you which device is causing it.
> Go back into the conversion funnel and segment the leaking step by device.
> Pull mobile checkout CR and desktop checkout CR separately.
A checkout converting at 65% on desktop and 42% on mobile isn't a general checkout problem.
Fix it accordingly. Use one-tap payment options that skip the form-filling entirely:
Express wallets
Tap-to-autofill
Reduced form fields
CTA placement reachable with one thumb
Segment the leaking step by device before deciding on a fix.
If the gap is mobile, the solution is mobile-specific.
Size the Leak
Put a dollar figure on the problem before you touch anything.
Say your store runs 1,000 checkout initiations per month at a 45% checkout CR. That's 450 completed orders.
Move checkout CR to 55% and you get 550 orders from the same ad spend. 100 additional orders, no additional budget.
At a $100 AOV, that's $10,000 in recovered monthly revenue. At $150 AOV, $15,000.
> Plug in your own numbers: checkouts started per month multiplied by current checkout CR gives you where you are.
> Multiply by your target CR and find the gap.
That's the revenue sitting behind one checkout fix, with the same ad spend you're already running.
It never feels urgent until you put a revenue figure on it.
Match the Fix to the Step
Apply the fix that maps to your leaking step. Don't apply all of them.
• Cart to checkout leak:
> Show shipping cost on the product page, before the cart. The surprise is what kills it, not the fee itself. Show shipping cost on the product page and most customers adjust rather than exit.
> Use threshold framing. "You're $15 away from free shipping" gives the customer a next action. A flat shipping fee gives them a reason to leave.
• Checkout to purchase leak:
> Enable guest checkout if it isn't already on.
There's no reason to require account creation at the point of purchase.
> Cut optional form fields.
Every field that isn't required to process the order is friction with no upside. Remove it.
> Add trust signals at the payment field.
That's the highest-anxiety moment in checkout. A security badge, recognized payment logos, and a brief return policy line directly address the hesitation.
> Add a progress indicator.
Customers who can see they're on step 2 of 3 convert at higher rates than those on a page with no visible end.
> Enable express wallets: Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay.
Reducing form fields improves checkout completion by 20 to 60%. One-tap checkout on mobile is the fastest path to closing that gap.
Run This Audit This Week
Five steps. 30 minutes.
1. Pull 90-day site CR and checkout CR from Shopify Analytics > Reports > Conversion funnel. Write both down.
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2. Identify the step with the steepest drop. Compare against your vertical and AOV band, not the global average.
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3. Segment that step by device. If the mobile number is materially worse, the fix is mobile-first.
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4. Apply the fix that maps to your leaking step. Cart leak: shipping transparency and threshold framing. Checkout leak: guest checkout, fewer form fields, trust signals, express wallets.
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5. Re-check checkout CR in 14 days for a clean before/after read.
Final Thoughts
Every dollar of CPA you've spent this month is riding on a checkout you may have never audited.
The leak won't show in your ad account.
It shows up in the revenue you expected and didn't get.
Thirty minutes. Run it this week.
If you want a growth partner who is invested in helping you build a profitable business, someone who is going to push you to make changes that focus on profitable growth. Book a call - let’s chat
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Disclaimer: Thank you to Superfiliate for sponsoring today's newsletter.
