Sessions up, sales down. Shopify not taking accountability.

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Store owners report a persistent issue since March 2023: sessions have increased significantly while conversion rates have dropped dramatically (from ~2% to below 1% in many cases). The problem appears concentrated at checkout, where more customers reach the payment stage but fewer complete purchases.

Key observations:

  • Multiple merchants experiencing identical patterns starting March 8-March 2023
  • Issue persists despite implementing free shipping, discounts, and site improvements
  • Shopify Analytics shows inflated session counts not reflected in GA4
  • Some customers report checkout failures, but owners cannot replicate the errors
  • Conversion data temporarily disappeared from Shopify’s reporting
  • Bot traffic spikes observed from various countries

Troubleshooting attempts:

  • Testing across multiple devices and browsers
  • Hiring developers to audit code and apps
  • Investigating GA4 migration issues, SEO changes, and payment gateways
  • Checking for JavaScript errors and app conflicts

Shopify’s response:
Support provides generic answers and emphasizes their business model depends on merchant success. They suggest checking abandoned carts, shipping rates, and discount strategies. One moderator mentions Google indexing analytics URLs as a potential cause.

Current status:
No resolution found. Several merchants, including Shopify Plus users doing $1M+ annually, are considering migrating to other platforms due to lack of actionable support and ongoing conversion issues.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
2

Hi, @brandwise-owl

Greetings, and thank you for posting your concerns to the Shopify Community!

I definitely understand how a drop in conversions is concerning. Can you provide more specific information on what role you believe the platform is taking in this drop? For example, do you think there are unseen bugs? Or, do you think it is something you believe to be purposeful?

To put your mind at ease, please know that Shopify only succeeds if our merchants succeed. The profit our company sees is directly related to the sales you make as a business. If you don’t make money, we don’t make money.

To be specific, Shopify charges a transaction fee, or a processing fee, on every sale made through our platform. The fee varies depending on the subscription plan and the payment gateway used by the merchant. For example, merchants on the Basic Shopify plan pay a 2.9% + 30¢ fee for every transaction made through Shopify Payments, or a 2.0% fee for transactions made through third-party payment gateways.

If you believe the lack of conversions is due to platform issues we encourage you to bring this to our attention. If an independent developer reports a bug or vulnerability that is eligible for a reward under Shopify’s bug bounty program, they may be eligible to receive a reward for their discovery.

Overall, Shopify values the contributions of independent developers and encourages them to report any bugs or vulnerabilities they discover, so that they can be addressed and resolved as quickly as possible.

Thank you again, and look forward to your response!