Hey everyone, Matt Howe from Northline Supply Co. here. I’ve been noticing that our conversion rates are significantly lower on mobile devices compared to desktop. I’ve checked our site on my phone and it looks okay, but I must be missing something. How are you all handling mobile conversions? Any specific tools or design tweaks you’d recommend? Thanks!
You mean this one?
Or this one?
Either way, services don’t really seem like things people on their phones would be completing, and might need to be looking through on their desktop. Nothing wrong with that. I’ve seen many many like that. Flexpipe is a great example. Sure I could order from my phone, but it’s just something that’s done more from a desktop.
Hey @MattHowe
I hope you’re doing well!
if the site looks fine on your phone, I’d check where mobile visitors are actually dropping off before changing the design. So I’d start by checking speed, navigation, product pages, and where mobile users are dropping off. If you’re getting a good amount of mobile traffic, Napps is worth looking at for creating a more app-like shopping experience. It can turn your Shopify store into a native mobile app and gives you things like push notifications to bring shoppers back.
NAPPS also integrates with loyalty apps like Growave which can make it easier to bring loyalty features into the mobile experience.
Install a free app Microsoft Clarity. It records the user session.
Now look at videos for mobile sessions.
It can tell u a lot.
Hi @MattHowe
Can you share your store URL so that we can check the conversion issue on mobile device.
Thanks
As Ploqo suggested, viewing the user recording can be a good idea. But few things to keep in while using such services.
Especially Microsoft clarity can slow your website considerably. So do run it in the website for a short time and once the experiment is over do make sure its removed from the store. if you like to have more of a permanent such recording solutions its better to research alternatives, we have personally found clarity bit too heavy.
Apart from that, if your store has too much traffic it can be get bit overwhelming. SO another quick way to debug would be by using analytics to break down where exactly the funnel breaks. In analytics break you visitors down by sessions, product views, added to cart, reached checkout, converted. Pull both mobile and desktop data side by side and look for where exactly the ratio drops. Because the fix can be completely different based on which step is the cause for the leak in the funnel. Personally i’ve always noticed mobile to have slight lower conversion that desktop. So what you’re looking for is an out of ordinary drop at one step rather than a lower number overall.
If the leak is between add to cart and reached checkout, the problem is usually the CART. It might be a full page reload to a seperate cart page, or a checkut button sitting below the fold. Even stuff like that can cause major drop (especially if your product is more of a impulse purchase ). Now if the drop is between product view and add to cart, check the working of your add to cart button. Also do check how much scrolling it takes to reach the buy button on a real phone. If it’s at a checkout itself. may be just turning on the accelerated payment buttons can be the culprit (paypal , apple pay shop pay etc).
Just one more thing, do test on a mid range android and and smaller/old iphone, not just your phone. That’s might be where real gap is. We use a service called browserstack for our testing
I would first locate where the mobile gap begins before changing the design. In Shopify/GA4, compare mobile vs desktop at product view → add to cart → checkout reached → purchase, then split mobile by landing page and browser.
If the drop starts before add-to-cart, test a few real phones for variant selection, sticky buttons covering content, image/section load time, pop-ups and whether the main CTA is visible without a long scroll. If checkout reach is similar but purchase completion drops, check payment methods, address-field friction and shipping surprises instead.
I would not install another app yet. If you can share the store URL plus those four mobile/desktop rates (rounded numbers are fine), that should narrow this to traffic mix, product-page friction, speed or checkout without touching production.
i’d first figure out where mobile is actually losing people instead of changing the whole site. look at the product page, add to cart, checkout and purchase numbers separately and compare them with desktop.
sometimes the site looks perfectly fine on a phone but there are little things that make buying annoying. i’ve seen slow product images, buttons sitting too far down, shipping costs showing up too late and checkout being awkward on mobile.
i’d also go through the whole purchase yourself on an actual phone using mobile data. not just the homepage, start from a product and see how the whole thing feels until payment.
then i’d run the store through SiteGuru and see if anything obvious is being missed on the technical side. i like using that as a second check because sometimes the issue isn’t something you notice just by looking at the storefront.
Hey @MattHowe ,
I’d first look at what mobile users are actually doing on the site rather than just checking how it looks on a phone. Sometimes a store looks perfectly fine but small things like page speed, CTA placement, navigation, or checkout friction can still hurt conversion.
Shopify Analytics is a good place to start to see where mobile users are dropping off. I also find Microsoft Clarity useful because you can see where people are clicking, scrolling, or getting stuck.
I’d also compare mobile and desktop performance by product or landing page. It could be that the problem isn’t the whole mobile experience, but one particular page that’s bringing the conversion rate down.
Even simple changes like making the Add to Cart button easier to find, reducing unnecessary pop ups optimizing images, and simplifying the checkout flow can help.
Thank You!
I’d look at the first screen on mobile, not the whole site.
On a lot of stores the page looks fine in a quick phone check, but the real issue is that the main CTA gets pushed down, the product image takes over too much space, or the size and shipping info only show after too much scrolling.
Oftentimes, moving the buy button, price, and the first bit of trust info higher on the page makes a bigger difference than any full redesign (and allows for a simple A/B test).
Mobile will often convert lower, especially for B2B or considered purchases. I’d focus on where the gap starts rather than the overall rate.
- In Shopify Analytics, compare mobile vs desktop for product view, add to cart, reached checkout, and purchase. Use the last 30 days and look for the biggest step-down.
- Test on a mid-range Android phone over mobile data, not just Wi-Fi. Check menu use, variant selection, sticky elements, popups, and whether the add-to-cart button is visible without lots of scrolling.
- Run Shopify’s speed report and remove or disable app blocks that are loading on product pages but not helping sales. Mobile is much less forgiving of delayed taps and layout shifts.
- Enable Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay where available, then complete a real test order. Also make sure shipping costs and delivery timing appear before checkout if possible.
For a service-heavy store, also track quote requests or calls by device. Purchases alone may understate mobile’s role.
Hi @MattHowe 
Mobile can be tricky because a store can look perfectly fine on a phone and still have a lot of small friction points that affect conversions.
I’d start by looking at the product page specifically. Things like how quickly customers can understand the product, how easy it is to select options, how much scrolling is required before reaching Add to Cart, and whether important information is pushed too far down the page can make a bigger difference than the overall design.
If your products have multiple choices or add-ons, I’d pay particular attention to that section on mobile. Large dropdowns or long lists of options can take up a surprising amount of screen space and make the buying process feel more complicated than it needs to be.
I’ve used Easify Custom Product Options for this kind of setup because you can present things like colors, images, custom options, and add-ons in a more compact and visual way. That can be especially useful on mobile where screen space is limited.
I wouldn’t install an app just for the sake of it, though. I’d first use your analytics or session recordings to see where mobile visitors are dropping off. If they’re reaching the product page but struggling around the options/Add to Cart area, then simplifying that part of the experience could be a worthwhile test.
Sometimes the mobile conversion gap isn’t caused by one major design problem—it’s a few small things adding friction throughout the journey.
Mobile converting worse than desktop is normal — the useful question is where the drop starts.
In Analytics, split mobile vs desktop for product page views → add to cart → reached checkout → purchase. If mobile dies before add to cart, the PDP is the problem (hero too tall, ATC below the fold, sticky bar missing, or a popup covering the first screen). If they add to cart but do not reach checkout, look at cart drawer friction and payment methods. If they reach checkout and bounce, check Shop Pay, guest checkout, and whether shipping cost appears late.
On the phone itself: open your own PDP in a private tab, dismiss any popup, and see if Add to cart is visible without scrolling. Delay or suppress the first-visit popup on mobile (30s / second page, unknowns only). A full-screen overlay on cold mobile traffic is a common silent conversion tax.
One disclosure since it fits the “popup covering the first screen” point: I work on Atomato (Atomato Email, SMS & Upsell - Grow email and SMS lists and upsell from a feed... | Shopify App Store), a shopper-opened notification bell/feed for offers, restocks, drops, and in-feed add to cart. Email/SMS capture is one card in the feed, not an ESP. It sits next to the popup you already run so returning mobile shoppers have a non-modal path instead of another interrupt. The analytics split and first-screen ATC check matter more this afternoon than any widget.