ecommerce-cro-audit

Ecommerce & Conversion CRO Audit

Diagnose why a page or funnel underconverts, then prescribe prioritized, evidence-backed fixes. Built for product pages first; the same method applies to collection/cart/checkout and to non-ecommerce surfaces.

Operating principles

1. Ground in first-party data before opinion. Pull the real funnel before theorizing. "This hurts conversion" is far stronger paired with "and your add-to-cart rate is 0.8% vs a ~7.5% norm."
2. Benchmark against the right tier. A $400 luxury item is not a $30 commodity. See references/diagnostics-and-benchmarks.md.
3. Diagnose before prescribing. Locate the leak (which step) and the mechanism (which gate) before listing fixes.
4. Conversion is multiplicative. Several mediocre gates compound to a near-zero rate; repair the whole chain.
5. Prioritize by impact × effort, and don't call a fix "proven" until a sound test confirms it (references/experimentation.md).
6. Show, don't tell. Pair recommendations with a visual blueprint; hand output to report-information-design.

The workflow

1. Baseline (first-party data). Sessions → add-to-cart rate → reached-checkout → completed; device; source; AOV; returns. Interrogate traffic quality first; the add-to-cart rate is usually the most defensible signal. Shopify queries in references/shopify-specifics.md.
2. Benchmark against the correct tier.
3. Walk the funnel (home → collection → PDP → cart → checkout, PDP-weighted). On a real theme, map findings to actual files/blocks.
4. Five-gate diagnostic: Comprehend → Desire → Trust → De-risk → Act (extended to the cart/checkout gate). Score each; locate the leak via step-conversion.
5. Check the levers (references/conversion-playbook.md + references/checkout-mobile-accessibility.md): reviews, imagery, fit, variant/configurator UX, buy-box + sticky ATC, value/story, trust + BNPL, OOS capture, checkout UX, mobile, accessibility, search/personalization, speed.
6. Prioritize on an impact × effort matrix; design the experiment (hypothesis, PXL/ICE prioritization, sample size, run length).
7. Produce the deliverable — sourced audit + annotated blueprint; use deep-research-synthesis for fresh evidence and report-information-design for output.

Reference map

• references/conversion-playbook.md — the core levers with sourced lift figures.
• references/diagnostics-and-benchmarks.md — benchmark tiers, traffic-quality caveats, funnel math, the five-gate model, impact/effort.
• references/checkout-mobile-accessibility.md — checkout/cart UX (Baymard), the mobile gap, accessibility-as-CRO, search/personalization, email/retention.
• references/experimentation.md — sizing/peeking/sequential testing, ICE/PIE/PXL/RICE, hypothesis template.
• references/buyer-psychology.md — premium/luxury & affluent psychology, sustainability sequencing, storytelling, naming, gifting.
• references/persuasion-and-mental-models.md — Cialdini's 7 + conversion mental models + pricing psychology + a challenge→models table.
• references/shopify-specifics.md — Shopify theme/PDP hooks, ShopifyQL queries, the conversion app ecosystem.
• references/liquid-product-template-checklist.md — building a clean, conversion-optimized Shopify product template (current Dawn/theme-tools practice).
• references/beyond-ecommerce.md — landing pages, lead-gen, SaaS signup.

Engagement context

At the start of a task, check for the engagement brief (default ./cro-engagement.md, created by the getting-started skill / /kickoff). If it exists, read it first and tailor to the client, product, price tier, ICP, in-scope surface, goal/metric, and brand voice it records. If it's missing and the work is more than a one-off, offer to capture one via getting-started.

Related skills

deep-research-synthesis (fresh, tiered evidence), report-information-design (the report + blueprint), conversion-copywriting (on-page copy as a lever), outbound-and-positioning (the positioning the page expresses). Agents: cro-auditor runs this skill, cro-verifier checks the output.

Guardrails

Don't quote vendor "X% lift" figures as guarantees (label directional). Don't recommend fake urgency. Don't let sustainability/mission lead for a style-first audience. Separate the page problem from the traffic problem — this skill targets conversion, not acquisition.