Shopify Mobile Checklist (12 Checks)

Most of your visitors are probably on a phone. And on most stores, phones convert worse than computers: a 2026 Contentsquare report, quoted by Shopify, found 3.4% on desktop against 2% on mobile.

Some of that gap is natural: people browse on the bus and buy later on a laptop. But a lot of it comes from small things that only go wrong on a small screen. Here are the 12 checks I start with.

Before you start: test it like a customer

Your own phone is the best tool you have. To see what a new visitor sees:

Open your store in a private (incognito) window, so you’re not logged in and nothing is remembered.
Turn off Wi-Fi and use 4G. Your office broadband hides speed problems.
Pick a product, add it to the basket and go all the way to the payment step. Don’t just look: try to buy.

The product page

1. Can you always reach Add to basket?

On a phone, people scroll: photos, description, reviews. By the time they’re convinced, the button is far above them. A sticky Add to basket bar that appears as you scroll solves this, and many themes have one built in.

Then check that it actually shows. This week I looked at a fashion store where the logo was so wide that the header icons dropped onto a second row. The header grew taller, and it covered the sticky button completely. On a computer, everything looked fine.

2. Is the header slim?

Your header sits on top of every page. Keep the logo, menu, search and basket icons on one row, and check the header doesn’t take up more than a small strip of the screen, especially if it stays fixed as you scroll.

3. Are buttons and size options easy to tap?

Fingers are less precise than a mouse. Aim for tap targets of at least 44 pixels, Apple’s recommended minimum, with a little space between them. Size swatches and the quantity + and − are the usual culprits.

4. Is delivery and returns information near the button?

Delivery cost, delivery time and returns are what people check just before they buy. On a phone they won’t scroll around to find them. Put one short line under the button: “Free UK delivery over £50 · Free 14-day returns.”

5. Do the photos work with a thumb?

Shoppers expect to swipe through photos and pinch or tap to zoom. Check that the first photo loads quickly and that zooming doesn’t trap them in a view they can’t close.

Getting around

6. Does anything cover the page?

Pop-ups, cookie banners, chat bubbles and “Join the list” tabs all compete for the same small screen. Check that:

the sign-up pop-up doesn’t open the moment someone lands. Google warns against intrusive pop-ups on mobile, and shoppers close them anyway.
the close button is easy to find and tap.
nothing sits on top of the Add to basket button or the sticky bar.

7. Can people find things?

Search should be one tap away, not hidden inside the menu. And the menu should get people to a product in two or three taps. Long, nested menus are hard to use with a thumb.

8. Is the text easy to read?

Body text should be at least 16 pixels. That matters in forms too: on iPhones, tapping a field with smaller text makes the page zoom in, and shoppers then have to zoom back out.

Basket and checkout

9. Are there express payment buttons?

Typing a card number on a phone is fiddly. Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay let people pay in a couple of taps. Check they’re switched on in Settings → Payments, and that they appear in the basket as well as at checkout.

10. Do surprises appear late?

If delivery costs only appear at checkout, phone shoppers are the quickest to give up. Show the delivery cost, or how much more someone needs to spend for free delivery, in the basket.

11. Do the forms help people type?

Email fields should bring up the email keyboard (with the @), and phone fields the number pad. Autofill should work for name and address. Shopify’s checkout does this well. Check your own forms, like newsletter sign-ups and contact pages, too.

Speed

12. How fast does it load on 4G?

Run your product page through PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile results. The most useful number is Largest Contentful Paint: how long the main content, usually the first product photo, takes to appear. Google counts 2.5 seconds or less as good.

Slow on mobile? Start with my quick wins for a faster Shopify store: large images, autoplay videos and apps you no longer use are the usual causes.

In short

Test on your own phone, on 4G, in a private window, and try to buy.
Make sure Add to basket is always within reach, and that nothing covers it.
Put delivery and returns next to the button, and express payments in the basket.
Check speed on mobile, not on your office computer.

Fixing even one of these can make a real difference, because phones are where most of your visitors are. For more product page checks, download the free Shopify Conversion Checklist: 25 checks, about 30 minutes on your phone.

Or send me your store for a free Fix Friday review. Each week I pick one store and record a short video showing one real problem and how to fix it.