Updated September 2026
Every store has slow stretches. The trouble starts when the dips get more frequent and the peaks get smaller, and the first instinct is to find something outside the business to blame: the apps, the theme, the platform, the algorithm.
That instinct is natural, and sometimes it's even right. But more often the cause is closer to home, in the offer, the marketing or the way the store is run. The way out of a slump is an honest review, done with numbers rather than hunches. Here's how to do one.
1. Check the slump is real
Before changing anything, make sure you're looking at a real drop and not a quirk of the calendar or the data.
- Compare like with like. In Analytics, compare the period with the same weeks last year, not just the previous month. Many stores are simply quieter in January or late summer.
- Check for measurement changes. Shopify changed how it counts sessions between September 21 and 23, 2026: sessions now follow continued activity instead of ending at midnight UTC, and identified bots are filtered out. Session counts and conversion rates may move because of that alone. Orders and sales aren't affected, so trust those first.
- Check tracking still works. If one channel suddenly shows zero, a broken pixel or tag is a more likely culprit than customers vanishing overnight.
2. Find which number moved
Sales come from three things multiplied together: how many people visit, how many of them buy, and how much they spend. A slump is almost always one of those falling, and each one points to a different fix.
All three are on the Analytics dashboard: Sessions (and sessions by traffic source), Online store conversion rate and Average order value. The conversion rate breakdown report goes further, showing how many sessions added to cart, reached checkout and completed checkout, so you can see where people stop. Also look at Returning customer rate: a store that's lost its repeat buyers has a different problem from one that's lost new visitors.
3. Ask the honest questions
Once you know which number moved, the questions get sharper.
If traffic fell
- Did we stop doing something? A paused ad campaign, fewer emails, a quieter social account.
- Is the marketing reaching the people who actually buy from us, or just people who like the posts?
- Did search traffic drop after a site change, like new URLs or a theme switch?
If conversion fell
- Are our best sellers in stock? Nothing kills conversion faster than the popular sizes selling out.
- Did prices, shipping costs or delivery times change? Shoppers often find out at checkout; why customers leave at the payment step covers the usual reasons.
- Would a first-time visitor trust us? Reviews, clear returns, real photos, a way to contact us.
If order value fell
- Are we discounting more often, so customers wait for the sale?
- Has the mix shifted to cheaper products? Is there anything that naturally goes with them? There are ideas in how to get customers to buy more per order.
Whatever moved
- Is customer service answering quickly and well, so people come back?
- Are we listening to feedback, like reviews, returns and support emails, and acting on it?
- Have customers' needs moved on while our range stayed the same?
Tools help, they don't sell
Apps and tools make a store run better, but they don't create demand on their own. If the offer isn't right, no app will fix it.
That said, it's fair to rule the tools out rather than just defend them. If conversion dropped on a specific day, check what changed that day: a theme update, a new app, an edited checkout setting. Test the whole path to purchase on a phone yourself. And if the store has gathered years of apps, a clean-up often helps more than a new one; we list the usual suspects in what we see wrong in most stores we audit.
4. Change one thing at a time
When you've found the likely cause, fix that first and give it a few weeks before judging it. If you change prices, the homepage and the email schedule at the same time, you'll never know what worked. Write down what you changed and when, so the next review is quicker.
A slump is uncomfortable, but it's also the moment most stores finally take a hard look at themselves. The ones that come out stronger are the ones that looked honestly. If you'd like a second pair of eyes, our store audit does exactly this review.