Shopify and Shopify Plus stores
Shopify store audit
OUXP’s store audit is a fixed-price engineering review for Shopify and Shopify Plus stores that feel slow or stuck, or that someone else built. Senior engineers check speed, code, technical SEO, conversion, apps and security, then rank every finding by impact and effort – so you end with decisions, not a pile of warnings. $2,500 flat; written report in 5 business days.
Is a store audit the right first step?
An audit is for when you can’t yet say what’s wrong, or you have a suspicion and want evidence before you spend. If you already know the problem, a direct route below is faster and costs less. Still unsure? A free 30-minute strategy call with an engineer will tell you which fits.
A good fit if…
- The store feels slow or stuck: conversion, speed or rankings slipped, and nobody can say why
- You inherited the store from another agency or freelancer, with little documentation and code nobody wants to touch
- A redesign, a rebuild or an upgrade to Shopify Plus is on the table, and you want a baseline to measure it against
- A developer has quoted a big job, and you want a second opinion before you commit the budget
- The monthly app bill keeps growing, and nobody can say which apps earn their keep
Start somewhere else if…
- The store is down or checkout is failing – call emergency support now
- You already know speed is the problem – performance optimization starts by measuring the pages it will fix
- You want an ongoing program of A/B tests – conversion rate optimization opens with its own conversion audit
- You know exactly what should change – a theme customization quote is quicker, and most arrive within 1 business day
- The store still runs on Magento, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce or WooCommerce and you’re weighing a move to Shopify – the free migration assessment is the right review
What a Shopify store audit checks
Six areas, reviewed on your storefront, theme code, apps and analytics. Each one ends in findings you can act on, not a score.
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01
Performance
- We check
- Core Web Vitals – loading (LCP), responsiveness (INP) and layout stability (CLS) – from real-user data where traffic allows, plus lab tests to trace the causes. Scripts and media on the key templates, and what each app adds to load time.
- You find out
- Which apps, scripts and media slow the pages that earn money, and which fixes would make the biggest difference for real visitors.
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02
Code quality
- We check
- Theme architecture – Online Store 2.0 or a vintage theme – technical debt left by past developers, edits made in the theme’s core files, and how safely the theme can take its next update.
- You find out
- What is fragile, what can stay as it is, and which customizations a theme update would drop.
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03
Technical SEO
- We check
- Indexation and crawl rules, canonical tags and duplicate URLs, redirects and broken links, sitemaps, and the metadata and structured data on key templates.
- You find out
- Which pages search engines can’t find or misread, and which fixes protect the traffic you already have.
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04
Conversion
- We check
- The funnel in your analytics from landing page to order, friction on collection, product and cart pages, and a mobile UX review of the templates that carry most of the traffic.
- You find out
- Where shoppers drop out and the likely reasons – each marked as observed or still to be tested.
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05
App stack
- We check
- Every installed app: overlap where two apps do one job, scripts that load on pages that don’t use them, code left behind by uninstalled apps, and what each one costs per month.
- You find out
- A keep, replace or remove call for every app, with what it costs in fees and in load time.
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06
Security and compliance
- We check
- Who has staff and collaborator access, and with which permissions; what runs in checkout and whether it still works; accessibility issues on the key templates.
- You find out
- Access to remove, checkout logic to move or repair, and the accessibility issues to fix first.
Recent Shopify changes we look for
- Discount, shipping or payment rules that relied on Shopify Scripts – Scripts stopped running on June 30, 2026, so any logic not rebuilt in Shopify Functions no longer applies at checkout
- Conversion tracking or custom code that lived in the retired checkout.liquid or the old Thank you and Order status pages – it may have stopped firing, and now belongs in web pixels or checkout extensions
- Wholesale apps that Shopify’s own B2B features might replace – since April 2, 2026, core B2B is on every paid plan
- Vintage themes, which no longer get feature updates from Shopify
The audit covers what a review can show: accessibility issues are flagged, not certified against WCAG, and the security review covers access and checkout, not penetration testing.
What you get – and what a finding looks like
An automated scan can list hundreds of warnings. The report ranks what is worth fixing by impact and effort, so the top of the list is the work that pays back first – and it is yours to keep, whoever does the fixes.
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01
A written report
Every finding ranked by impact × effort, plus a scope for the fixes: what to change, in what order, and what depends on what.
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02
A walkthrough call
With the engineer who ran the audit, not a salesperson. Any finding you question gets a straight answer and the evidence behind it.
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03
A fixed quote, if you want one
For any fixes you’d like us to handle: a fixed price and timeline, with no obligation to go ahead.
What every finding includes
- Status: observed – we reproduced it – or a hypothesis, with the check that would confirm it
- Where: the affected URLs, templates and devices
- Evidence: measurements, screenshots or the lines of code involved
- Impact and effort: the two ratings that set its place in the ranking
- Suggested action: specific enough for any developer to quote
- Dependencies: the apps, content, data or other fixes it relies on, so work happens in the right order
Two sample findings – illustrative, not from client stores
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Sample finding
Shade options sit below the first screen on mobile product pages
- Area
- Conversion
- Status
- Observed – reproduced twice
- Where
- Product template, every product with shades; phones only
- Impact
- High
- Effort
- Low
Suggested action: move the shade selector above the description, then check the journey at three phone widths.
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Sample finding
Large hero images may be delaying collection pages on phones
- Area
- Performance
- Status
- Hypothesis – lab tests point to it; real-user data to confirm
- Where
- Collection template; phones
- Impact
- Medium, if confirmed
- Effort
- Low
Suggested action: compare real-user loading times for collection pages first; if confirmed, serve smaller images to phones and stop lazy-loading the first image on the page.
How we keep the findings honest
A report is only useful if you can trust what it tells you to spend money on. Three rules make sure you can.
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A guess written up as a fact
How we handle it
Every finding is marked observed or hypothesis. Observed means we reproduced it and can show you where. A hypothesis is a likely cause the audit couldn’t confirm – it comes with the check that would confirm it, so you don’t pay to fix something that isn’t broken.
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A speed score that doesn’t match what customers feel
How we handle it
Lab tests such as Lighthouse are repeatable and good at finding causes, but they simulate one device on one connection. Real-user data from the Chrome UX Report shows what visitors actually experience, where the store has enough traffic to be measured. We report both, rank speed fixes by their effect on real users and don’t promise a Lighthouse score.
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A report written to sell the next project
How we handle it
The report stands on its own: findings, evidence and priorities you can hand to any developer, including your current agency. It describes the code, not who wrote it, so it is safe to share. Many clients do hire us for the fixes – the report doesn’t depend on it.
How the audit runs
Five steps from your first message to a decision about fixes. The review and the written report take 5 business days.
- 1
Your request
Send the store URL, what worries you and anything planned – a redesign, a migration, a busy season. We confirm the audit fits, or point you to a smaller first step.
- 2
Access
You approve a Shopify collaborator request with the permissions we list, plus view access to analytics and Google Search Console if you use them. No shared passwords.
- 3
Review
Senior engineers work through the six areas on your storefront, theme code, apps and data. It is read-only: nothing on the live store changes.
- 4
Report and walkthrough
The ranked report, then a call with the engineer who ran the audit to go through it finding by finding.
- 5
Your decision
Fix it in-house, hand the report to another developer, or ask us for a fixed quote. There’s no obligation either way.
What happens after the audit – and what fixes cost
The $2,500 covers the review, the report and the walkthrough call. Fixes are scoped separately: you choose which recommendations to act on, and who does the work.
| Route | Price | Fits when | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your team or another developer | Your team’s time | You have developers who can take the ranked list and run with it | The report is written for them – every finding has its evidence, location and a suggested action |
| OUXP fixes at a fixed price | A fixed quote per fix or batch; theme changes from $500 | A handful of high-impact fixes – most single theme changes are delivered in 3–10 business days – or a contained project such as performance optimization (typically 2–4 weeks) | Price and timeline agreed before work starts; the audit creates no obligation |
| Monthly retainer | From $2,500/month for 20 engineering hours | The list is long, or new issues keep appearing | Month-to-month with 30 days’ notice; unused hours roll over one month |
| Redesign or rebuild | Scoped as a project | Problems recur across many templates, or the theme can’t take an update safely | More cost and more change – the report shows first whether targeted fixes would get you most of the way |
Honest note
Targeted fixes usually cost less than a redesign, and the audit tells you whether they’re enough. A redesign earns its place when the same problems recur across many templates, the catalog has outgrown the theme or every update needs a workaround – and when that’s the case, the report says so.
Weighing the two already? Our guide to choosing between a redesign and targeted fixes walks through the decision.
What merchants say about finding the real cause
The senior engineers who fix stores are the same ones who audit them. Two merchants describe that work, quoted word for word from the Shopify Partner Directory.
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“We brought in OUXP for some CRO fixes and theme/app compatibility issues, and they absolutely overdelivered. They didn't just patch things - they tracked down the real root causes, cleaned up our theme and got all the key apps working together smoothly. The store works faster, more solid, and we're seeing a clear bump in conversions.”
About this project
Brief: CRO fixes plus theme and app conflicts on a live store. Related service: conversion rate optimization.
Up to Everyone via Shopify Partner Directory (external site) CRO -
“Was able to fix a bunch of custom code that other developers could not and gave me a polished, perfectly-matched site to my original Figma design.”
About this project
Brief: custom code earlier developers couldn’t fix, and a site built to match the client’s Figma design. Related service: theme customization.
Breadwinner Health via Shopify Partner Directory (external site) Theme customization
Emergency support
Store down? Checkout broken?
- Store down or showing errors
- Checkout or payment failures
- A theme or app update broke something
- ERP, inventory or fulfillment sync stopped
Commerce engineers, not a help desk. Every request gets a first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours. Retainer clients with the 24/7 emergency add-on are covered around the clock. Not a client yet? Call anyway.
+1 (818) 651-3226 Emergency line 24/7 · Business hours Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET
Store audit questions
Something else? Ask an engineer – first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET).
How much does a Shopify store audit cost?
An OUXP store audit costs $2,500 flat, agreed before work starts. That covers the review of all six areas – performance, code quality, technical SEO, conversion, the app stack, and security and compliance – the written report and a walkthrough call with the engineer who ran it. Fixes are quoted separately as fixed prices, with no obligation to have OUXP do them and no retainer required.
How long does a store audit take, and what do you need from us?
The written report arrives in 5 business days, followed by the walkthrough call. To start, we need the store URL, a short note on what worries you and anything planned, such as a redesign or a migration. Access goes through a Shopify collaborator request that you approve, plus view access to analytics and Google Search Console if you use them – no passwords are shared, and nothing on the live store changes.
Is the audit biased toward selling us your services?
No. Findings are ranked by impact and effort, not by what we sell, so a small change your own developer can make goes to the top when it pays back first. Every finding is marked observed or hypothesis and carries its evidence, so nothing is inflated to create work. The fixed quote for fixes is optional, and the report is yours to hand to any developer, including your current agency.
Do you audit stores built by other agencies?
Yes – it’s the most common case. The report is written to be shared safely with your current team or agency: it describes the code and the evidence, not who wrote it, and every suggested action is specific enough for another developer to quote. If you plan to keep your agency, the audit gives you an independent view of what their next estimate should cover.
Do you audit standard Shopify stores, or only Shopify Plus?
Both – the audit works on every Shopify plan. On Shopify Plus it also covers the layers only Plus has: checkout UI extensions on the information, shipping and payment steps, custom Shopify Functions, and logic that used to run in Shopify Scripts, which stopped running on June 30, 2026. On any plan, if a finding could only be fixed on Plus, the report says so.
We’re considering a migration – should we audit first?
It depends on where the store runs today. On Magento, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce or WooCommerce, start with the free migration assessment: a written verdict with timeline and cost bands within 2 business days, with no store access needed. The paid audit is for stores already on Shopify – before a rebuild, a headless build or an upgrade to Shopify Plus, it gives you a baseline to measure the new store against.
Can we start with one issue instead of a full audit?
Yes – if you can name the problem, such as a broken filter, a slow product page or an app conflict, we scope that fix directly, and most single theme customizations are quoted within 1 business day. If something is broken right now and costing sales, call emergency support instead. The audit is the better start when the cause is unclear, or there are several suspects and one budget.
How is a store audit different from a conversion audit or a performance baseline?
The store audit is the broad review: six areas, $2,500 flat, and a report you keep – the place to start if you don’t know which job you need. Narrower reviews open a specific job: CRO starts with a conversion audit that goes deeper into analytics and session recordings, performance work measures the pages it will fix, theme quotes start with a read of the code, and monthly retainers begin with a review of the codebase, apps and performance baseline.
Know what’s wrong before you pay to fix it
Send the store URL and what worries you – an engineer replies within 30–60 minutes during business hours and confirms the audit fits. The ranked report follows in 5 business days, $2,500 flat. Not sure yet? The strategy call is free: 30 minutes with an engineer.