Shopify Mobile Audit: A 25-Point Checklist

A Shopify mobile audit is 25 checks in five areas (speed, navigation, product page, cart and checkout, trust) that you run on a real phone and in Shopify’s reports, scoring each pass or fail. Plan about an hour, and treat the three failures closest to your best-selling pages as your fix list.

Before you start: your mobile numbers

Open Analytics > Reports > Sessions by device type, or ask Sidekick “Show my conversion rate by device type for the last 30 days”; it answers on sessions and conversion by device for the online store. Write down three numbers: the share of sessions from phones, the phone conversion rate and the desktop conversion rate. If phones bring most sessions but convert well below desktop, the audit below is where the difference is hiding. Shopify noted a session measurement update that rolled out from 21 to September 23, 2026, so comparisons across that date can differ. Run the audit on a phone with a normal connection, not on a desktop browser pretending to be one.

The checklist

Each check says how to test it. Speed thresholds come from Google’s Core Web Vitals page and tap targets from Google’s tap target guidance; the Shopify checks follow its Help Center pages on web performance and accessibility, read on October 23, 2026.

Speed

1. LCP is 2.5 seconds or less for the 75th percentile of mobile page loads. Read it in Shopify’s Web Performance reports, which use real visits.
2. INP is 200 milliseconds or less, in the same reports.
3. CLS is 0.1 or less, so nothing jumps while the page loads. Shopify’s summary counts layout shifts caused by pop-up content too.
4. The home page has few sections. Count them in the theme editor; Shopify says high numbers of sections lower performance.
5. No animation or page transition stays on without a reason. Note the Web Performance numbers, switch the effect off for a week, and compare.

Navigation

6. The menu opens with one tap and closes again. Test it on the phone, then on the theme editor’s mobile preview for the other templates.
7. Search is reachable from the header on every page. Open a product, a collection and a blog post and look for it without scrolling.
8. Every tap target is about 48 px, with about 8 px between neighbors. Check the smallest controls first, such as variant swatches and the cart’s quantity buttons.
9. Text links differ from body text by more than color, for example with an underline, as Shopify’s accessibility guidance asks.
10. Links open in the same tab. Shopify advises against new tabs, especially on mobile, where the old window is not visible.

Product page

11. Price, variant picker and add-to-cart button show on the first screen or one short scroll below the photo. Check your three best sellers on the phone.
12. Body text is at least 16 px equivalent, and contrast is at least 4.5:1. Check contrast with any contrast checker against your theme colors.
13. The first image loads quickly and zooms with a pinch. If LCP fails on product pages, the main image is the first suspect.
14. Video and 3D media, if you use them, play on the phone, and your theme supports them.
15. Reviews and shipping information are reachable without opening another page. Scroll a product page and time how long it takes to find the delivery cost.

Cart and checkout

16. The cart lets you change quantity, remove an item and enter a discount code with the phone keyboard open. Do it with your thumb, one hand.
17. Express buttons (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal where offered) appear; Shopify orders them in the Express Checkout section to show the fastest method first.
18. Checkout asks only for what you need. Under Settings > Checkout, review the customer information fields and set the ones you do not use to optional or hidden.
19. A test order with a real discount code works on the phone from start to finish.
20. Shipping costs show before the last step. Run the test order to an address in each shipping zone you sell to. More in mobile checkout.

Trust and accessibility

21. Contact details and policies are linked from the footer and readable on a phone.
22. Headings run in order from 1 to 6 without skipped levels; a browser accessibility extension or PageSpeed Insights’ accessibility section lists the heading order.
23. Text over images, including banners, meets contrast: 4.5:1 for small text and 3:1 for text of 24 px and up.
24. No image carries text that is unreadable at phone width. Open each banner on the phone; if you need to zoom to read it, the text belongs in the page instead.
25. Cookie or consent banners do not cover the add-to-cart button. Load a product page in a private window, where the banner shows as it does for a first visit.

Score it and pick three fixes

This scoring is our own rule of thumb, not a Shopify metric. Give each check one point if it passes. Below 15 points, start with speed and the product page; between 15 and 21, fix cart and trust items; above 21, retest after your next theme or app change. Pick the three failures closest to revenue, usually on the product page and in the cart, and fix them first. On our own sites we run the same kind of sweep, every page at phone widths, before each change goes live.

Page-by-page fixes are in Shopify mobile optimization, and the tools to measure speed in speed test tools. More guides on running the store are in the running a store hub.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check mobile speed on Shopify? Open the Web Performance reports for field data from real users, and run PageSpeed Insights on your key pages for lab data. Compare both with the Core Web Vitals targets: LCP 2.5 seconds or less, INP 200 milliseconds or less, CLS 0.1 or less.

What tap target size is enough? Google recommends about 48 CSS pixels, with about 8 pixels of space between targets. Padding can bring a smaller icon up to that size.

How often should I audit? After every theme change and every app install or removal, since those are the biggest factors in Shopify performance, and before any ad campaign sends phone traffic to the store.