Shopify store audit: a 20-minute checklist for small stores

You don't need an agency to audit your store. Most of the issues that cost small stores sales are visible in twenty minutes, if you look at your store the way a new shopper does. Open your store on your phone, in a private window, and work through this list.

1. First impression (2 minutes)

• Is it clear within a few seconds what you sell and who it's for?
• Is there one obvious next step, like a main collection or best sellers?
• Does anything look broken: a stretched image, an empty section, an old announcement bar?

2. Product pages (5 minutes)

Open your three best sellers.

• Photos: more than one? A detail shot? The product in use? Single-photo products are one of the most common gaps on small stores.
• Description: does it answer what it is, what it's made of, size or fit, and how to care for it? See How to write Shopify product descriptions that sell.
• Price and shipping: can you see the total cost, or at least the shipping policy, before checkout?
• Variants: is it obvious how to choose a size or colour, and what's out of stock?

3. Trust (3 minutes)

• Reviews: do product pages show customer reviews? Shoppers look for proof from other buyers.
• Policies: are returns, shipping and contact details easy to find?
• About page: does it say who's behind the store?
• Social links: do they go to active accounts?

4. Email and SMS capture (2 minutes)

• Do you collect emails at all? Many small stores don't.
• Is there a reason to sign up, like a welcome offer, early access or a useful guide?
• Do you send a welcome email and an abandoned-cart reminder? See Abandoned cart emails for Shopify.

5. SEO basics (5 minutes)

• Homepage title and meta description: check Online Store → Preferences. Are they specific, or still the defaults?
• One main heading on the homepage that says what you sell.
• Collection descriptions: do your main collections have a short intro? See the collection page quick win.
• Image alt text on product photos.
• Sitemap: does yourstore.com/sitemap.xml load? Is it submitted in Google Search Console?
• Blog: do you publish articles that answer shoppers' questions?

6. Speed and apps (3 minutes)

• Does the store feel fast on your phone, on mobile data?
• Count the apps you've installed. Remove the ones you no longer use; many add scripts to every page.
• Are hero images huge files? Shopify resizes images, but very large uploads can still slow things down.

7. Freshness

• When did you last add a product? Stores that haven't changed in months give shoppers (and search engines) less reason to come back.

What to fix first

Rank what you found by impact on sales, not by how easy it is:

1. Anything broken or confusing on the homepage and best-selling products.
2. Photos and descriptions on your top products.
3. Reviews and email capture.
4. SEO basics.
5. Everything else.

Then fix one area a week. A store that improves a little every week beats one that's redesigned once a year.

How MAALI helps

MAALI's free Store Brain runs most of this audit for you in about two minutes: photos per product, description length, reviews, email capture, homepage SEO basics, social links, app weight and catalog freshness, ranked by impact. It also compares you with three real competitors and turns the results into a 30-day plan.