September has always had that “new term” feeling. Even when school days are long behind us, there’s something about the end of summer that makes September feel like a natural point to regroup, get organised and refocus.
For ecommerce businesses, it’s also a particularly useful time to take stock. The quieter summer period is coming to an end, the final quarter is approaching, and Black Friday, Christmas and the busiest shopping period of the year are suddenly not very far away.
So, rather than waiting until January to set new goals, why not give your Shopify store its own new-term reset?
Some improvements can be made relatively quickly. Others might become projects to work towards between now and the end of the year. The important thing is to identify the changes that could make the biggest difference to your customers and your business.
Here are some good places to start.
First, do your homework
Before making changes, spend a little time looking at your store as it stands today. Ask yourself:
• What is working well?
• Where are customers dropping out of the buying journey?
• Which products are performing particularly well – and which aren't?
• What questions do customers regularly ask?
• Is there anything about the store that feels dated, cumbersome or unnecessarily complicated?
• Are there jobs you've been putting off because something else always seems more urgent?
Take a look at your Shopify and analytics data too. Your conversion rate, average order value, best-selling products, traffic sources and customer behaviour can all help highlight where the opportunities lie.
You don't necessarily need a complete redesign. Often, a series of well-considered improvements can have a much greater impact than changing things simply for the sake of change.
Your quick wins
Think of these as the jobs you could potentially tick off your new-term list relatively quickly.
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Refresh your homepage
Your homepage is often one of the first impressions a customer has of your business. Does it immediately communicate what you sell and why someone should buy from you? Check that your key messaging is clear, your imagery is current and your most important products, collections or messages are easy to find.
Remove anything that is no longer relevant and make sure the page isn't trying to say too much at once.
New-term goal: A customer should be able to understand what you sell and where to go next within a few seconds.
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Give your product pages a health check
Your product pages have a big job to do. They need to give customers enough information and confidence to click Add to Cart. Review your key products and check:
• Are the photographs high quality and consistent?
• Do descriptions focus on benefits as well as features?
• Is important information such as sizing, delivery or specifications easy to find?
• Are reviews or other trust signals visible?
• Are related or complementary products being suggested?
• Is the Add to Cart button prominent?
Start with your best sellers and highest-traffic product pages rather than trying to overhaul everything at once.
3. Test your store on your phone
You may spend most of your working day looking at your website on a desktop computer, but many of your customers won't. Go through the entire customer journey on your phone – from landing on the homepage to finding a product, adding it to the cart and starting checkout. Look for text that's difficult to read, buttons that are awkward to tap, images that don't work well on a smaller screen or pages that simply feel too busy.
Small usability improvements can make a surprisingly big difference.
4. Improve your site search and navigation
Can customers easily find what they're looking for? As product ranges grow, navigation structures that once worked perfectly can become cluttered or confusing. Review your menus, collection structure, filters and search functionality. Think about how a customer would naturally look for your products rather than how you organise them internally.
The easier you make it to find the right product, the easier you make it to buy.
5. Look for easy ways to increase Average Order Value
Increasing sales doesn't always mean finding more customers. Encouraging existing customers to add one more relevant item to their order can increase revenue without increasing traffic.
Consider:
• Product bundles
• Complementary product recommendations
• Quantity discounts
• Free-delivery thresholds
• “Complete the look” or “Pairs well with” suggestions
• Gift wrapping or other useful add-ons
The key word here is relevant. Upselling should make the buying experience more useful, not more intrusive. For example, if your current average order value is £42 and free delivery starts at £50, showing customers useful complementary products in the £8–£15 range could give them a genuine reason to add something extra.
Your longer-term goals
Once you've dealt with some of the easier wins, September is also a good time to decide what you would like your Shopify store to achieve by the end of the year.
6. Improve your store's functionality
Are there things customers expect to be able to do that your current store doesn't handle particularly well? Perhaps you need better filtering, improved subscriptions, wishlists, product personalisation, bundles, B2B functionality or a better way of presenting complex product options.
Start with the customer problem rather than the app or technology. Ask: “What would make it easier for our customers to shop with us?” Then identify the best way to deliver it.
7. Set a conversion-rate goal
Rather than simply aiming for “more sales”, give yourself something measurable to work towards. If your conversion rate is currently 1.8%, for example, could you aim for 2% or 2.2%? That might sound like a relatively small difference, but improving the proportion of existing visitors who buy can have a significant effect on revenue.
Improving conversion rate might involve several smaller projects – better product pages, clearer messaging, improved navigation, greater trust, a smoother cart experience or faster site performance.
8. Set an Average Order Value goal
Likewise, look at your current AOV and set a realistic target for the end of the year.
Don't simply introduce random upsells everywhere. Think about how products naturally work together and what genuinely adds value for the customer.
A well-planned bundling or cross-selling strategy can improve both the customer experience and the value of each order.
9. Review the overall design and customer experience
Websites evolve. New products get added. New apps introduce extra elements. Banners come and go. Navigation expands. What was once a beautifully simple store can gradually become cluttered. Take a more objective look at your store's design.
Does it still represent the business you are today? Is it consistent with your brand? Does it feel contemporary? And, most importantly, is the design helping customers shop – or getting in their way? You may identify relatively small design improvements, or you might decide that a more substantial refresh should become a project for the months ahead.
10. Get ready for peak trading before peak trading arrives
If Black Friday and Christmas are important to your business, don't leave preparation until November.
Use September and October to think about:
• Promotional landing pages
• Gift guides and seasonal collections
• Bundles and gifting options
• Email marketing campaigns
• Stock and inventory
• Delivery messaging and last-order dates
• Returns information
• Promotional banners and creative
• Store performance
• Mobile experience
The more you can prepare in advance, the less you'll be scrambling to make changes when things get busy.
Set yourself a new-term action plan
One of the easiest ways to turn good intentions into action is to divide your list into three categories:
Do now - small changes that can be implemented relatively quickly.
Do this term- more substantial improvements you'd like to complete before the end of the year.
Explore for next year - larger projects that need more thought, planning or budget.
Try not to make the list too long. Three or four meaningful priorities that actually get completed are far more valuable than 25 ideas that sit untouched on a spreadsheet.
And don't forget what is already working.A new-term reset doesn't mean everything needs changing. If a page converts well, customers find your navigation intuitive or a particular promotion consistently performs, don't interfere with it just because you feel you should be doing something new.
Good ecommerce optimisation is as much about knowing what to leave alone as knowing what to change.
Ready for the new term?
September gives Shopify merchants a useful window: summer is behind us, but there's still time to make meaningful improvements before the end-of-year rush.
Start with the basics. Fix the things that are frustrating customers. Look for straightforward opportunities to improve conversion and average order value. Then decide which bigger changes could make your store better over the coming months.
You don't need to transform everything overnight.
A handful of thoughtful, well-executed improvements can put your Shopify store in a much stronger position for the final months of the year – and give you a head start on 2027.
At Blue Horizons, we work with Shopify merchants to identify where their stores could be working harder – from design and functionality through to UX, conversion optimisation and marketing. If you're not sure what should be on your new-term action plan, we'd be happy to take a look and help you prioritise the changes that could make the biggest difference. Why not download our useful checklist to get you started?
