Some good news/bad news on AOV from our latest benchmark report that analyzed AOV from 2,000+ Shopify stores this year. The good news: AOV is still up year over year. The bad news: the gains are narrowing. Same-store AOV, Jan–Sep 2026 vs. 2025: +3.3% ($309 → $319).

Another anomaly from our Q3 CVR reports that we didn't see coming: Merchant size didn’t protect against the Q3 CVR slide. In fact, the middle band fell hardest. Q2 → Q3 median CVR, among stores active in both quarters: $50M+ GMV: −2.9% $15M–$49M: −5.6% Below $15M: −2.6%

There was a big-ticket pause in Q3. We analyze CVR data for 800+ stores in Q3 and four stats stood out Q2->Q3 Autos & Vehicles: −33.6% Business & Industrial: −25.1% Beauty & Personal Care: +4.5% Health & Wellness: +3.7%

Did your brand see a summer lift? If yes, you might be an outlier. We analyzed AOV from 2,000+ stores and the median didn't move from Q2-Q3. Q2: $311 Q3: $311 But the story was different in 2025.

This was the biggest surprise in our Q3 Conversion Rate Data. Among stores active in both quarters, median CVR fell 4.5% from Q2 to Q3. Same months in 2025: +3.2%. Six of ten industries declined. If Q3 felt different for your brand, it wasn’t just your store.

Ask Claude for a health check across every store you manage. It returns a scorecard: test, result, confidence, status. One prompt instead of five dashboard logins. Ship the winner, kill the loser, move on.

Apparel CVR: -6.2% from Q1 to Q2. Apparel AOV: +6.4% in the same period. Fewer shoppers converted but the ones who did bought more. Will be interesting to see how that trend looks in Q3.

"Losing tests are worth nearly as much as winning ones."—Bailey Johnson, Skipper Skipper ran a stretch of them and ruled out a whole category of ideas they'd otherwise still be arguing about. The lesson here: a data-backed decision beats a guess, every time.