Shopify's US delivery profile sets free shipping at $75. The storefront never says so. Tested live at four basket values:
| US basket | What the bar says | Truth |
|---|---|---|
| Empty | "Spend $130.00 to get free shipping" | Wrong. Threshold is $75. $130 is £100 converted. |
| $35.00 | "Spend more to get free shipping" | No amount given. Shopper cannot act on it. |
| $70.00 | "Spend more to get free shipping" | They are $5 away and are not told. |
| $94.50 | "Spend more to get free shipping" | They already qualify. The bar is actively false. |
The $130 figure is the giveaway: it is the GBP "rest of world" threshold of £100 converted to dollars. The theme is reading the UK/international threshold instead of the US market's own. The result is that the single strongest AOV lever in the store is pointed at the wrong number, and then stops producing a number at all.
- Set the US threshold to $75 in the theme's shipping-bar setting (or read it from the market rather than a hardcoded GBP value).
- Always render the remaining amount: "You're $12.50 away from free shipping." Never "spend more".
- When the basket qualifies, say so: "Free shipping unlocked."
Directly above the Check out button, the US cart renders Subtotal "$94.50 USD" and then Order Total "£94.50". Same number, wrong symbol. Reproduced at both a 1-pair and a 3-pair basket, so it is not a rounding or conversion artefact. The template is emitting a GBP symbol on the final line.
3 pairs → Subtotal $94.50 USD | Order Total £94.50
This is the last thing a US shopper reads before deciding to hand over a card. A foreign currency symbol appearing at the total, on a store that has just promised "all tax and duty included", reintroduces exactly the doubt the announcement bar was there to remove.
The USA delivery zone has three active rates, all named "Express International":
| Rate | Applies when | Read |
|---|---|---|
| $5.00 | Order total $0 – $75 | Correct. Matches the announcement bar. |
| $75.00 | Order total ≥ $75 | Almost certainly the threshold typed into the price field. |
| $0.00 | Order total ≥ $75 | The intended free-shipping rate. |
Where several rates match a basket, Shopify presents all of them. A US shopper with a $75+ basket is therefore liable to be shown two identically-named options, one free, one $75.00. Order data suggests most people pick the free one (31 of 122 US orders shipped at $0), so this is not currently bleeding money at scale. It is a live mis-configuration sitting on the checkout of the market you would expand into.
| Where | What it says | Accurate? |
|---|---|---|
| Announcement bar | "Shipping $5. All tax and duty included in prices." | Yes. Rate was cut to $5 in September |
| Cart bar | "Spend $130.00 to get free shipping" | No. Threshold is $75 |
| PDP "Delivery & Returns" | "USA standard delivery, 2–10 working days, $10, free $100+" | No. Stale, that was the pre-September rate |
| PDP FAQ "Is there free delivery?" | "...over £50 GBP in the UK, €120 in the EU and £100 for the rest of the world" | No US answer at all, and quoted in £. As at 17 Sept, not re-checked on 18 Sept |
| Delivery & Returns page and site FAQ | "Shipping to the USA $5. Free on orders over $75", and a "USA standard delivery $5 / $75 & Over" row | Yes. Corrected on 18 September, after this audit was written |
| Checkout | $5, or free over $75 (plus the stray $75 rate) | The actual truth |
The order data confirms which number is current. Across 122 US orders priced in USD over 180 days, shipping charged was $10 on 75 orders, $0 on 31, and $5 on 16, and every one of the $5 charges falls in September 2026. The rate was cut from $10 to $5 this month. The announcement bar was updated, and the Delivery & Returns page and site FAQ were corrected on 18 September, after this audit was first written. The cart bar and the PDP's own delivery accordion were not, so the product page now contradicts the policy page it links to.
- Update the PDP's Delivery & Returns accordion to $5, free over $75. The standalone Delivery & Returns page is already correct; the accordion on the product page still reads $10 / $100+ and is the copy most US shoppers actually see.
- Check the PDP's inline "Is there free delivery?" answer carries the same US line the site FAQ now has.
- Give "all tax and duty included" far more room than a 12px bar. It is the strongest objection-killer this store has for a US buyer, and it is currently the smallest text on the page.
The size selector on the US storefront reads "Small (UK 4–7)". A US shopper has no way to read that. The equivalent is US Women's 6.5–9.5 or US Men's 4.5–7.5, which the site does know, because the full conversion table sits in the "Size Guide" accordion, collapsed, below the buy box.
Here is the important part. The US size translation already exists and already works. One product on the US page renders its variant as "US Men 5–8 / Women 6–9" while its underlying Shopify value is still "Small (UK 4-7)". That is a Shopify market translation, applied correctly. It has simply not been rolled out.
1 translated to US sizing (2.3%): Storm Grey Mohair Socks → "US Men 5-8 / Women 6-9"
43 still showing UK-only sizing (97.7%)
Across the whole catalogue: 122 of 125 active products carry UK-only size options. Re-checked against Shopify on 18 September and unchanged: 129 active products, 125 with a size option, 325 size values of which zero contain US sizing. Every US size a shopper sees therefore comes from the market translation layer, not the product itself.
This is the cleanest explanation available for why US visitors browse more pages than UK visitors and buy less. They are page-hopping looking for a size they can understand, and the one thing that would resolve it is folded shut underneath the button.
- Roll the existing US market translation across all 122 active products. The mechanism is proven on Storm Grey Mohair, so this is a data task, not a build.
- Until that completes, print the conversion inline under the selector: "UK 4–7 = US Women's 6.5–9.5 / US Men's 4.5–7.5".
- Surface the Size Guide as a visible link beside the size dropdown, not only as an accordion below it.
Tapping Add to Cart does not put the item in the cart. It opens a full-screen offer (four Merino sets at $55, each with its own size dropdown) and the item is only committed once the shopper resolves that offer with "Decline this offer" or "Continue".
2. Click "Add to Cart" → modal opens
3. Cart while the modal is open → still 0 items, header still reads Cart [0]
4. Navigate to /cart during that window → "Your cart is empty"
5. Click "Decline this offer" → the correct item lands in the cart ($35.00 Postbox Red)
So there is a window in which the shopper has acted, the site has visibly acknowledged nothing, and the header counter is actively telling them it did not work. Anyone who taps the X, taps "Cart", or navigates away in that window loses the item with no warning. On mobile the Decline/Continue buttons sit below four product tiles, so the window is long.
This is not a US-only problem, but it lands hardest on the most hesitant visitor in the store. It is also the best available explanation for the US quick-back gap (15.8% / 18.3% against 13.1% / 12.4% UK).
- Commit the item to the cart first, then show the offer. The upsell should be a bonus on a completed action, never a gate in front of it.
- Update the header counter to [1] the moment the item is added.
- Make the offer dismissible without a decision. An X that closes it and keeps the item.
- Reduce it to one or two recommendations. Four products with four size dropdowns is a second shopping task, not an upsell.
Two thirds of US sessions land on a product page, so this is the page that matters most. On desktop it is well built. On mobile the entire first screen is a breadcrumb, one image and a swatch row. There is no title, no price, no size selector, no Add to Cart. The buy box sits roughly 975px down a 844px viewport.
| Desktop | Mobile | |
|---|---|---|
| Price above fold | Yes, $35.00 | No |
| Add to Cart above fold | Yes | No |
| Volume offer | Priced ladder: "1 Pair $35.00 / 3 Pairs $94.50" | Plain text: "Add 3 Pairs for 10% off", no prices |
| Button order | Add to Cart first, Gifting second | Gifting first, left of Add to Cart |
The volume offer is the one to care about. US baskets average 5.16 units, so this audience buys in multiples, and the mobile version strips the offer of the two numbers that make it persuasive. Showing "$94.50" instead of "10% off" is also what pushes a basket past the $75 free-shipping threshold.
- Move title, price, rating and size selector above the gallery on mobile, or shorten the gallery so the buy box is reachable in one thumb-scroll.
- Port the desktop priced ladder ("1 Pair $35.00 / 3 Pairs $94.50") to mobile.
- Reorder the buttons to match desktop: Add to Cart first, Gifting secondary.
Small things, all cheap, all pointing the same direction:
- The Basket-to-Cart rename is half finished. The buy button now reads "Add to Cart" and the header counter reads Cart, but the cart page still calls itself "Basket" and the gifting upsell is still "Add to Order". Finish it, so the store does not use both words in one journey.
- No delivery estimate anywhere near the buy box. For an international purchase this is the second question after size. "2–10 working days" exists, but it is buried in an accordion and it is stale. An arrival window beside the button, "Arrives 24–30 Sept", is the single highest-value line of copy you could add to the US PDP.
- No returns reassurance on the product page. Returning a parcel to Scotland is a real hesitation and the page does not address it.
- Star ratings carry no review count. The PDP has 20 reviews; the stars beside the price show five stars and no number. The count is the proof.
- The homepage hero has no button. "A New Season in Pairs / The return to the things we love ›" is a text link, set in white over near-white bedding. The contrast fails and there is no product, price or reason to click.
- The press quote is from The Telegraph. Strong in the UK, close to meaningless to a US buyer. If US becomes a real market it needs its own proof.
- The US market itself is configured correctly. 123 of 129 US orders presented in USD. Prices, market switcher and currency all resolve properly.
- "All tax and duty included in prices" is DDP: the single biggest objection a US buyer has to a UK store, already solved. It just needs to be louder.
- Collection pages are strong. Two-column grid, correct USD pricing, star ratings on cards, colour and fibre filters that work.
- The product page has real depth: 20 reviews, a nine-question FAQ, materials, care, and a genuine size guide. The content exists; it is the placement and the localisation that fail.
- The homepage is well-built below the hero: fibre tiles, category tiles, priced sets, gift sets, story and journal.