We read 55 food and beverage stores. Here's what's costing them orders.
On Sep 29, 2026, Convey Growth read 55 food and beverage stores on Shopify the way a shopper does: on a phone, on a slow connection. The median store took 9.6 seconds to show its main content. 50% of the carts never mentioned free shipping, and 92% suggested nothing else to add. Every number below comes with its base and the method.
The numbers.
| What we found | Result | Out of |
|---|---|---|
| time for the main content to appear on a slow phone connection, median | 9.6 seconds | 51 stores |
| main content took longer than 4 seconds | 80% | 41 of 51 stores |
| cart never mentions free shipping | 50% | 24 of 48 carts |
| cart doesn't say how close the shopper is to free shipping or a reward | 90% | 43 of 48 carts |
| cart suggests nothing else to add | 92% | 44 of 48 carts |
| runs an email or text sign-up tool | 76% | 42 of 55 stores |
| no sign-up or offer popup in the first 12 seconds | 53% | 29 of 55 stores |
| product page: add to cart starts below the first phone screen | 78% | 42 of 54 pages |
| product page: screens of scrolling before the first review, median | 5.8 | 34 pages with reviews |
| coffee roasters running a subscription app | 81% | 17 of 21 roasters |
Read on Sep 29, 2026, from each store's public pages. Not a random sample. No store is named.
What stands out.
The cart is the quietest page in the store. 50% of the carts we opened never mention free shipping, 90% don't say how close the shopper is to it, and 92% suggest nothing else to add. Only 24% of the stores load an upsell or cart app at all. By the cart the shopper has already decided, which makes it the first place we look for a bigger order.
Paying for sign-ups, not asking for them. 76% run an email or text sign-up tool, yet 53% showed no sign-up or offer in the first 12 seconds on a phone. Some wait on purpose, for a scroll or an exit. Check what yours does on your own phone.
Slow on a phone. With the same network and processor limits Google's Lighthouse mobile test uses, the median store took 9.6 seconds to show its main content, and 80% took longer than 4 seconds, which is Google's line for poor. The usual suspects are a large image or video at the top of the home page and apps that load on every page.
The buy button is a scroll away. On 78% of the product pages we opened, add to cart starts below the first phone screen, and the first review sits a median 5.8 screens down.
Coffee leads on subscriptions. 81% of the roasters run a subscription app. Across all 55 stores it's 62%.
How we read them.
Who. 55 food and beverage brands on Shopify (34 food and drink, 21 coffee roasters) that Convey Growth researched as possible clients, most estimated at $500K to $15M a year. It isn't a random sample. No store is named, and no client or partner store is included.
How. A headless browser on an iPhone 13 profile loaded each home page once, with the network limited to 1.6 Mbps and 150 ms of latency and the processor slowed 4x. It watched the home page for 12 seconds, opened one product page, and added one item to the cart the way a visitor would. It never entered an email or started a checkout.
What counts. Each line counts only the stores where that thing could be measured, so a cart that didn't open isn't counted as a cart without a free-shipping line. The cart and popup checks read the page's text and elements, so a message baked into an image can be missed.
When. Sep 29, 2026, one run per store. The aggregate numbers are here as JSON. Quote anything on this page with a link to it.
Questions.
Which stores are in it?
Food and beverage brands on Shopify that we researched as possible clients. We don't name them, and no client or partner store is in the sample.
Can I see these checks on my store?
Yes. Send your URL for the free read. It runs the same scan on your store and comes back in writing within 48 hours.
Will you run it again?
We plan to rerun it every quarter with the same method, so the numbers can be compared over time.
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