Consumer Goods
Indexed performance data for Consumer Goods brands on Shopify: conversion rate, AOV, free shipping behavior, and shipping revenue, tracked against a consistent baseline month over month.
Part of the PDQ Checkout Benchmarks: 130M+ checkout sessions across 500+ Shopify merchants, indexed to June 2024 = 1.0x.
Consumer Goods Checkout Performance Index: September 2026
An index of 1.15x means that metric is 15% above baseline. 0.92x means it's 8% below. We publish relative change rather than absolute numbers because absolute rates vary too much by merchant size and category to be meaningful as cross-merchant benchmarks.
September 2026: Consumer Goods Checkout Insights
Three signals worth acting on this month
Written for Consumer Goods operators. Every observation connects to a decision you can make this week.
Consumer Goods CVR dropped to 1.00x in August, ending three consecutive months above 1.10x
Consumer Goods posted 1.12x, 1.12x, and 1.11x conversion in May, June, and July -- the strongest three-month run the vertical has produced in this dataset. August's reading of 1.00x ends that streak abruptly. The 11-point single-month decline is the largest CVR drop the Consumer Goods series has seen, and it brings the vertical back to baseline after a period of exceptional performance.
The most plausible explanation is the post-summer demand trough. August is when Consumer Goods purchasing transitions between the summer home-improvement and outdoor cycle and the fall home-preparation cycle. The buyers who drove May, June, and July's elevated conversion -- making deliberate, occasion-driven purchases for summer projects and events -- have completed those purchases. The buyers entering the Consumer Goods funnel in August are earlier in their fall consideration cycle, browsing rather than committing, and that behavior naturally compresses conversion even when the checkout experience hasn't changed.
What to do: Before treating August's CVR drop as a checkout problem, check your traffic composition. If session volume held but conversion fell, the buyer mix shifted -- more browsers, fewer committed purchasers -- and the checkout isn't the variable. If session volume also declined alongside conversion, you have a demand-side gap entering fall that acquisition investment can address. The checkout configuration that produced three months of 1.10x+ conversion is almost certainly still sound. Protect it going into September and October when the fall demand cycle activates and high-intent buyers return.
Consumer Goods AOV recovered to 1.42x in August after five months of step-down from February's 1.64x peak
Consumer Goods AOV has been declining in a controlled pattern since February: 1.64x, 1.59x, 1.48x, 1.48x, 1.39x, 1.30x. August's reading of 1.42x is the first monthly improvement in the AOV series since February -- a 12-point jump from July's 1.30x that suggests the step-down has found a floor. ARPC at 1.43x follows the same pattern, ticking up from July's 1.45x to confirm the revenue-per-session recovery is consistent across metrics.
The AOV recovery in August is consistent with the seasonal back-to-school and early-fall home preparation cycle. Buyers purchasing Consumer Goods in August are increasingly making back-to-school equipment purchases -- dorm room essentials, organizational systems, personal electronics accessories -- that tend to be higher-ticket and more multi-item than the mid-summer purchases of June and July. These are deliberate, list-driven purchases rather than single opportunistic items, and the checkout experiences that surface complementary items or bundle pricing capture more of that intent.
What to do: An AOV recovery from 1.30x to 1.42x in a single month is the clearest demand-side signal this vertical has produced since the spring. The buyers are spending more again. Make sure your free shipping threshold is positioned above your August AOV to capture the basket-stretching opportunity. At 1.42x AOV and 0.90x free shipping rate -- the highest FSR reading the vertical has posted since the dataset began -- the threshold appears to be in approximately the right position. The progress bar is doing work. Keep it.
Coupon usage dropped sharply to 0.66x in August after July's Prime Day-driven spike to 0.84x. The promotional event has passed.
July's coupon usage reading of 0.84x was driven by Prime Day and Fourth of July promotional adjacency -- the largest single-month gain in the Consumer Goods coupon history. August's 0.66x is an 18-point reversal, confirming the spike was event-driven and buyers are not carrying code expectations beyond the promotional window. At 0.66x, the vertical has returned to a level consistent with its 2026 range and well below the all-industry baseline.
The speed of the reversion is useful information for promotional planning. Consumer Goods buyers respond to event-specific codes -- they engage during the promotional window and then stop. Unlike Apparel, where the Memorial Day spike (0.99x in May) produced a more gradual reversion over two months, Consumer Goods reverted 18 points in a single month. That behavioral pattern means code campaigns in this vertical have a sharp and contained effect, not a lingering one. You can run a Labor Day code and expect it to appear in September's data and be fully reverted by October.
What to do: If you're planning a Labor Day code campaign for Consumer Goods, the July-to-August pattern gives you a clean model of what to expect: a one-month spike in the month of the event followed by full reversion the next month. Use that model to set realistic incremental order expectations for the Labor Day code, and build in a basket minimum to prevent the code from subsidizing small orders in a category where your AOV has recovered to 1.42x. A code that requires a basket above your AOV to activate protects margin while still capturing the promotional moment.
How does your Consumer Goods store's checkout compare?
Checkout Index tells you where your store sits inside this vertical: personalized Health Score, shipping signal analysis, and a revenue impact estimate based on your actual checkout behavior.
Archive
Monthly archive: Consumer Goods
Every monthly dispatch, indexed and preserved. Use the archive to track how Consumer Goods checkout behavior has shifted over time, to validate whether seasonal patterns in your own data match the vertical.
September 2026 {{latest}}
CVR drops to 1.00x ending three-month run above 1.10x; AOV recovers to 1.42x, first monthly improvement since February; coupon usage retreats to 0.66x after July's Prime Day spike.
CVR holds at 1.11x for third consecutive month above 1.10x; coupon usage jumps to 0.84x, largest single-month gain in the dataset; AOV softens to 1.30x continuing controlled step-down.
CVR holds at 1.12x for second consecutive month at dataset high; shipping revenue recovers to 1.54x after May Memorial Day drop; AOV softens to 1.39x.
Data begins June 2024 (baseline). Earlier dispatches available on request.
Methodology
About this dataset
The Consumer Goods dataset within the PDQ Checkout Benchmarks draws from aggregated, anonymized session data across consumer goods-categorized merchants on Shopify's platform. Merchants are classified using Shopify's standard industry taxonomy and must meet a minimum session threshold for inclusion. The Consumer Goods cohort spans home goods, appliances, outdoor and sporting equipment, personal care devices, hardware, and general household products.
All figures are indexed to June 2024 = 1.0x. Figures exclude bot traffic, draft orders, and point-of-sale transactions. Data refreshes monthly, typically in the first week, reflecting the prior month's activity. Absolute conversion rates are not published; all metrics represent relative indexed change against the baseline cohort.
To compare your store's actual performance against this vertical, use Checkout Index.
