Your Store Isn’t Converting? 9 Proven Fixes You Can Start Today

If sales aren’t matching your traffic, don’t start by redesigning your homepage. Start by measuring. A simple, well-defined funnel will show you exactly where shoppers are dropping off—so you can fix the biggest leaks first and see gains fast.

Step 1: Build a simple funnel to spot the fall-off

• Track these core steps: traffic → product views → add to cart → checkout started → transactions.
• Express each step as a percentage of the previous step (add-to-cart rate = add-to-carts ÷ product views, etc.). That’s how trends and bottlenecks jump out.
• Segment by device and channel. Mobile vs. desktop and search vs. social behave differently—don’t average away the signal.

Step 2: Read the funnel like a pro

• Low add-to-cart rate: Relevance or product information problems.
• Healthy add-to-cart but low checkout starts: Cart friction (unclear shipping, promo code confusion, distracting UX).
• High checkout starts but low purchases: Checkout blockers (errors, payment issues, forced account creation, slow load).
• Channel mismatch: Great traffic with poor add-to-cart usually means misaligned targeting or landing pages.

Now fix the usual suspects (the fast wins)

1. Product catalog quality (your highest-leverage fix)

• • Clean, complete product data wins. Fix missing or incorrect titles, descriptions, specs, pricing, and images.
  • Use high-quality images, multiple angles, zoom, and short videos where useful.
  • Keep variants standardized (sizes, colors, materials) so customers can find the right option.
  • Get facets/filters right. If attributes don’t map to filters, shoppers can’t refine—and they bounce.
  • Write descriptions that answer real buyer questions quickly (fit, materials, compatibility, care, what’s included).

2. Site search that actually returns what buyers expect

• • Test your top queries. Do the right products appear first?
  • Add synonyms and common misspellings. Prioritize in-stock items and best sellers.
  • Make “no results” a helpful detour with related items, categories, or support—not a dead end.

3. Inventory integrity and synchronization

• • Don’t show out-of-stock items unless there’s a strong reason. It erodes trust and drives abandonment—especially if many products are unavailable.
  • If you keep OOS items for SEO or merchandising, clearly message availability and offer back-in-stock alerts.
  • Synchronize inventory across your platform, ERP, POS, marketplaces, and marketing feeds to prevent oversells and cart failures.

4. Checkout: test it like your revenue depends on it (because it does)

• • Must-haves: guest checkout, Apple Pay/Google Pay/Shop Pay (where applicable), major cards, and PayPal.
  • Minimize fields. Enable autofill, proper keyboard types on mobile, and clear inline error messages.
  • Be transparent early: show shipping costs/timelines before payment. Surprise fees crush completion rates.
  • Promo codes should never block progress. Validate, format, and show outcomes clearly.
  • Scenario tests to run regularly:
    • Declined card and 3D Secure challenges.
    • Tax and shipping rules across regions.
    • Discount stacking and edge cases.
    • Out-of-stock in cart or at payment.
    • Page refreshes, back button, session timeouts.
    • Split shipments, partial captures, preorders.
  • Monitor tech health: event tracking (begin_checkout, add_shipping_info, add_payment_info, purchase), gateway response times, and error logs.
  • Optimize for mobile first: load speed, tap targets, and thumb-friendly flows matter more than you think.

5. Landing page relevance: match intent to destination

• • Align keywords/ad copy with the landing page. If a shopper searches for “black waterproof hiking boots,” don’t drop them on a generic footwear page.
  • Use dedicated landing pages or dynamic content for top queries and campaigns.
  • Keep the path to cart obvious; remove distractions that pull users off the buying journey.

6. Channel calibration: set realistic expectations

• • Paid search and shopping typically drive higher purchase intent.
  • Social traffic often skews discovery/upper-funnel. If it converts at around a tenth of paid search, you’re not necessarily doing it wrong—just measure it differently.
  • Judge channels by the right KPI: last-click for high-intent search; assisted conversions, view-throughs, and email captures for social. Then retarget and nurture.

7. Policies that build trust

• • Make shipping, returns, and warranty easy to find from product pages, cart, and checkout.
  • State costs, timelines, and return windows clearly. Ambiguity leads to exits.
  • Provide contact options and response times to reassure hesitant buyers.

8. Make decisions with data, not hunches

• • Core KPIs: add-to-cart rate, checkout start rate, checkout completion rate, revenue per session.
  • Track by channel, device, and key categories. Review weekly; iterate monthly.
  • Prioritize the biggest drop in your funnel first—that’s your highest ROI fix.

9. Tighten the plumbing as you scale

• • Integrate your e-commerce platform with ERP, CRM, POS, and marketing tools for synchronized inventory, pricing, promotions, and attribution.
  • Broken feeds and laggy syncs cause wrong prices, OOS surprises, and inconsistent messaging that quietly kill conversion.

A quick 14-day action plan

• Days 1–2: Build your funnel; baseline traffic, add-to-cart, checkout starts, and transactions by channel and device.
• Days 3–7: Fix product data, tune search, and remove top checkout friction points. Validate key checkout scenarios.
• Days 8–14: Align landing pages to intent, calibrate channel expectations, surface policies clearly, and verify inventory syncs.
• Ongoing: Review KPIs weekly, A/B test the biggest bottleneck, and document fixes so they stick.

Bottom line

Conversion improves fastest when you diagnose before you redesign. Define your funnel, find the biggest leak, fix it thoroughly, and keep iterating. Small, disciplined changes—especially in product data, search, and checkout—compound into big, sustainable gains.