We have traffic but few sales: how do we find where our e-commerce journey is losing customers?

More traffic does not fix a journey that loses its users

If visitors are already arriving on the site, the first question is not necessarily “how do we bring in more?” It is “what happens to the ones we already have?” Buying more traffic for a journey you do not understand also increases the number of people exposed to the problem.

A typical situation

A user clicks on an ad because a promise interests them. They land on the right product. Yet when they try to move forward, a piece of information is missing, an unexpected condition or constraint appears, or the page asks them for a decision they were not yet ready to make.

No single screen is necessarily bad in isolation. It is the continuity between steps that creates the friction.

Look at the journey as a sequence of decisions

Arrival

Does the user find on the page what the ad, Google, a social network or a recommendation promised them? A break between acquisition and landing page can be enough to make them leave.

Understanding

Do they quickly understand:

• what is being sold;
• who it is for;
• why this offer rather than another;
• what they should do next?

The product

Is the information needed for the decision available at the right moment? Price, delivery, availability, reviews, specifications and returns are not only there to enrich the product page. They reduce uncertainty.

Basket and delivery

Does new information appear late? Fees, delivery times, conditions or constraints discovered after adding to the basket can call into question a decision already made.

Payment

Does the user have to create an account, look for information, or use a payment method they had not planned on? Every additional action needs a reason.

After leaving

Not every visitor who leaves the site is lost for good. Also look at what exists in terms of follow-up, CRM and continuity of the relationship.

Three types of data to cross-check

• Quantitative data answers: where?
• Behavioural observation answers: what are they doing?
• Interviews or tests answer: why?

None of these sources is always enough on its own.

Do not look only at the screens

The user’s context is often invisible in Analytics. They may:

• be comparing with another site;
• need to ask someone’s opinion;
• be looking for information offline;
• come back later;
• not have a requested piece of information to hand.

An apparently simple journey can therefore demand a disproportionate amount of effort once placed back in real life.

Which level of analysis should you choose?

• A landing page is the problem: Landing page conversion audit.
• The checkout funnel loses users: Complete Sales Funnel Audit.
• The breaks go beyond the purchase itself: Customer Journey Review + recommendations.
• The interface itself is the problem: UI/UX Design Audit.

At 5LEGS, these audits range from €2,500 to €5,000 excl. VAT, with a scope defined in advance. The start date is agreed together after purchase.

Already know where the main losses are and hesitating between fixing and rebuilding? See Our e-commerce site converts poorly: should we optimise what we have or rebuild the site?.

In short

Analytics often tell you where the journey loses people. To decide what to fix, you still need to understand what they are trying to do at that moment and why they cannot.