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Find the leak in an hour
Open your analytics (Google Analytics, Shopify Analytics or the WooCommerce reports) and write down four numbers for the last thirty days. Divide them: where the largest group drops away is your leak.
| Step | What you count | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
| Visit | sessions or unique visitors | your analytics overview |
| Product page | visitors who viewed a product | the report per page |
| Cart | sessions with something in the cart | the ecommerce report or funnel |
| Order | paid orders | the orders screen of your store |
As a benchmark: across 433 Shopify stores, the median store converted 1.4 percent of visitors into buyers. The mean was higher, 1.9 percent, because a few strong stores pull it up; the top fifth sat above 2.7 percent. Below 1 percent, the problem sits in the store itself. Around the median and still few sales means you mainly lack visitors. If you sell in several EU countries, compare per country: a store that converts well at home and poorly abroad usually lacks the language, the prices with local VAT or the payment method of that market. What a market needs beyond a translation is on our page about multilingual website development.
What one percent more buyers is worth
Revenue a month at 2,000 visitorsOrder of 50 euro
- 2.7 percent, the top fifth2,700 euro
- 1.9 percent, the average1,900 euro
- 1.4 percent, the median store1,400 euro
Why people leave their cart
- Extra costs too high40%
- Delivery too slow20%
- No trust with card details19%
- Account required18%
Checkout, where most carts die
Baymard combined 50 studies: seven in ten carts are never checked out. The reasons are in the chart above, and the biggest is not price but surprise. What you do about it:
- Show shipping costs and delivery time on the product page, not after the address. A free-shipping threshold helps if your margin allows it; check that first with the margin calculator.
- Allow guest checkout. Offer an account after payment, not before.
- Offer the payment method your buyer uses at home: iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, Klarna or local cards elsewhere. In Belgium alone Bancontact handled 2.5 billion payments in 2025, 393 million of them online on a phone.
- Show who you are: company details, an address, a returns page. Since June 2026 EU stores also need a visible withdrawal button.
- Make checkout work with a keyboard and a screen reader. For many stores selling to EU consumers that is required since June 2025: see the European Accessibility Act website requirements.
- Test on your own phone, on mobile data, and run the product page through the website speed test: Google wants the largest image on screen within 2.5 seconds.
Too few visitors: buy traffic or get found
With 600 visitors a month at 1.4 percent you sell eight times a month, however good your checkout is. There are two routes. Ecommerce SEO builds category and product pages on the words buyers type; it takes months, as how long until my website shows on Google explains. Google Ads works at once, for as long as you pay.
Run your own numbers through the ROAS calculator before you commit a budget. More traffic only pays once the checkout stops leaking.
Customers who buy once
Winning a new customer costs money; a second order from the same customer costs almost nothing. Check each month how many orders come from returning customers. If it stays under one in five for a product people buy again, revenue is left on the table. A short newsletter with a season or a refill does more than another ad, and honest reviews convince the next doubter; how to get them without paying for them is in can I buy Google reviews.
What a customer gets after the first order
- A confirmation email that says when the parcel arrives.
- After delivery, a request for a review with a direct link.
- A reason to come back: a refill, a season, a related product.
- A returns page that is easy to find and easy to follow.