People are visiting your website but not buying. Here are the five problems we see most often and how to fix each one.
More traffic won't fix a website that doesn't sell. If people land on your store and leave without buying, spending more on ads just means more people leaving. Before you put more money into traffic, check these five things.
1. Your pages load too slowly
Most of your visitors are on their phones, often on mobile data. If a page takes too long to load, many of them leave before they see a single product. You never get the chance to sell to them.
How to check: Run your homepage and a product page through Google PageSpeed Insights. Look at the mobile score, not desktop.
How to fix it:
- Compress your images before you upload them. Large product photos are the most common cause of slow pages.
- Remove apps and plugins you no longer use. Each one can add code that slows the page down.
- Avoid autoplay videos and heavy sliders at the top of the page.
2. Visitors can't tell what you're offering
When someone lands on your site, they should know within a few seconds what you sell, who it's for and why they should buy it from you. If they have to scroll or guess, most won't bother.
How to fix it:
- Put a clear headline at the top of your homepage that says what you sell. "Handmade leather bags for work" works better than "Welcome to our store."
- Show your best-selling products early, not halfway down the page.
- Make sure your ads and your pages match. If an ad shows a red dress, the link should go to that dress, not your homepage.
3. Your product pages don't answer buyers' questions
Online shoppers can't touch the product or ask a sales assistant, so your product page has to do that job. If it leaves questions unanswered, people go elsewhere to find answers, and often buy there instead.
Check that every product page has:
- Clear photos from several angles, including the product being worn or used
- Sizing information or a size guide
- What it's made of and how to care for it
- Delivery cost and how long delivery takes
- Your returns or exchange policy
Delivery cost and timing matter most. If buyers only find out at checkout, many won't finish the order.
4. Visitors don't trust you yet
A first-time visitor doesn't know you. Before they pay, they want proof that you're real and that they'll get what they ordered.
How to fix it:
- Show customer reviews on product pages, ideally with photos.
- Make your contact details easy to find. A phone number, email address or WhatsApp button shows people there's someone to reach if something goes wrong.
- Show the payment options you accept, and use a payment provider people recognise.
- Link to your Instagram or TikTok if you have an active following. It shows real people buy from you.
5. Your checkout is hard to finish
Someone who reaches checkout has already decided to buy. Losing them here hurts the most, and it's often caused by small problems that are easy to fix:
- Forcing people to create an account. Offer guest checkout.
- Surprise costs at the last step. Show delivery fees before checkout, not at the end.
- Too many form fields. Only ask for what you need to deliver the order.
- Not enough ways to pay. Offer the options your customers actually use, such as card, bank transfer or pay on delivery where it makes sense.
- A checkout that breaks on mobile. Place a test order on your own phone. If anything is hard to tap or read, fix it.
Find out where you're losing people
You don't have to guess which of these is your problem. Your analytics will show where visitors drop off. Look at how many people:
- Visit your site
- View a product
- Add something to their cart
- Start checkout
- Complete a purchase
Start with the step where you lose the most people. Lots of visitors but few product views points to problems 1 or 2. Lots of add-to-carts but few purchases points to problem 5. Free tools like Microsoft Clarity also let you watch recordings of real visits, so you can see exactly where people get stuck.
One more thing: if very few visitors view a product at all, the website might not be the problem. Your ads may be sending people who were never going to buy. Check the quality of your traffic before you rebuild anything.
Want us to take a look?
It's hard to spot problems on a website you look at every day. When you book a consultation, we audit your site before the call, then walk you through what's stopping people from buying and what to fix first.