Increase ecommerce conversion rate – find the leaks, then see the fix in a free demo

Start by breaking sales into parts

Online sales come down to a simple formula: visitors × conversion rate × average order value, plus repeat purchases. Each part has different fixes, so the first job is to find the weakest one.

• Visitors: how many people arrive from search, ads, social media and email
• Conversion rate: the share of visitors who buy, and how far they get through product page, cart and checkout
• Average order value: the amount per order, shaped by bundles and free-shipping thresholds
• Repeat rate: how often customers come back – the backbone of sales for consumables and food

If traffic is healthy but conversion is low, fixing the store pays off before any increase in ad spend. If conversion is steady but traffic is thin, SEO and ads come first. Write down the last three months of data in these four buckets and the priority usually becomes obvious.

Conversion rate benchmarks and signs you are losing sales

Ecommerce conversion rates vary widely by category, price point and traffic source. A commonly quoted range is roughly 1–3%. Expensive products and new brands tend to sit lower; stores with loyal repeat buyers sit higher. Comparing your own numbers month by month and channel by channel is far more useful than chasing an industry average.

• Most visits come from phones, yet mobile converts far worse than desktop
• Product pages get plenty of views but few add-to-cart clicks
• Shoppers reach the cart, then drop off at checkout
• Shipping costs, delivery dates or return terms only appear at the last step
• First orders come in, but second orders rarely follow
• Ad traffic is high and the bounce rate stays high too

Each sign you recognize is a starting point. If you run a Shopify store with visitors but few orders, see also what to check when a Shopify store is not selling.

A checklist to reduce cart abandonment

Cart abandonment – adding items and leaving without paying – is normal in ecommerce; it is common for more than half of carts never to become orders. Most causes are surprises and friction right before payment, and many are easy to fix.

• Shipping and total: show shipping estimates and the free-shipping threshold on the product page
• Delivery time: state dispatch times and whether customers can choose a delivery slot
• Payment options: offer what your customers expect in Japan – cards, convenience store payment, pay-later and ID wallets
• Less typing: keep guest checkout and ask only for the fields you really need
• Trust signals: make return terms, the legally required seller information page and contact details easy to find
• Abandoned cart emails: use your platform's built-in feature or an app to remind shoppers who left

A quick test: place an order on your own phone from start to finish and note every moment you hesitate. Those moments are your first fixes.

How to analyze and improve, step by step

Changes based on hunches are hard to learn from. A simple loop of measuring, guessing, changing and comparing builds results that add up.

• Fix tracking first: confirm GA4 and your store platform record purchases correctly, with no double counting
• Find the drop-off: compare product views, add-to-cart, checkout start and purchase to see where the biggest loss is
• Name the cause: for example "shoppers leave because shipping is unclear" or "the buy button is hidden on mobile"
• Prioritize: rank ideas by impact and effort, and start with the quick, high-impact ones
• Change and compare: log the change date and compare two to four weeks before and after, allowing for sales and seasons

The biggest gains usually come from product pages and the cart, because almost every buyer passes through them. Our guide to product page improvement covers photos, copy and reviews in detail. If much of your traffic comes from ads, pair this with ROAS improvement so the store and the campaigns improve together.

What to check before hiring an ecommerce consultant

If you bring in outside help, a few questions up front keep expectations aligned. Use these as criteria when comparing ecommerce consultants or CRO services.

• Are the recommendations based on your store's own data and screens?
• Will they actually change pages and settings, or only deliver a report?
• Will the same person stay with you over time?
• Do ad accounts and analytics stay in your company's name?
• Do they avoid promises like "we will double your sales"?

Sales depend on product, market and season, so trustworthy advisors do not guarantee revenue figures. Look instead for someone who can show you exactly what will change, on screen and in numbers.

How UNANOBO improves stores: a free demo of the fixes

Send UNANOBO your store's URL and we review where it is likely losing sales, then build a free demo of the improved pages – usually the product page and the path through the cart. A working demo you can tap through on a phone makes changes far easier to judge than a written audit.

The process is: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, from the first demo to checking the numbers after launch and the next round of improvements. We work with Shopify, BASE and WordPress (WooCommerce), and can also set up GA4 and run Google Ads or Meta Ads. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English.