5 reasons your website isn’t getting sales and what to do about it.

28th May 2021

Your marketing has paid off and your customer has made it to your site. Huzzah!

They have browsed for a while and have even popped an item in their basket. You are on fire.

But, what’s this? Your once keen and ready to buy visitor has upped and left, with not so much as a goodbye.

What causes that change of heart…or head?

In our experience a lack of clinching the sale (otherwise known as a conversion), is often caused by barriers on the website that are actually easily avoided, or solved. 

Are clicks outweighing your conversions?

We know that getting traffic to your website isn’t easy, particularly in a crowded digital environment. It takes time, effort and investment to reach your target audience. So it’s understandable to be frustrated if your clicks are outweighing your conversions.

If you are experiencing a lack of ecommerce sales, now is not the time to panic. Our digital marketing team have collated some simple suggestions to help you overcome any barriers that are preventing your customer’s journey to sale. 

The top 5 barriers to sale and how to prevent them 

There are lots of common mistakes that can stop a sale in its tracks, fortunately plenty of them are easy to fix.

The overriding factor is that the buying process should be easy to understand. Visitors to your eCommerce store must be able to find what they are looking for quickly and then be presented with a nice clear, simple and trusted journey that leads to purchase. 

Here we take a look at the main 5 barriers to sale, and how to resolve them in order to transform your web sales!

1. Do you think this looks a bit dodgy? 

We all know the ones, those sites that make you lean over to your friend to show them your screen and ask “do you think this looks legit?”

A lack of trust in a website is one of the primary reasons that your customers won’t stick around and will instead opt to make their purchase elsewhere.

There are some simple elements to consider to show your customers that your online store can be trusted, and some are simple fixes. 

• Make sure your site has secure hosting, and therefore will show the trusted padlock icon in the URL bar. 
• Make sure that your FAQs, delivery terms and refunds policies are easily accessible. 
• Encourage your existing customers to leave you reviews on Google My Business, to show authenticity.
• Use testimonials on your product pages to showcase your service and build trust in your brand.

2. This is sooo slow

Hanging around for a website to load is one of the most frustrating consumer experiences, in fact it can increase cart abandonment by 75%, with most of them choosing not to return at all.

There are lots of significant changes you can make to help increase your page speeds, which a good web developer would be able to guide you through.

Primarily we would suggest:

• Reducing your image sizes.
• Keep video content to a minimum.
• Consider using lazy load on your web images, this means that images are loaded in gradually rather than the moment the webpage is entered into, to help with your page speeds. 
• Ask your web developer to remove unused code and unnecessary plugins.

3. Is this the right place?

A website that overlooks its core brand, can be confusing for a user. They may have seen your vans or shopfront when previously using your product or services and actively searched for you online, only to be greeted with a site that doesn’t look as they expect. If your brand is not immediately recognisable then this can lead to a lack of trust and uncertainty, not to mention damaging to your professional image overall.

And yes, as a web design agency of course we would be advocates for carefully planned web design, but bias aside, it is a fact that how your site looks and functions affects how successfully your site will lend itself to conversion.

Consistency in your brand colours and typefaces are a must, don’t be afraid to use white space to complement your styling and keep your site easy to read and navigate.

4. I’m lost

Right, so your customer has made it to your site, and they like what they see. All that is left is for them to buy. Simple, right?

It’s your job to make sure it is.

The best eCommerce sites are those that place their hand in the small of their customers backs, and gently guide them through the purchase journey. They don’t pull them along into the checkout and stop them from browsing nor do they distract them with too many options along the way. The online market leaders simply provide a focussed route to purchase, signposted with direct call to actions along the way. 

Be sure to offer all of the information your customers need at the point of sale. Customers are easily put off by a lack of shipping options, overpriced postage or lack or returns information.  

If your customer still isn’t quite ready to buy, we find product relevant contact forms work brilliantly to ensure that you don’t lose your hard earned lead at the last hurdle. 

5. This just isn’t working

It may seem obvious, but issues at checkout or with your contact options are the biggest barriers to achieving an online sale. Put time aside on a regular basis to check your website works from initial visit all the way through to purchase.

Test your payment gateway, your forms and your button links to check that everything is running smoothly.

Don’t overlook your mobile version of your site too, as it can behave differently on different devices due to the display limitations.

Still lacking sales? Then what’s next? 

If sales are still proving elusive, despite you ticking all of the above boxes it may be time to focus on your user journey in a little more depth.

Sometimes you can be too close to notice when things are not quite right, ask others to visit your site as if they are a prospective customer and feedback on their findings.

In addition to your own consumer research, we can carry out a digital marketing and usability audit on your existing site to establish your user’s intent and actions. We can even utilise website heatmaps and study behaviour analytics to give you a full picture of how your site is being used and how to improve its performance.

Call 01603 859007 and ask to speak to a member of our digital team, they will be happy to offer advice or start your web audit.