In short: Most sales are lost on mobile: too slow, price or shipping unclear, add-to-cart button out of sight, checkout too long. Fix these and you sell more with the same traffic.
The ten most common brakes
- Mobile load time. Large images and too many apps slow the store down. Use WebP, remove unused apps.
- Cookie banner over the product. If it fills half the screen, the first impression is gone. Smaller, at the bottom, with an equally sized reject button.
- Buy button out of sight. On mobile, “Add to cart” has to be visible without scrolling, or stick to the bottom.
- Shipping costs only at checkout. Show them on the product page. Surprises right before paying cost the most sales.
- No delivery date. “Arrives Thursday” sells better than “2 to 5 business days”.
- Photos without scale. Show the product in a hand, on a body, in a room.
- Hidden reviews. Stars belong right under the product name.
- Too few payment methods. In Germany many people expect PayPal and buy now, pay later; in Switzerland, TWINT.
- Mandatory account. Allow guest checkout.
- No email after abandonment. An abandoned cart flow wins back part of those sales.
How to find your biggest brake
In Shopify analytics, look at the funnel: sessions, added to cart, reached checkout, purchased. Start where the biggest drop is. And place an order yourself on your phone, on mobile data, not Wi-Fi.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good conversion rate for an online store?
It depends heavily on industry, price point and traffic source. Compare yourself with yourself instead: month against month, mobile against desktop.
What helps more: new ads or a better store?
If the store is slowing people down, every new ad fizzles out. Fix the biggest brakes first, then raise the budget.