A store owner is struggling with an extremely low 0.1% conversion rate despite competitive pricing (2-5% below market) and sending thousands of targeted visitors to their site. They have as many abandoned carts as completed sales.
Key concerns:
Limited visibility into checkout process (Shopify blocks Google Tag Manager access)
Site speed at 50%, though attributed to tracking tools
Uncertainty about what’s causing drop-offs during checkout
Suggested improvements:
Enhance homepage with brand story, establishment date, and trust elements
Review abandoned checkout timeline for specific error messages (payment gateway issues, etc.)
Consider expanding the 7-product line
Potentially hire someone for better product/marketing images
The store owner plans to adjust “add to cart” settings, suspecting customers may be getting stuck since most orders require multiple quantities per page. However, they remain skeptical that homepage improvements alone will significantly impact conversion, given their direct competitors spend tens of thousands on advertising. No errors appear in the abandoned checkout timeline, leaving the root cause unresolved.
Summarized with AI on November 19.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
My shop is running a 0.1% conversion rate currently.
I’ve done pricing research and I’m 2-5% lower than the standard.
My site speed is showing up at 50%. I’ll work on cleaning up my tag manager, but that’s only robust because I was trying to see what’s going on with users.
I’m aware my homepage needs work, I originally saw this as an impulse buy on the product page, but I’ll add a hero image and some trust items.
At this point, I’m starting to think there’s something wrong with the checkout flow, but since Shopify blocks access to GTM, I can’t see where people are dropping off.
ANY insights would be welcome, appreciated, and corrected in short order.
I understand that this can be frustrating, especially when starting out.
I think you have done a really good job of putting everything together so far, but I also think you’re on the right track with your thoughts about working on the homepage.
The homepage is very important, as your customers will form their first impressions about your store there. A well put together homepage is not only helpful for ease of navigation, but it also helps build up trust with your customers.
You can start by adding a section following these steps herewhich would include additional information about your store and it’s background, i.e. established in ‘x year’. This adds to the personality of the store, and gives your homepage an overall more finished and professional look.
I know you have some concerns about your checkout flow - could you please check your Orders > Abandoned Checkouts and see if any orders landed there? Usually, if there is a checkout issue, this is where you will find orders that failed - and if you click into them, and scroll down to the Timeline section, it will explain exactly what the issue was (i.e. payment gateway error).
Thank you for the response. I have as many abandoned carts as I do sales. I sent several thousand targeted keyword visitors here at unprofitable prices.
It is frustrating that I don’t have any visibility as to what they are doing after they enter checkout and I don’t know what to fix there.
I may have to pay someone to get better product and marketing images for me, but that’s my last thought. Perhaps I can expand my product line as I only have 7 main products. I’m not sure that just bumping up my homepage is going to make that much of a difference. I know that the adspend is in the 10s of thousands for my direct competitors. I’m just befuddled.
Regarding your product images, I think they look great and they nicely represent your products - I like how they show what the covers look like when they are not stretched out on the sofas, it sets a good expectation as to what you will see when you receive the product.
Regarding the abandoned checkouts, have you had a chance to scroll down to the Timeline section, and see if any particular errors are highlighted there?
This would tell us a little bit more about the checkout and if there really are any issues there.
Nothing on the timeline. Wishing I had access to see what’s happening during checkout that’s dropping. I’m going to change a few settings on add to cart after reviewing the process as most orders require multiple quantities of our items on a page, perhaps folks were getting hung up there.