Home/Articles

Articles

Ecommerce Traffic but Sales Are Down: What to Audit First

I do not jump straight to a redesign. I work through discovery, category pages, product choice, product data, trust and checkout in that order.

My short answer: when traffic looks healthy but growth has stalled, I want to find the biggest commercial bottleneck before changing anything. It may be the storefront. It may also be product data, merchandising, availability or the traffic mix.

My ecommerce background makes me wary of diagnosing everything as a design problem. A beautiful product page cannot compensate for customers being sent to the wrong products or Google receiving weak information.

Can customers find the right product?

I start with navigation, search, categories, filters and sorting. If discovery is hard, the customer may never reach the product page everyone wants to optimise.

Does the product page answer the buying questions?

Images, condition, options, delivery, returns, compatibility, stock, trust and price context matter. On mobile, the order and density of this information matter even more.

What information is being sent to Google?

Titles, product types, identifiers, availability and price affect how product listings are understood. Feed and Merchant Center work sounds technical, but in plain English it is about making sure Google receives accurate, useful product information.

Where does checkout create doubt?

Unexpected costs, weak delivery information, forced account creation or an awkward payment journey can undo everything earlier in the funnel. I review the complete purchase journey rather than one template in isolation.

RELATED CASE STUDY

Mr Phones

Build the experience around confidence: strong catalogue discovery first, then clear certification and Device Passport detail when the customer reaches a specific item.

View case study
Mr Phones case study
Related service

Want this applied to your business rather than just explained?

Ecommerce CRO consultancy

Common questions

Where should an ecommerce audit start?

Start with traffic quality and product discovery, then category pages, PDPs, product data, basket and checkout. Auditing only the homepage can miss the real bottleneck.

Can product data affect conversion?

Yes. Incomplete condition, size, compatibility, variant or delivery information can create hesitation on-site, while poor feed data can also affect off-site discovery.

Do we need a redesign to improve conversion?

Not necessarily. Many gains come from hierarchy, content, filters, product information, delivery clarity and checkout changes inside the existing platform.

FF
Written byAbdus Shahid

Founder · 20+ years in digital and 15+ years across ecommerce and product data.

More about this route +

Last reviewed 2 min read

A clearer next move

Bring us the problem.
We’ll work out the route.

Tell Shahid what you want to improve. We can help you decide what needs changing, what is worth keeping and where to focus next.

Talk to Shahid ↗Pricing & what is included