Selling online is a different animal. You’re asking a stranger to type their card number into your website, and everything about the site either earns that or doesn’t.
Here’s where I see the money leak out.
People Have to Find the Thing
If somebody can’t find a product in a few seconds, they’re gone.
Real categories with plain names. A search box that works and tolerates a typo. Filters if you carry more than a handful of items. Nothing clever, just findable.
The Product Page Does the Selling
This is the page that matters most, and it’s the page that usually gets the least attention.
Good photos, plenty of them, from several angles and big enough to zoom. A description that answers what somebody would ask if they were holding it. Reviews, if you have them.
And put the shipping cost on this page. Not at checkout. Surprise shipping at the last screen is the single biggest reason carts get abandoned, and you never hear about it.
Checkout Is Where You Lose Them
Every extra field is another chance to quit.
Don’t force an account. Let people check out as a guest. You can invite them to save it afterward, once you already have the order.
Show them where they are in the process. Take the obvious payment methods. Put the padlock and the return policy right there where they’re typing the card number, because that’s the moment people get nervous.
It Has to Work on a Phone
Most people browse on a phone even when they buy on a laptop.
If the phone experience is rough, you don’t just lose the phone sales. You lose the ones that would have come back on the laptop later.
Say What Happens If They Hate It
A clear, generous return policy sells more than it costs.
Hide it and people assume the worst. Put it where they can see it and it removes the last reason not to click.
Running a store and not sure where you’re losing people? Reach out anytime. It’s usually one or two specific spots, and they’re usually fixable.