Why Is No One Buying in Your Store? Cart Analysis.
It happens more often than you think. A customer enters your store, chooses goods, and then suddenly disappears just before payment. Numbers don't lie – in Polish online trade in 2024, on average 71% of carts are abandoned.
High delivery price kills sales
In June 2024, we analyzed a clothing store near Lodz. The owner had high traffic but very few orders. After reviewing 1,420 user sessions, we noticed a problem. The courier delivery cost was 23 zlotys, while the average value of a blouse in the store was 49 zlotys. No one in their right mind will pay half the value of the goods for shipping alone. The customer then feels cheated and looks for competition that offers cheaper options or free delivery from a specific amount.
At Wisła Digital Solutions, we suggest specific changes. In this case, we introduced a parcel locker option for 12.90 PLN and free delivery from 150 PLN. In just 19 days, the number of completed purchases rose by 34%. This shows that people don't give up on the product, but on additional costs they didn't expect. It simply pays off – sometimes it's better to earn 2 zlotys less on the margin but close the sale than to stay with stock in a warehouse on Piotrkowska Street.
Also remember to clearly communicate costs already on the product card. If a customer only finds out about the shipping price at the third step of the form, they will feel irritation. Research from September 2024 shows that stores that give the delivery price next to the product price have 14% fewer abandoned carts. Hide nothing. Numbers show that honesty is the best sales strategy on the internet.
No one will pay half the value of the goods for shipping alone. It's the simplest way to lose a customer.
An order form like an interrogation
Many stores demand too much data from customers. Asking for date of birth, gender, or landline number when buying a regular belt is overkill. In July 2024, we measured the form-filling time in one of the Lodz tool stores. On average, it took 4 minutes and 12 seconds. That's too long. After removing three unnecessary fields and adding address autocomplete by zip code, this time fell to 1 minute and 45 seconds. Conversion jumped by 21% in one month.
People buy on phones, often on the go or on their way to work. Every extra field to click is a chance the customer will quit. We check facts: a form with 5 fields has a 47% better chance of completion than one with 10 fields. If you don't need to issue a VAT invoice to a company, don't ask for the tax ID at the very beginning. Give the customer a choice. The less effort they have to put into shopping, the more willingly they will return to you.
Another mistake is forced account creation. Let people buy as a guest. At Wisła Digital Solutions, we know that requiring a password and email confirmation before payment is a conversion killer. In August 2024, one of our clients noted an 18% sales increase simply because we enabled the 'Buy without registration' button. This is a simple solution that brings real money without fluff.
A form with 5 fields has a 47% better chance of completion than one with 10 fields.
No Blik means no money
In Poland, mobile payments are a foundation. If your store only offers traditional transfer, you're losing a huge part of the market. According to data from the second quarter of 2024, over 80% of transactions in Polish e-commerce take place using quick payments. Blik is currently king. If a customer has to log in to the bank, type in the account number and recipient's data, they will likely give up halfway. Payments done on time are key to success.
We saw this with a client in the gardening industry. He only had cash on delivery and transfer. After implementing a payment gateway with Blik and cards, the number of prepaid orders rose from 15% to 67% in 45 days. This is not only convenience for the customer but also safer money for you. You are sure that the parcel won't return undelivered, which generates only unnecessary logistics costs in the warehouse.
Also check if the payment gateway works correctly on phones. It often happens that the bank window does not scale to the smartphone screen. This is a mistake that costs thousands of zlotys a month. At Wisła Digital Solutions, we test the payment process on 12 different phone models to be sure nothing hangs up. It simply pays off because every successful payment process is a concrete profit in your wallet.
Trust is built with details
A customer is afraid of scammers. If your site doesn't have an SSL certificate (that little padlock by the address), 63% of users will leave it immediately. But trust is more than that. Opinions of other buyers are important. In 2024, we added a review module with photos from real customers to a furniture store in Lodz. The average cart value rose by 112 zlotys because people saw that others actually received the goods and are satisfied.
Remember to provide full company data. Office address, service phone number, and tax ID should be easy to find in the site footer. If a customer sees that you operate legally on Piotrkowska Street or another well-known location, they feel safer. A lack of a phone number is a warning sign for many. Even if no one calls, the mere presence of a +48 number increases the credibility of your business.
Another thing is the return policy. Write it in human terms, without legal jargon. If a customer knows they have 14 days to return goods without giving a reason and sees simple instructions on how to do it, they will more willingly click the 'Buy' button. We did a test for a shoe store: shortening the return regulations by half and adding a clear graphic increased conversion by 9% in just two weeks. Numbers don't lie.
The mere presence of a Polish phone number on the site increases the credibility of your business.
Site speed on mobile devices
Most of your customers browse the store on a phone, standing in line at a bakery or riding a tram. If the page loads longer than 3 seconds, you lose 40% of traffic. This is the brutal truth about today's e-commerce. In October 2024, we optimized a cosmetics store. Before the changes, the page loaded 6.2 seconds. After compressing photos and turning off unnecessary plugins, we went down to 1.8 seconds.
The result? The number of abandoned carts fell by 27%. People have no patience. If a product photo loads bit by bit, the customer thinks the store is old and unsafe. At Wisła Digital Solutions, we check facts – the technical performance of a site has a direct impact on how much money is left in your register at the end of the month. Don't let a slow server eat your profits.
Also make sure that the buttons are large enough. An average person's thumb needs space. If the 'Add to cart' button is too close to another link, the customer will make a mistake and leave annoyed. These are trifles that decide whether you earn 5 thousand or 50 thousand zlotys. It simply pays off – invest in a proper technical audit instead of burning the budget on ads that lead to a non-working site.
