Raising conversion from 2% to 3% means 30 instead of 20 orders from 1,000 visitors, which is half again as many at the same traffic. This is arithmetic, not a forecast. Look for barriers in this order: checkout, shipping cost, speed, product page and trust. Buttons on mobile should be at least 44×44 px. I make these changes as part of an e-shop redesign from €1,000.
Quick answer: how to raise e-shop conversion
Conversion rate is the share of visits that end in an order. Raising it from 2% to 3% means half again as many orders at the same traffic, without a crown more in advertising. This is arithmetic under unchanged inputs, not a forecast. Include implementation costs, margin and returns.
The order to tackle it in
- Checkout remove unnecessary inputs and test errors; guest checkout is the baseline
- Shipping and its cost an unexpected shipping price in the last step is a possible obstacle to completing an order
- Speed a slow page can make shopping harder, especially on mobile
- Product page photos, availability, shipping and returns in one place
- Trust reviews, contact details, terms, facts about the company
The rest of the article is a how-to for each point.
Conversions > Traffic
Most e-shop owners focus on traffic. SEO, PPC, social media, all to bring more people in. But what if the problem isn't visitor count, but how many of them actually buy? Before you pour more money into advertising, it's worth knowing how to measure online marketing ROI.
Conversion rates vary by sector, price point and traffic source, so your own rate is the one worth tracking. At 2%, 20 out of 1,000 visitors buy; at 3%, thirty do. Moving from 2% to 3% therefore means 50% more orders, and at the same average order value 50% more revenue, without any extra ad spend.
1. Simplify Checkout
Step count alone does not establish quality. Test whether customers understand inputs, see the price and can correct errors without losing data. Offer guest checkout where appropriate, accessible progress information and optional rather than forced account creation.
2. Clear delivery costs
Show delivery costs early and truthfully. Assess a free-shipping threshold or collection against margin. If shipping is included in product prices, explain it clearly without a misleading discount impression.
3. Loading Speed
Measure actual mobile waiting and failures. Verify improvements in your own data; a universal lost-orders-per-second claim cannot be imported from another study. Optimise image formats, lazy-load only outside the main initial content and review scripts. See website speed and SEO.
4. Product Pages That Sell
Most product pages have a name, price, and supplier-copied description. That's not enough. Write unique descriptions, add 3-5 photos, show reviews, display availability clearly, and add cross-sell sections. A complete product page checklist (first screen, photos, variants, specifications, delivery, reviews and structured data) is in what a product page needs.
5. Trust Elements
Customers need verifiable reasons to trust the store: real reviews, working contact details and accurate return information. HTTPS protects transport but does not prove an honest merchant. Use only substantiated business-history claims and authorised logos; do not invent customer counts.
6. Mobile UX
A large share of visitors come from mobile. Check that buttons are large enough (min 44×44 px), forms have correct keyboards, cart is one tap away, and images adapt to screen width.
A large share of visitors arrive on a phone, an e-shop tuned only on desktop misses a substantial part of its customers. Walk through the points above directly on a mobile device: button sizes, correct form keyboards, and one-tap cart access only show up there.
7. Search That Works
Customers who use on-site search are among the most purchase-ready visitors you have, they already know what they want. Ensure typo tolerance, autocomplete with product images, sensible filters, and helpful "no results" pages.
8. Abandoned Cart Emails
A cart reminder can be a marketing message. Entering an address in an unfinished checkout does not itself establish marketing consent or an existing customer relationship. First check the legal basis, any customer exception and easy opt-out. Czech DPA guidance for e-shops.
Then test proportionate timing and frequency. Do not assume the highest open rate, a fixed recovered-cart percentage or automatic profit. Include discounts in margin calculations.
9. Payment Methods
Choose methods from customer needs, country, products and cost. Verify cards, wallets, transfers, cash on delivery or instalments with your provider. More options do not automatically increase conversion; test failures and refunds too.
10. A/B Testing
Don't guess what works. Test. Two CTA button versions, two product page layouts, different trust element placements. An A/B test needs enough orders for the result not to be chance, so smaller stores should fix obvious problems and measure the overall conversion rate instead (see the FAQ below).
Recoloring a button, rewriting the copy, and hoping is not how conversion optimization works. Without measurement you can't tell whether a change helped, hurt, or did nothing. With enough order volume, run two versions against each other in an A/B test; for a smaller store, compare the conversion rate before and after the change. A before/after comparison is indicative: season, traffic sources and product range can change results. Measurement alone does not establish causality.
What to take away
- Moving the conversion rate from 2% to 3% means half again as many orders from the same traffic; this is an arithmetic scenario, not a forecast.
- Start with checkout, shipping cost and speed, then the product page and trust.
- Show the shipping cost early and truthfully, not in the last step.
- Send abandoned cart emails only after checking the legal basis, and let customers easily decline further messages.
- Measure changes: an A/B test when there are enough orders, a before and after comparison for a smaller store.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good e-shop conversion rate?
It depends on the sector, price point and traffic source, so comparing yourself to someone else's number is of little use. Your own curve is more useful: measure weekly and act on changes relative to yourself. A tenth of a percentage point at a store with thousands of visits a month shows up in revenue more than chasing an "industry average".
What raises conversion fastest?
Fixing an observed ordering defect may have the quickest benefit. Set priorities from the actual problem; the cheapest and fastest solution differs between stores.
What does conversion optimisation cost?
The cheapest route is applying the points above to your existing store, often a matter of hours. If the template or platform itself turns out to be the bottleneck, you're looking at an e-shop redesign, which starts at €1,000.
Do I need A/B tests for this?
Required sample size depends on baseline conversion, expected effect and confidence, not a universal annual order count. Fix obvious defects directly; compare uncertain variants with a suitable experiment.
How to Start
You don't need to implement all 10 at once. Start with what costs least effort and brings the biggest effect.
Where to start
- Simplify checkout guest checkout, clear error messages
- Add trust elements reviews, contact details, return information
- Set up abandoned cart emails only after checking the legal basis
Set timing from the platform and scope. Evaluate changes with a sufficient sample and account for other influences.
Once your conversions are under control, it pays to drive in more quality traffic, where to advertise more cost-effectively, I compare in my article Google Ads vs Sklik.
Need help optimizing your e-shop? Get in touch, I'll look at specific numbers and suggest where to start. I offer SEO optimization, e-shop redesigns, and complete Shoptet and Shopify e-shop development.