Solved: High Checkout Abandonment Rate, Low Conversions

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on the situation with your store. It's a common problem to see a big drop-off at checkout, but getting 51 checkouts from $700 in the first week actually shows there's some real potential there. The issue usually isnt the checkout page itself, but a symptom of problems further up the funnel. Let's walk through it.

We'll need to look at the whole funnel, not just the checkout...

Right, so the first thing to get your head around is that people don't just abandon their cart for no reason. When someone gets all the way to the checkout and then bails, it's usually because of a promise that was broken or a question that wasn't answered earlier in their journey. Think of it like a leaky pipe – you can't just patch the final drip, you have to find the source of the leak.

You've spent $700 and got 51 people to start the checkout process. A lot of people would kill for that kind of initial interest. But only 5 converting tells me there's a serious disconnect between what they *think* they're getting and the reality they face when it's time to pay. We need to analyse the entire process, from the moment they see your ad to the second they're asked for their card details.

Your customer's journey looks something like this:

Your leak is massive at step 4, but the cause is almost definitely in steps 1, 2 or 3. People are clicking, they're even adding to cart, but something is making them hesitate right at the final hurdle. This is classic "cold feet," and it's caused by a lack of trust or a nasty surprise.

I'd say your targeting might be attracting the wrong crowd...

Let's talk about your Meta ads. You're spending money to get people to your store, but are they the *right* people? It’s a common mistake to just aim for clicks. But not all clicks are created equal.

There's this uncomfortable truth about awareness campaigns on platforms like Meta. When you set your campaign objective to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are telling the algorithm to "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price." The algorithm does exactly that. It finds users who are least likely to click, engage, or ever pull out a credit card. Why? Because their attention is cheap. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product. Even if you're optimising for conversions, if your targeting is too broad or your creative isn't clear, you'll get people who are just curious, not committed buyers.

For a new store, you should be running a campaign with the objective set to 'Sales' and optimising for 'Purchase' events. This tells Meta to find people who have a history of actually buying things, not just browsing. It costs more per click, but the quality of the traffic is night and day. I remember one client we worked with, a women's apparel brand, saw a 691% return on their ad spend by shifting their focus from broad traffic to hyper-targeted conversion campaigns. They stopped chasing cheap clicks and started hunting for actual customers.

You need to start with detailed targeting. Don't just target "shopping" or some massive, generic interest. Think about your ideal customer. What magazines do they read? What other brands do they buy from? What influencers do they follow? Get really specific. Layering interests can help, for example, people who like 'Handcrafted Jewellery' AND also like 'Etsy'. This narrows the pool to people more likely to appreciate and pay for what you offer.

Here’s how I would structure the audiences for a new eCommerce store, in order of priority:

You probably should look at what happens *before* the checkout...

Okay, so let's assume you've got the right people coming to your site. The next leak is almost always on the product page. This is where you build desire and, more importantly, trust. If your product pages are weak, people might add to cart out of mild curiosity, but they'll never complete the purchase.

Ask yourself these questions, brutally honestly:

• -> Are my product photos any good? I mean really good. Not just phone snaps on your kitchen table. For something like handcrafted products, people need to see texture, detail, and scale. Show it being used or worn. I remember working with a cleaning products company where we helped them achieve a 190% increase in revenue. A big part of that success came from selling the *result*—a sparkling clean home—not just the product itself.
• -> Is my product description persuasive? Does it just list features, or does it sell a benefit? Nobody buys a drill because they want a drill; they buy it because they want a hole. What "hole" does your product create for your customer? Does it make them feel unique? Solve a problem? Tell a story about how it's made.
• -> Is the price clear? And is the value justified? If you're selling a premium product, your website needs to *look* premium. If it looks cheap or amateurish, people won't believe the price tag.

But the biggest killer of all is a lack of trust. You're a new store. Nobody knows who you are. Why should they give you their credit card details? You have to earn their trust, and you have to do it fast.

You'll need to understand the real cost of abandonment...

Right now you're focused on the $700 you've spent. But the more important question isn't "How low can my cost per purchase go?" but "How high a cost can I afford to acquire a great customer?" The answer is in a metric called Lifetime Value (LTV).

If you sell a product and that customer never comes back, you have to make a profit on that one sale. But what if they come back and buy again? Or sign up for a subscription? Suddenly, you can afford to spend a lot more to get them in the door the first time. I remember one subscription box campaign that achieved a 1000% return on ad spend. They could afford a higher initial acquisition cost because they understood that the average customer would make multiple repeat purchases, making the lifetime value incredibly high. That's the power of knowing your numbers.

Calculating a precise LTV is hard for a new store, but we can make some educated guesses to change your perspective. It stops you from making knee-jerk decisions like cutting off ads that are actually building a long-term asset: a customer base.

Use this calculator below. Play with the numbers. See how a small change in how many customers stick around each month can dramatically change what each customer is worth to you. This is the math that unlocks intelligent, aggressive growth.

We'll need to look at the checkout process itself...

Finally, let's talk about the checkout page itself. Even with perfect traffic and a trustworthy site, you can still lose people here if the process is clumsy or, worse, deceitful. This is where the single biggest conversion killer lives: unexpected costs.

If someone has gone through the whole process with a £50 item in their basket, and then on the very last page you slap them with a £10 shipping fee they never saw coming, they will leave. It feels like a bait-and-switch. It shatters all the trust you've just built. The number one reason for cart abandonment, across almost every study, is being surprised by shipping costs.

Here are the most common culprits for checkout abandonment:

The fix here is simple, but vital:
-> Be transparent. Show shipping costs on the product page, or have a clear banner explaining your shipping policy (e.g., "Free shipping on orders over £50").
-> Offer guest checkout. Don't force people to create an account. You can ask them to do it *after* they've paid.
-> Keep it simple. Only ask for the information you absolutely need. The less fields they have to fill in, the better.
-> Offer multiple payment options. At a minimum, you need credit/debit card processing and PayPal. Adding options like Apple Pay and Google Pay can significantly increase conversions on mobile.

I'd say you can turn this around...

Look, the situation feels frustrating, but I want to be clear: you are not in a bad spot. Having too much interest is a much better problem than having none at all. You've proven that your products and your ads are good enough to get people interested. Now you just need to fix the leaks in your boat so you can actually get to your destination.

Don't cut the ads just yet. I'd reduce the budget by half, and then focus all your energy for the next week on implementing the changes below. This isn't about some secret marketing hack; it's about building a solid foundation based on trust and a smooth customer experience. We've seen clients go from struggling to being wildly profitable by focusing on these fundamentals. For one eCommerce store launch, we generated 1500 leads at just $0.29 each, which shows what's possible when the path to purchase is frictionless. It's absolutely doable.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Working through this systematically takes time and a bit of expertise, especially on the ad platform side of things. It's a process of testing, measuring, and refining. You've got the raw materials of a successful store; it just needs some professional tuning.

If you'd like to go over your ad account and store together in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session where we can give you some more specific pointers. It might help you get clarity on the next steps.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh