Solved: Low Purchases Despite High Clicks and Add-to-Carts

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing your situation. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've described.

It sounds like you've got people interested enough to click your ads, add a product to their cart, and even start the checkout process, which is definitely promising. However, the significant drop-off between initiating checkout (IC) and making the final purchase is a pretty clear signal that the main problem isn't getting people to your site or even getting them to decide they want the product, but rather something is going wrong right at the very end of the purchase flow.

Let's zero in on that final step...

Since you're seeing the drop between IC and Purchase, the issue is almost certainly happening on one of the checkout pages. Even if your Shopify plan limits customisation on the final checkout screen, there are other elements to consider. Have you gone through the *entire* checkout process yourself on both desktop and mobile? Pretend you're a customer with no prior knowledge of your site. What information is requested? How many steps are there? Does anything feel confusing, unnecessary, or alarming?

Key things to check at this stage are your shipping costs and estimated delivery times. These are the biggest killers at the final hurdle. If they aren't clearly presented earlier or are unexpectedly high, people *will* abandon their carts. Also, is there anything else required, like forcing them to create an account? That's another huge barrier to purchase for many people just wanting to quickly buy something.

Trust signals at the finish line

You mentioned adding trust badges to the cart drawer, which is good, but are those trust elements consistently visible and reassuring throughout the checkout process? Think about payment provider logos (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, etc.), security badges (like SSL icons), a link to your returns policy, and clear contact information. People are entering sensitive payment details, so they need to feel completely secure and trust that they can get help if something goes wrong or if they need to return the item. A lack of these can cause cold feet right before the final click.

Could traffic quality be a factor?

While your ads are getting clicks and ATCs, it's possible you're attracting traffic that isn't quite ready to buy. High CTR is nice, but it doesn't always mean high purchase intent. If your ads are too broad or perhaps the creative is *so* compelling it gets clicks from people who aren't your ideal buyer, they might add to cart out of interest but drop off when faced with the final commitment. This happens sometimes. We've worked with eCommerce clients who saw decent interest signals like ATCs but had to really refine their audience targeting and sometimes even the ad messaging to filter for true purchase-ready traffic before they saw their ROAS climb. Getting everything from the ad to the final purchase button to align is crucial. We had one eCommerce subscription box client see a 1000% ROAS once everything was dialled in, but that takes work across the entire funnel.

Here's what I'd focus on first:

Based on what you've shared, it seems like the immediate priority isn't necessarily a CRO expert for the *whole* site yet, but specifically diagnosing and fixing whatever is causing that final drop-off in the checkout flow. It's likely something small but critical there.

Sometimes having an expert eye look at the specific drop-off point can help identify issues you might overlook after looking at it for so long. We've helped clients diagnose similar late-stage funnel problems by doing deep dives into their analytics and user flow.

If you wanted to discuss this further and get a more specific breakdown of potential issues in your checkout flow, we'd be happy to book in a free consultation to go through it together.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh