Solved: Improve Sales for New Online Store with Low Traffic

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. It sounds like you're in a tough spot that's pretty common for new store owners, so don't feel discouraged. Getting those first few sales is always the hardest part. You've asked what you can do to improve sales, and while you've started with ads, I'd say we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Tbh, the number one mistake I see is people thinking ads are a magic bullet. They're not. Paid ads are an amplifier. If you have a brilliant store with a great product that people want, ads will help you find more of those people, faster. But if your store has issues—if it's confusing, untrustworthy, or the product isn't presented well—ads will just amplify those problems. You'll spend money to show a leaky bucket to more people.

So, before we even talk about complex ad strategies, we need to become detectives and figure out why the few visitors you're getting aren't buying. We need to look at the entire customer journey, from the first glance at your ad to the final click on the 'buy' button.

We'll need to look at your customer journey...

Marketing isn't just one thing; it's a funnel. People move through stages, and if you have a blockage at any stage, the whole system fails. For an online store, it usually looks something like this: Ad Impression -> Ad Click -> Website Visit -> Product Page View -> Add to Cart -> Checkout -> Purchase. You need to figure out where people are dropping off.

Let's break down the potential failure points:

1. The Ad Itself: Are people even clicking your ads? You need to look at your Click-Through Rate (CTR). If your CTR is really low (say, under 1%), it means your ad isn't grabbing attention. The image might be poor, or the copy isn't compelling. The audience you're targeting might be completely wrong. This is your first diagnostic check. If no one's clicking, nothing else matters.

2. The Handover (Ad to Store): So you're getting clicks, but what happens next? Do people land on your homepage and leave immediately? This is called a 'bounce'. A high bounce rate suggests a disconnect. Maybe your ad promises one thing, but your website looks completely different. Or maybe the site is just slow to load, cluttered, and confusing. You're either getting the wrong kind of traffic (a targeting problem) or your first impression is scaring them away.

3. The Product Page: People are clicking through to your product pages, but no one is adding items to their cart. This is a massive red flag and, for new stores, it's often the biggest problem area. It points directly to issues with your product presentation. Are the photos amateur? Are there no detailed descriptions explaining what the product is, its benefits, its materials, its size? Is the pricing unclear or does it seem unreasonable? People need a lot of information and confidence before they'll even consider adding an item to their basket.

4. The Checkout: You're getting 'Add to Carts', but no completed sales. This is heartbreaking, but very fixable. It usually means something in the final steps is a deal-breaker. The most common culprit is a surprise shipping cost that's way too high. It could also be a clunky checkout process that asks for too much information, or a lack of trusted payment options (like PayPal or Apple Pay). This is the final trust hurdle, and any friction here will kill the sale.

To make this clearer, I've mapped out this diagnostic process. Think of it as a troubleshooting guide for your sales funnel.

I'd say you need to build trust...

For a store that's only a few days old, my money would be on the problem lying somewhere between the 'Product View' and 'Add to Cart' stage. And the root cause is almost always a lack of trust. You are a new, unknown brand. Why should anyone feel comfortable giving you their credit card details?

You have to earn that trust. Your website can't just be a catalogue of products; it needs to be a professional, confidence-inspiring storefront. Here are some of the things I'd look at immediately:

• Product Photography: This is probably the most important thing. Are you using grainy photos taken on your phone against a messy background? That won't cut it. You need clean, sharp, professional-looking images that show your product from multiple angles. If it's something wearable, show it on a model. If it's a home good, show it in a nicely styled room. People buy with their eyes, and your photos are doing 90% of the selling.
• Product Descriptions: "Handmade blue necklace" is not a description. It's a label. A good description tells a story. What materials did you use? What's the inspiration behind it? What are the dimensions? How would it feel to wear it? What kind of outfit would it complete? You need to answer every question a potential buyer might have, because they can't pick it up and inspect it themselves.
• An 'About Us' Page: Who are you? Why did you start this store? People connect with people. A simple page with a photo of you and your story can make a massive difference in making your brand feel human and not like some anonymous, fly-by-night operation.
• Social Proof: This is huge. Since you're new, you won't have customer reviews yet. But you can start building proof in other ways. Link prominently to your social media profiles. If you sell on other platforms like Etsy that have reviews, link to those! As soon as you get your first sale, follow up and beg for a review with a photo. Displaying these reviews on your product pages is one of the most powerful things you can do.
• Professionalism: Does your site have a clear returns policy? A privacy policy? A proper contact page with an email address or even a phone number? These are small details, but they signal that you're a real, accountable business. A wierd looking domain name or a gmail address for customer service can be a bit of a red flag for some shoppers.

Getting this foundation right is far more important than any ad campaign you could run. A well-optimised store can convert visitors into customers. A poor store will just waste your ad spend, no matter how clever your targeting is.

You probably should rethink your ad strategy...

Once you've shored up your website, we can talk about ads. Just running a "couple of IG/Facebook ads" isn't really a strategy; it's more like playing the lottery. You need a more structured approach. The goal of your first campaigns shouldn't be to get a ton of sales, but to gather data and learn.

When we work with eCommerce clients, especially new ones, we structure campaigns based on the customer's awareness of the brand. You've got cold audiences (people who have never heard of you) and warm audiences (people who have visited your site but not bought yet).

For Cold Audiences (Finding New People):

Your goal here is to find pockets of people who are likely to be interested in your products. This is where you test. Don't just boost a post. Create a proper campaign in Meta Ads Manager with a 'Sales' objective.

Then, you need to think about targeting. Who is your ideal customer? What do they like? -> Think about magazines they might read (e.g., Vogue, GQ, Home & Garden). -> Think about competing or complementary brands they might buy from (e.g., if you sell handmade leather wallets, maybe you target people interested in brands like Filson or Red Wing Boots). -> Think about influencers or public figures they follow. -> Think about hobbies or activities they're into (e.g., hiking, painting, vintage cars).

I would create seperate ad sets for each *theme* of interests. For example, one ad set for competitor brands, one for related magazines, and one for hobbies. Let them run with a small daily budget (even £5-£10 per ad set is enough to start) for a few days. You're looking for which audience gives you the cheapest clicks and, more importantly, which one leads to people actually adding items to their cart. This is data gold. I remember one women's apparel client where we found an obscure fashion blogger whose followers converted at a 691% return on ad spend. We'd never have found that without systematic testing.

For Warm Audiences (Retargeting):

This is where you can make your money back. Someone who visited your site, looked at a product, and left is a very valuable person. They've already shown interest! You absolutely must run ads to bring them back.

You can set up a campaign that specifically targets 'All Website Visitors in the last 30 days' (but excludes 'Purchasers'). The ad you show them should be different. It could be a simple reminder of the product they looked at (a dynamic product ad), or it could feature a small discount code like 'COMEBACK10' to nudge them over the line. Retargeting often has a much higher return on investment than cold outreach because the audience is already pre-qualified.

You'll need a realistic budget...

Finally, let's talk about money. How much should you expect to pay for a sale? This is the million-dollar question, and the answer is... it depends. It depends on your product price, your profit margin, and how well your store converts.

Let's do some rough maths. In developed countries like the UK or US, a click on a Facebook or Instagram ad might cost you anywhere from £0.50 to £1.50. Now, a typical eCommerce store might convert about 2-5% of its visitors into buyers. Let's be conservative and say your new store converts at 2%.

This means to get 2 sales, you need 100 visitors. - Best Case Scenario: 100 visitors at £0.50 per click = £50 ad spend. Your cost per purchase is £25. - Worst Case Scenario: 100 visitors at £1.50 per click = £150 ad spend. Your cost per purchase is £75.

Now, if you're selling a £30 necklace, a £25 acquisition cost means you're barely making any money. But if you're selling a £200 piece of art, a £25 acquisition cost is fantastic. This is why you need to understand your numbers.

The metric we focus on is Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). If you spend £100 on ads and make £300 in revenue, your ROAS is 3x. For most eCommerce businesses, a 3x-4x ROAS is a good target to be profitable. We had one client selling maps who generated $71k in revenue from about $9k in spend, achieving an 8x return, which was exceptional.

To help you get a feel for these numbers, I've put together a simple interactive calculator. Play around with the sliders to see how different ad spends and revenues affect your ROAS. It's a powerful way to understand the relationship between what you spend and what you get back.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in, but trying to do everything at once is a recipe for disaster. You need a phased approach. Here's how I would tackle this if I were in your shoes.

This journey from zero to consistent sales is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes patience and a willingness to methodically test and learn. It can be incredibly rewarding, but it's also easy to get lost and make costly mistakes in the beginning.

This is often where working with an expert can make a huge difference. Instead of spending months and thousands of pounds figuring things out through trial and error, you can lean on experience to get your foundations right from day one and build a strategy that's designed to work. We can help diagnose the specific issues with your store and create a tailored advertising plan to find your first customers profitably.

If you'd like to have a more detailed chat, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a closer look at your store and your current ads and give you some specific, actionable advice. It might be helpful just to get a second pair of expert eyes on it.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh