Read Sales Rescue free: the opening pages

A free sample of Sales Rescue: Find Out Why Your Online Store Isn't Selling and Fix It. About 10 minutes of reading.

Part 1: The Diagnosis, Why Your Store Isn't Selling

The Three Numbers That Tell You What's Broken

Let's be honest. You built a store. You’re probably posting on Instagram, maybe running a few Facebook ads, and… crickets. Or worse, a trickle of traffic that looks at products and then vanishes. You’re left staring at your analytics, wondering what’s wrong. Is it the products? The website design? The marketing? It feels like everything, and that’s overwhelming.

The good news is, it’s rarely everything. Usually, it’s one or two key areas that are seriously leaking potential sales. But you can’t fix what you can’t measure. And before you start throwing more traffic at the problem, you need to understand where the leak is.

Forget industry benchmarks. They’re often misleading and don't account for your specific niche, product cost, or target audience. We're going to focus on your numbers, your baseline, and your improvement.

There are three numbers you need to know, and we’re going to pull them right now. Don't skip this. This isn’t theory; it’s the starting point for everything else.

Understanding the Funnel

Think of your store like a funnel. People enter at the top (website visits), and ideally, they flow down to the bottom (completed purchases). But the funnel has leaks. Some people leave at each stage. Understanding those leaks is how you fix the problem.

Sessions (or Visits): This is the total number of times people landed on your store. It’s the top of your funnel.
Add-to-Cart Rate: The percentage of sessions that resulted in someone adding an item to their shopping cart. This shows how well your product pages are convincing people they want something.
Checkout Completion Rate: The percentage of sessions that started the checkout process and actually completed a purchase. This reveals how smoothly (or not) people can actually buy from you.

Pulling Your Numbers (Shopify & WooCommerce)

Let’s get these numbers. I’ll give you the steps for both Shopify and WooCommerce. If you’re on another platform, the principles are the same, find where these metrics are reported.

Shopify:

Go to Analytics > Overview.
Set the date range to the last 30 days (we’ll revisit this later).
Record the Sessions.
Go to Analytics > Reports.
Under "Sales," click on Cart abandonment.
Record the Add to Cart number. Divide this by your Sessions and multiply by 100 to get your Add-to-Cart Rate.
In the same "Sales" section, find Checkout.
Record the Completed orders number. Divide this by your Sessions and multiply by 100 to get your Checkout Completion Rate.

WooCommerce:

Go to WooCommerce > Reports.
Set the date range to the last 30 days.
Under "Overview," record the Sessions.
Under "Orders," record the Total Orders and Cart Abandonment Rate. (You'll need to calculate the Add-to-Cart rate separately. WooCommerce doesn't directly show this. See the calculation below.)
Calculate your Add-to-Cart Rate: Find the number of products added to cart (you may need an extension for this, like "WooCommerce Cart Reports") and divide by Sessions, then multiply by 100.
Calculate your Checkout Completion Rate: Divide Total Orders by Sessions and multiply by 100.

Worked Example: "Coastal Crafts"

Let's say you run a store called "Coastal Crafts" selling handmade beach-themed décor. Here’s what your numbers might look like after 30 days:

Sessions: 5,000
Add to Cart: 250
Completed Orders: 25

Let's calculate the rates:

Add-to-Cart Rate: (250 / 5000) * 100 = 5%
Checkout Completion Rate: (25 / 5000) * 100 = 0.5%

That's... not good. Let's break down what these numbers mean.

Coastal Crafts, 30-Day Performance

Metric	Value	Interpretation
Sessions	5,000	A decent amount of traffic. The problem isn't necessarily getting people to the store.
Add-to-Cart Rate	5%	Only 5% of visitors found something they wanted enough to add to their cart. This is a significant leak.
Checkout Completion Rate	0.5%	Extremely low. Of everyone who visited, less than half of one percent actually bought something.

Action step: Pull your numbers for the last 30 days and fill in the table below. Be brutally honest with yourself.

Your Store, 30-Day Performance

Metric	Value	Interpretation
Sessions
Add to Cart
Completed Orders
Add-to-Cart Rate
Checkout Completion Rate

The Leak Detection Guide: What Do Your Numbers Tell You?

Now, let's use these numbers to pinpoint the biggest problem.

Scenario 1: High Sessions, Low Add-to-Cart Rate (Like Coastal Crafts)

Problem: People are landing on your store, but your product pages aren’t convincing them to buy. They’re not seeing what they want, the images aren’t compelling, the descriptions are weak, or the price feels wrong.
First Fix: Focus on your product pages. We'll cover how to rewrite them in detail later.
Example: Coastal Crafts is getting traffic, but people aren't adding items to their cart. The problem is likely with product presentation, maybe the photos don't capture the beach vibe, or the descriptions don't explain the craftsmanship.

Scenario 2: Good Add-to-Cart Rate, Low Checkout Completion Rate

Problem: People are finding products they like and adding them to their cart, but something is happening during checkout that’s causing them to abandon their purchase.
First Fix: Audit your checkout process. Look for hidden costs, complicated forms, lack of trust signals, or technical glitches.
Example: Imagine a store with a 15% Add-to-Cart Rate but a 2% Checkout Completion Rate. People want the product, but the checkout is either confusing, expensive (due to unexpected shipping), or makes them feel unsafe about entering their credit card information.

Scenario 3: Low Sessions, Low Everything Else

Problem: You have a traffic problem. No one is finding your store.
First Fix: Focus on driving qualified traffic. Posting pretty pictures on Instagram isn’t enough. You need to target people who are actively searching for what you sell.
Example: A store getting 500 sessions a month with a 2% Add-to-Cart Rate and a 1% Checkout Completion Rate needs to focus on getting more relevant visitors to the site.

Scenario 4: Decent Numbers Across the Board, But Still Not Enough Sales

Problem: The funnel isn't broken, it's just not efficient enough. You're losing a little bit at each stage.
First Fix: Focus on incremental improvements. A 1% improvement in each stage can add up to significant gains. Also, start thinking about retention, turning one-time buyers into repeat customers.
Example: A store with 10,000 sessions, a 10% Add-to-Cart Rate, and a 5% Checkout Completion Rate isn't failing, but it's leaving money on the table. Small tweaks to product pages, checkout, and post-purchase follow-up can make a big difference.

Pro tip: Don't try to fix everything at once. Prioritize based on the biggest leak. If your Add-to-Cart Rate is the lowest number, start there.

Warning: Don't start running more ads until you've fixed the leaks. You'll just be throwing money away on traffic that won't convert.

Beyond 30 Days: Tracking Your Progress

Once you’ve identified your primary leak, it’s crucial to track your progress. Don't just make changes and hope for the best.

Record your baseline numbers (the ones you just calculated).
Make one focused change based on the "First Fix" for your scenario.
Wait 7-14 days to allow the changes to take effect.
Pull the numbers again. Did the relevant metric improve?
Repeat.

This isn’t about overnight miracles. It’s about methodical improvement.

Example: Coastal Crafts decides to rewrite their product descriptions, focusing on the feeling of being at the beach. After two weeks, they check their numbers again. If the Add-to-Cart Rate has increased to 7%, they know they’re on the right track. If not, they need to try a different approach.

This book is about systematically fixing those leaks. The next step is a full store self-audit, a more detailed look at everything that could be holding you back. But remember: start with the numbers. They’ll tell you exactly where to focus your energy.

The Three Numbers That Tell You What's Broken (Continued)

Let’s Get Practical: Pulling the Numbers

Okay, enough theory. Let’s actually find these numbers in your store’s analytics. The specifics will vary slightly depending on your platform, but the core concepts are the same.

Shopify:

Sessions: Go to Analytics > Overview. The default date range is the last 28 days. Adjust as needed.
Add-to-Cart Rate: Go to Analytics > Reports. Under “Sales and Marketing,” click “Checkout.” Look for the “Add to cart” metric, then divide that number by your total Sessions and multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
Checkout Completion Rate: Within the same “Checkout” report, find the “Completed orders” metric. Divide that by the number of “Started checkouts” and multiply by 100.

WooCommerce:

Sessions: WooCommerce doesn’t have built-in session tracking as robust as Shopify. You’ll likely need a plugin like Google Analytics for WooCommerce (highly recommended!). Install and configure it, then find Sessions under Behavior > Overview in Google Analytics.
Add-to-Cart Rate: In Google Analytics, go to Behavior > Ecommerce > Product Performance. Look at “Product Adds to Cart” and divide by Sessions, then multiply by 100.
Checkout Completion Rate: Go to Conversions > Ecommerce > Overview. Look at “Transactions” (completed orders) and divide by “Ecommerce Abandoned Cart Rate” (you may need to customize this report slightly). Remember to calculate 100% minus the Abandoned Cart Rate to find your Completion Rate.

Understanding What the Numbers Actually Mean

Forget arbitrary benchmarks you read online. A “good” number depends entirely on your industry, product price, and target audience. Instead, think about what the numbers tell you logically:

Sessions: This is the top of your funnel. It represents the number of people who even visited your store. Low sessions mean people aren’t finding you.
Add-to-Cart Rate: This measures how compelling your product pages are. If people are visiting but not adding items to their cart, something is wrong with your product presentation, pricing, or perceived value.
Checkout Completion Rate: This reflects the friction in your checkout process. High abandonment rates suggest issues with shipping costs, required account creation, payment options, or trust signals.

A Worked Example: “The Cozy Candle Co.”

Let’s say The Cozy Candle Co., a fictional store selling handmade soy candles, has the following numbers for the last 30 days:

Sessions: 5,000
Add-to-Cart Rate: 4% (200 Add-to-Carts)
Checkout Completion Rate: 20% (40 Completed Orders)

Let’s break this down:

Sessions to Add-to-Cart: 5,000 visitors, only 200 added something to their cart. That’s a big drop-off. This is the primary leak.
Add-to-Cart to Completed Orders: 200 added to cart, but only 40 completed the purchase. Another significant leak.

Where to Focus? The biggest leak is between Sessions and Add-to-Cart. The Cozy Candle Co. needs to focus on improving their product pages to make them more appealing and convincing. The checkout process also needs attention, but fixing the initial attraction is the priority.

Your Turn: The Diagnostic Worksheet

Fill in this worksheet with your store’s numbers. Be honest!

Store Name: _______________________________

Date Range: _______________________________

1. Total Sessions: ____________

2. Total Add-to-Carts: ____________

3. Add-to-Cart Rate: (Total Add-to-Carts / Total Sessions) x 100 = ____________ %

4. Total Started Checkouts: ____________ (This may require a bit of digging in your analytics)

5. Total Completed Orders: ____________

6. Checkout Completion Rate: (Total Completed Orders / Total Started Checkouts) x 100 = ____________ %

Analysis:

Which number is the lowest? _______________________________
Based on the lowest number, where is your biggest leak?
- ☐ Getting people to find my store (Sessions)
- ☐ Getting people to add items to their cart (Add-to-Cart Rate)
- ☐ Getting people to complete their purchase (Checkout Completion Rate)
What is your initial focus for improvement? _______________________________

Digging Deeper: Segmenting Your Data

Once you have a baseline understanding of your overall numbers, start segmenting your data. This means looking at these metrics for specific traffic sources, product categories, or even customer demographics.

Traffic Source: Are visitors from Facebook converting better than those from Google? This can tell you where to focus your marketing efforts.
Product Category: Are certain products performing better than others? This might indicate pricing issues or a lack of demand for specific items.
Device Type: Are mobile users abandoning checkout at a higher rate than desktop users? This could point to a mobile optimization problem.

Most analytics platforms allow you to segment your data easily. Experiment with different segments to uncover hidden insights.

Don't Confuse Correlation with Causation

Just because two things happen together doesn’t mean one causes the other. For example, a drop in sales might coincide with a change in your social media algorithm. Don’t immediately assume the algorithm change is the problem. Look for other potential factors and test your assumptions.

The Importance of Statistical Significance

When you make changes to your store, it’s important to make sure the results are statistically significant. This means that the change is unlikely to have occurred by chance. There are online calculators that can help you determine statistical significance, but generally, you need a larger sample size to be confident in your results. Don’t get too excited about a small increase in conversion rate after only a few days.

Final Thoughts on the Three Numbers

These three numbers, Sessions, Add-to-Cart Rate, and Checkout Completion Rate, are your diagnostic tools. They are the starting point for identifying and fixing the problems that are preventing your online store from reaching its full potential. Don't get lost in vanity metrics like social media followers or website page views. Focus on the numbers that directly impact your bottom line. And remember: consistent tracking and methodical improvement are the keys to success. Now, let's move on to a detailed audit of your store's key areas.

The sample ends here.