Eight common mistakes ruining your eCommerce sales

Executive overview

Most eCommerce stores lose revenue through fixable conversion killers, not traffic problems. Mobile optimisation, social proof, and checkout friction are the highest-leverage areas. Fixing these eight mistakes can recover thousands in lost revenue without increasing ad spend.

The eight mistakes

1. Not optimising for mobile — 79% of smartphone users bought online in January 2021; 80% use phones in-store to compare prices.
2. Low-quality product photos — 33% of shoppers want multiple photos; only 0.5% are satisfied with a single image.
3. Not using social proof — 93% of consumers say reviews influence purchases; respond to bad reviews constructively rather than defensively.
4. Not staying in touch with customers — Email lists go cold without regular contact; SMS has a 98% open rate and is widely underused.
5. Failing to improve average order value — One customer spending $60 costs less to acquire than three spending $20 each; upsells and automation drive AOV up.
6. Bad product descriptions — Describe transformational impact, not just features; sell the outcome, not the spec.
7. Poor onsite search — Irrelevant results drive abandonment; autocomplete and behaviour-based ranking reduce friction.
8. Complex checkout — Fewer steps increase conversions; adding PayPal as a payment option has shown ~18% revenue uplift in testing.