People leaving your site without buying? Here’s 10 reasons why.

You have the website traffic and visitors are finding their way to your site, but they aren’t converting into customers. Sound familiar? While your products might be spot on and your marketing is hitting the right notes, there are a number of reasons why your visitors aren’t converting into customers.

We often find that people haven’t considered some simple mistakes they might be making that result in people leaving their site without purchasing.

Use our checklist below as your starting point

1. Website isn’t responsive

There’s no denying there has been a huge increase in the popularity of mobile phones, and by not having a responsive website that adapts to the screen/device your customers are using you’re doing yourself a disservice. Nearly 40% of shoppers on Cyber Monday 2017 visited eCommerce sites using their mobiles, accounting for almost 25% of revenue on a single day.

2. Outdated design

First impressions count and as much as we all say we don’t do it; you can’t help but ‘judge a book by its cover’. This infographic states that 57% of users surveyed wouldn't recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. Establishing trustworthiness if crucial and if your site doesn’t have a professional finish, it might be time for a redesign.

3. Too wordy

While you might want to put everything you can on your site to make sure every aspect is covered, too many words can be off-putting. Be concise with your writing.

4. Pop-up adverts

A lot of people use ad-blockers now, but even if they don’t pop up adverts can distract your customer from what they were doing (buying your products!). If you use pop-ups, consider if they are really needed; perhaps experiment with the timing of them, and most importantly, test drive your own site on a few devices – we've seen sites you can't get to the close icon on mobile, most people will just leave your site if they can't do what they were hoping to.

5. Confusing navigation structure

You know how to find your products and navigate your way around the site, but how easy is it for your customers to find what they want? Is there a clear confirmation that something has been added to the basket? Are your delivery charges easily found? Ask someone who isn’t familiar with your site to find a specific product. Watch them as they navigate the site to see where they get stuck and what improvements you can make.

6. No personality

People buy from people, so make sure your website represents you and your company. Don’t be bland and boring, be on brand and make sure your company’s personality shines through.

7. Slow loading time

Simply put, if your website takes too long to load then people will click away and move on to something else. Test your site and make sure images and content files aren’t too large and slowing down the site loading time.

8. Search

Hopefully your website is easy to get around but just in case make sure the search functionality on your site works. What words are people using to search? Are the search results relevant to them?

9. Auto-play video

A HUGE bug-bear for many people, especially those with slow internet connections or a cap on 3G/4G usage. Do use video as part of your content strategy, but don’t set videos to auto-play on the site. Let your customers get to where they want to be, and watch your videos if they choose to.

10. No ‘call-to-action’

Don’t go all shy on us now! You’ve got them to your website, now tell them what you want them to do. ‘Add to basket’, ‘sign up, ‘contact us’….always add a call-to-action.

Speaking of which…

Now we’ve shared our top 10 reasons why people leave your site without buying, get in touch to see how we can help build you a site that people will buy from.