Stop one
Being found.
Search, Shopping and assistants are three doors into the same catalogue, with one product feed behind all three. Fewer than a third of Google searches now send a click anywhere at all.
Route 81
Do you know your customer journey?
Every touchpoint between a stranger and a second order is a place they either continue or leave. Scroll, and you travel it.
Demand
Stop two
Being chosen.
Found is not picked. The median store turns 4.6% of visits into baskets and 1.4% into orders — most of the loss lands after they have decided they want it.
Stop three
The first order.
Unexpected shipping stops 48% of shoppers at the checkout. The answer is not showing costs sooner, it is a threshold set from what the order actually leaves you.
Stop four
What it leaves you.
Gross margin stops at cost of goods. Shipping, fulfilment, fees and returns come after it — and the ad budget should be set against what is left.
Stop five
The second order.
Around 81% of customers never place one. It typically lands a fortnight after the first, which makes the gap short, known and unusually fixable.
Stop six
Building the fix.
Every stop ends in a change to your store. That is where most advice dies — the recommendation arrives, the quote arrives, the change never does.