Your Shopify Store Has Traffic But No Sales? 23 Possible Causes (& Solutions)

Does this sound like you?
→ Your Shopify store has traffic but no sales
Yes?
Well, brace yourself—’cause by the end of this, you’ll be well on to transforming your Shopify store into a sales machine.
Let’s go!
1. Your pop-ups could be intrusive
2. Your Homepage could have too many conflicting elements
3. Your page doesn’t load fast enough (or elements break as they load)
4. Your Shopify store looks odd on mobile devices
5. You could be showing zero search results
6. Your product filters are not user-friendly
7. Your categories in your collections - are all over the place
8. Your collections pages do not display enough information
9. You could be showing very few products on your collections page
10. The CTA buttons could be confusing users
11. Your reviews don’t seem too trustworthy
12. Your product description doesn’t answer the “Why,” “What,” “How,” and “When” of the product
13. Your product page looks sketchy
14. You just maybe too ‘salesy’
15. Your pricing sets off alarms
16. You're probably making false promises
17. You don’t show a specific delivery date
18. You have way too many form fields on checkout
19. You don’t let shoppers remove items from the order
20. You are surprising people with added costs
21. You aren’t set up for a long purchase span
22. What kind of ads are you running – Is your traffic quality traffic? Bad traffic = Zero Sales
23. Is your messaging on landing pages connected with the ads you are running
Picture this: You have just landed on a Shopify store that you just discovered, and you see this pop-up:
Now, ask yourself this: would you want to stay?
Getting 10% off on your next purchase doesn’t matter as much—you haven’t made the first one yet. 🤔
How do you show a better welcome and reduce drop-offs?
💡 Quick Tip: Promote your welcome offer in the notification bar – use contrasting colors to draw attention:
When you offer one too many offers or actions—users won’t know what to do next—take a look at this example:
How to ensure that users don’t drop off due to conflicting elements?
💡 Quick Tip: Avoid using a ‘myshopify’ domain – it raises red flags. 🚩
32% of users will give you about 3 seconds for your store to load (8 seconds if there’s some evidence of you being trustworthy).
Now, imagine your Shopify store looks like this, as it loads:
How to ensure your pages/images aren’t breaking/looking odd/low-quality?
💡 Quick Tip: Check for dead links (links that lead to 404 errors) – they are great at causing drop-offs.
Also Read: How to Speed Up Shopify Website - 17 Practical Ideas
Nothing kills sales faster than low-quality pages—take a look at this example:
How do you check for mobile UX issues?
💡 Quick Tip: Look at your Google Search Console—specifically the Page Experience and Core Web Vitals—these metrics will help you understand how your users are experiencing the pages.
Also Read: Optimize your Shopify Store for Mobile: Proven Ideas + Examples
This is equally serious as having broken/dead links (links that lead to 404 errors).
Here’s why: it leads to a horrible UX (and users have no option but to leave).
How to use site search to reduce drop-offs?
💡 Quick Tip: Take stock of all search queries your visitors have made to find patterns – if there are none – consider changing the design of the search bar.
Also Read: eCommerce visual search: 9 smart optimization tips (+ 4 tools to use)
If your product filters don’t work, they will cause your traffic to drop off—note this example:
How to ensure your product filters don’t cause traffic to drop off?
Highly recommended: How To Drive Traffic To Shopify Stores: 14 Proven Strategies
Too broad a category can be a reason why you get no sales from your traffic on your Shopify store—let’s look at this example:
How do you ensure your collections are categorized for user needs?
Recommended reading: How Do I Boost My Shopify Conversion Rate? (50 Effortless Strategies)
Let’s pit two product displays against each other to understand this better—which of these two displays would you trust?
Option A ▽
Option B ▽
If your answer is Option B, we wouldn’t be surprised—let’s explore why:
How to ensure your collection pages have enough information?
💡 Quick Tip: Consider apps like Glo Color Swatch, and Swatch King for better product displays on product and collection pages.
Not having many products in your collections pages looks suspicious to most users—note this example:
How to build trustworthy collection pages?
Need more inspiration for your collection pages?
We Recommend Reading: Double Your "Shopify Collections Page" Conversion Rate
💡 Quick Tip: Use subtle triggers like “best-selling” or “selling fast” to move the sales along.
Take a look at this product page below—the sizing options specifically—note how the lack of interactivity leads to increased frustration:
How to ensure multiple CTA’s don’t lead to drop-offs?
Believe us when we say, users can smell fake reviews a mile away—take a look at this example:
How to ensure your social proof helps get a sale?
💡 Quick Tip: Create a product video from your UGC – show the product in use – this can help convert your traffic into customers.
You must also read: Getting Traffic But No Sales? 21 Reasons Why (+ How To Solve)
Even if they do—all your work’s of no use if your product descriptions aren’t readable—let’s take a look at an example of this:
How to ensure your product descriptions don’t cause you to lose sales?
💡 Quick Tip: If you can’t include everything within your product description, use an FAQ section.
Let’s say your socials are on fire—and you lead them to a page like this:
It has all kinds of payment options—yet something just doesn’t look right–-here’s why:
What visual aspects lead to product page drop-offs?
Also Read: Optimize your Shopify Store for Mobile: Proven Ideas + Examples
Will your customers like it when you offer the same recommendations twice (at the same time)?
If you think, the answer’s yes—we recommend taking a look at this example:
This example is interrupting enough on Desktop—imagine seeing it on mobile.
How can you ensure your upsells/cross-sells don’t make you lose sales?
Also Read: How to Increase AOV on Shopify: 27 Upselling Ideas
Most Shopify stores fail to get sales because of this reason—let’s take a look at these two product pages:
Both brands essentially are selling the same product—however, the difference is the pricing (and the appeal).
The first example offers a $6 price, but it lacks any description – and seems to have been updated in 2020.
Meanwhile, the second example, ensures users read the product description while offering multiple sizes, certifications, and images:
What to consider when pricing your product?
Also Read: 22 Shopify Product Page Mistakes That Drive Customers Away
Let’s say you make an offer on your product page—but, you don’t follow through on your checkout page.
What do you think happens then? You don’t get the sale—let’s take a look at an example:
How to ensure your checkout flow is consistent?
💡 Quick Tip: Since the coupon code bar doesn’t disappear (unless you use Shopify Plus) – try auto-applying the discounts – these articles will help:
Also Read: How to Customize your Shopify Checkout Page: 28 Proven Ideas
Delivery times are crucial to almost all shoppers, especially last-minute purchasers—let’s dissect this particular example:
The only problem here is that they could have mentioned how long it takes for ground shipping.
Instead, it works as a mild upsell—which can lower sales.
How do you ensure users don't drop off because of shipping?
Shopify doesn’t allow users to modify the checkout page unless they’re on Shopify Plus.
Here’s what you can do instead to reduce the work of filling form fields:
💡 Quick Tip: Offer an SSO login (login by Google or Facebook or some platform) – this will help autofill a lot of form fields.
This leads to user frustration, and if you add unsolicited upgrades—you may as well say goodbye to your order.
Remember: You shouldn't spring on value upgrades on checkout without consent
You might also wanna check out: 26 Secrets to Running Successful Facebook Ads (For eCommerce Stores)
Sure, you want to increase your AOV while keeping taxes and shipping costs separate – but include it at the get-go.
Want to reduce checkout abandonment due to added costs?
Recommended reading: 21 Clever Ways To Reduce Checkout Abandonment Rate
This stands especially true for products with high AOV (especially if your products go above the $80 mark).
The discovery phase happens on mobile and ends on desktop—which is why users may be dropping off.
Looking for a way out of long purchase spans?
💡 Quick Tip: Set up micro-conversions that help users towards a sale (think coupon code contests, newsletter signups, live streams, etc.).
Also Read: 11 Proven Ways To Reduce Shopify Bounce Rate
If you’re advertising on Meta or running display ads for traffic, you may be optimizing yourself for zero sales.
Your goal should be to make your ad copy as minimal as possible—try using multiple variations of your ad copy to appeal better, as ‘The Pacii’ does:
Here’s what you can do to make your ads perform better for sales:
💡 Quick Tip: It takes any ad algorithm at least a month to optimize your ads for the best results—which is why it’s a good idea not to use limits on audience targeting at the get-go.
You may also like: 20 Shopify Product Recommendation Strategies (With Real-Life Examples)
If it isn’t, it may as well be the reason for getting zero sales from your traffic.
Let’s take an example of how to tie a landing page to an ad—it promises a BOGO offer along with a money-back guarantee and a “Gastroenterologist endorsed” microcopy:
Similarly, the first fold of the landing page offers the same along with an expert review from a doctor:
However, what else does this landing page have to tie itself to the ad (and what could’ve been better)?
Pros:
Cons:
How To Get More Sales on Shopify: 31 Proven Hacks
How to Customize your Shopify Checkout Page: 28 Proven Ideas
How to Speed Up Shopify Website - 17 Practical Ideas
98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.
This is no different for Shopify stores.
Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.
And this is the problem Convertcart solves.
We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.
How we can help you:
Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.