Part 1: Stop Leaking Customers in Ecommerce
The internet is littered with abandoned carts, broken checkout flows, and brands that look like they were built by committee and optimised by fear. Ecommerce isn’t broken – it’s just lazy. And in the arms race for attention, trust, and conversion, most brands are bringing a butter knife to a gunfight. This first part of our two-part series covers the foundations – four things you need to start doing right now to stop losing customers and build an experience that actually works.
1. Make sure your message is symmetrical
If you advertise a Carhartt jacket and I click through, I expect to see that jacket – not your homepage, not a generic “Winter essentials” page, and definitely not something irrelevant. Most ecommerce journeys collapse in the first two seconds because the ad says one thing and the landing page says another. Symmetry is the simplest fix. Show me exactly what I came for. To do list:
Ad-to-landing audit: Pull your top ads, click them, and check if the page matches the promise. If not, fix it.
Keyword-to-page alignment: If someone Googles “black waterproof Carhartt jacket”, make sure that’s where they land.
Mirror headlines: Repeat the ad’s phrase in the landing page headline.
Mirror promotions: Any sale or offer from the ad must carry through to the landing page.
2. Optimise the checkout like everything else
You spend time crafting acquisition strategies, building audiences, and designing ads – but then leave checkout untouched? Too many brands treat it as sacred, especially on Shopify. It’s not. It’s just another page that deserves care. Reinforce trust. Keep pricing clear. Carry discounts through. This is the moment to double down on why I clicked in the first place. To do list:
Add trust indicators: Payment badges, shipping guarantees, reviews, customer support.
Simplify pricing: Break it down – original price, discount, shipping, total.
Test weekly: Buttons, order summary, return details, guest checkout visibility.
Persist discounts and promos: Don’t drop codes at the final hurdle.
3. Experiment like a scientist – not a hippo
Here’s the truth: 70% of your site changes will have little to no impact. That’s fine. Optimisation is cumulative. Improve something by 1% every day and you’ll be multiples better by year’s end. But only if you commit to experimentation. We obsess over media efficiency, yet wing it on the actual experience. That’s madness. Test, measure, iterate. It’s not about being right – it’s about getting better.
To do list:
Create a hypothesis board: e.g. “Adding reviews above the fold will increase conversion.”
Ruthlessly prioritise: Focus on data-backed, high-impact, easy-to-implement tests.
Run one A/B test per month: Even if it’s tiny – a button label or hero image.
Avoid revenue loss: Testing protects you from shipping harmful changes.
4. Rethink subscriptions before offering one
Subscriptions used to differentiate. Now they’re table stakes. Worse, they’re often lazy billing disguised as customer relationships. Ask: Is this what my customer actually wants? Or am I just chasing recurring revenue? Subscription fatigue is real. Smart brands are pivoting toward membership – exclusive content, referrals, partner perks. Something that feels richer, more emotional. To do list:
Run a painted door test: Add “Subscribe & Save” without the backend. Measure interest.
Bundle value, not just products: Perks like early access or partner offers.
Survey customers: Ask why they subscribe and why they cancel.
Make it optional: Let people fall in love first, then offer subscription later.
Wrapping up part one
Fixing your messaging, optimising checkout, experimenting continuously, and rethinking subscriptions are the foundations of stopping customer leakage. In part two, we’ll look at how to take your ecommerce brand beyond the basics – into storytelling, personalisation, product pages, and building a journey that connects emotionally as well as commercially. Want help getting started? Let’s talk about a conversion audit to create an actionable roadmap: hello@daydot.agency