A maker describes her situation to us, and it's a very common one. Her online store is pretty, people like her products, and she gets visitors thanks to her social media. But the sales don't follow: lots of baskets started, few orders finished.
Her problem is neither the product nor the traffic. It's in the journey between the moment someone adds an item to the basket and the moment they pay. It's there, on that path, that most sales are won or lost.
Before that journey, there are two questions we've already covered: which tool to choose, in Shopify or WooCommerce, and which channels to sell on, in selling your creations online. This article tackles what comes next: turning the visitor into a buyer.
The sale is lost at the basket, not before
Here's the figure that puts it all in perspective. According to the Baymard Institute, the world reference on the subject (an average calculated across fifty studies), the basket abandonment rate is around 70%. In other words, out of ten people who add an item to the basket, around seven leave without paying.
This isn't inevitable, and it's almost never because the customer "was just looking". It's that, at the point of finishing, something held them back: an unexpected cost, one step too many, a worry. Each of these obstacles can be fixed. (This assumes, of course, that people like your products and that you have traffic: if that's the case and the sales don't follow, the problem is almost always in the journey.)
The good news is that working on your conversion, meaning the share of visitors who actually buy, pays off on the people you already have. No need for more traffic: you just need to convert a larger share of it. This is exactly what Pixel Prisme builds for retailers: online stores designed to sell, not just to exist. Let's look at the levers, from the most profitable to the most subtle.
The test to run tonight, on your phone
Before getting into the detail, an exercise worth all the audits. Take your phone and place a test order on your own store, like a customer in a hurry. Look at:
- How many steps between "add to basket" and "pay"? Beyond three, it's too many.
- When do you find out the delivery costs? If they only appear at the end, that's a problem.
- Do you have to create an account before you can pay?
- Which payment methods are offered (card, PayPal, mobile payment)?
- Is the page fast and comfortable for the thumb, or do you have to zoom and struggle?
Every friction you spot is a lost sale. The rest explains how to fix each one.
The number-one cause: costs that appear at the end
If you only fixed one thing, it would be this. The number-one reason for abandonment, by far, is costs that appear too late: according to Baymard, nearly half of the buyers who abandon cite the extra costs (delivery, taxes) discovered at the point of paying as the reason they left.
The classic scenario: the customer puts a €30 item in their basket, gets to payment, discovers €7 of shipping, and leaves, feeling they've been had. The product hasn't changed, but the surprise killed the sale.
The fix is simple: announce delivery costs early, from the product page or on entering the basket. Better still, show a clear threshold ("Free delivery over €50"), which reassures and even nudges people to add an item. Transparency about the total price, as early as possible, is the most profitable conversion lever there is.
The checkout: short, or nothing
Once they've decided to pay, the customer needs to be able to do it fast. Yet many stores turn the checkout, meaning the sequence of basket then contact details, delivery and payment, into an obstacle course.
Two obstacles come up again and again. First, the requirement to create an account before buying: a significant share of buyers abandon there, especially on a first order, because they don't want to commit to a store they're just discovering. The solution: offer guest checkout by default (a simple option to enable on most platforms), and only offer account creation after the purchase. Second, a checkout that's too long: too many steps, too many fields, pointless information (company, second address line, mandatory phone number). Every extra field loses sales.
Aim for three steps maximum (contact details, delivery, payment), an order summary always visible, and zero distraction during payment (no pop-up, no menu, no promo). At Pixel Prisme, it's the basis of every store we deliver, from €2,970: guest checkout, a short checkout, nothing to draw people away from the pay button.
Payment: offer what your customers actually use
The customer is ready, their card is on the table. If their preferred payment method isn't there, they leave, and around one buyer in ten abandons for this reason alone.
In France, the right base is clear: the bank card first. PayPal next, a mark of trust for those who don't want to enter their card on a store they don't know. And mobile payment (Apple Pay, Google Pay), which avoids any typing on the phone. For higher baskets (high-value creations, furniture, bundles), instalment payment removes a real obstacle: according to the Fevad, a majority of French buyers have already used it.
Show these payment logos from the product page, not just at the checkout: seeing "Card, PayPal, Apple Pay" reassures even before reaching payment. Pixel Prisme integrates these payment methods into your e-commerce store, suited to French habits, so that no one leaves for lack of being able to pay the way they want.
Product pages: clear the doubt before the basket
Everything above concerns the end of the journey. But many sales are lost earlier, on the product page, for want of clearing the doubt. Online, you don't have the product in your hand: the page has to stand in for it.
Photos first. It's the first thing people look at. Several views, large, zoomable, plus a photo in context (worn, in use, placed in a room) to give scale and desire. And good news for makers: no studio needed. Window light, a plain background and consistent framing across the whole range are enough to look professional.
The description next, turned towards the customer: who it's for, what it solves, then the concrete details (materials, dimensions, care, production time) that answer questions before they have to be asked. A thin page, copied from the supplier, drives people away.
Reviews last, your best salesperson. The Spiegel Research Center (Northwestern University) measured that displaying five reviews or more increases the likelihood of purchase by 270% compared with a product with no reviews. Ask for a review after every delivery, and also display your signs of trust (a clear returns policy, "handmade in our workshop", visible contact details). Pixel Prisme structures your product pages to reassure and convert, because a good photo and a well-placed review are worth more than ten extra products in the catalogue.
Mobile: where most people buy (or give up)
One last key, and it governs all the others. In France, according to the Fevad, 62% of online purchases are already made on a smartphone, and the share climbs higher still among younger people. Your store is judged, and paid for, on a phone.
In concrete terms, three requirements. Speed: a slow store on mobile drives people away before they even reach the product page (we spelled out the stakes in why a slow website loses you customers). A checkout suited to the thumb: fields in the right format, a numeric keypad for the postcode, address autocomplete, a pay button always accessible. And mobile payment (Apple Pay, Google Pay), which removes card entry, the most tedious step on a phone.
A store built mobile-first can't be patched up after the fact: it's a foundation. That's why every Pixel Prisme store is built and tested on the phone first, where your customers actually get their card out.
Winning back those who left anyway
Even with an impeccable journey, some customers will stop along the way: a hesitation, an interruption, a phone call. Good news, many aren't lost, as long as you go and fetch them back.
That's the role of the abandoned-basket email: when a visitor has entered their email address then left without paying, an automatic message goes out a few hours later ("Your basket is waiting for you"), often followed by a second one a day later. It's one of the most profitable levers in e-commerce, because it speaks to people who already wanted to buy.
Most platforms offer this follow-up, to enable or connect to your email tool. Keep it restrained: one or two useful messages, not an avalanche. And if you collect addresses early (on entering the checkout), you'll be able to follow up even on baskets left before payment. Pixel Prisme sets up this follow-up mechanism on your store, to turn some of the abandonments into orders, automatically.
In short
If your store gets visitors but doesn't sell enough, it's almost never the product, it's the buying journey. Abandonments always have the same causes: costs that appear too late, a checkout that's too long or a forced account creation, a missing payment method, a product page that doesn't reassure, a painful mobile experience. None of these levers needs more traffic: they turn the visitors you already have into buyers, and a well-tuned follow-up even goes and fetches back those who had left. The most profitable one, to fix first, remains transparency about delivery costs.
At Pixel Prisme, this is exactly what we build for retailers and makers in Toulouse and beyond: online stores designed to convert, from the checkout to the payment by way of the product pages. If your store gets visitors but sells little, let's talk for 30 minutes, no strings attached: we'll look together at where your sales are being lost.