Analytics and audits
Audit
of your online shop
We check the customer journey from arriving in your shop to payment and after-sales service. We show you where most people give up, and rank the fixes by their impact on sales.
Where your shop loses orders
A drop in sales can have several small causes spread across the whole journey, from the product page to payment.
Below are typical obstacles on the purchase path. An owner who knows the shop by heart can easily miss them, because they don't go through the journey the way a new customer does.
- Having to create an account before placing an order
- Delivery cost shown only after entering personal details
- No BLIK or instant bank transfer
- A search that doesn't find a product by the name on its packaging
- A product page with no information on availability or dispatch time
What exactly we check
The audit follows the same path as the buyer: from the first visit to after-sales service.
- Arrival: where traffic comes from and which subpages it lands on
- Category: filters, sorting, how the range is presented
- Internal search: what customers type in and whether they find it
- Product page: photos, description, availability, delivery costs and time
- Basket and checkout: number of steps, form fields, payment methods
- After purchase: confirmations, parcel tracking, returns handling
- Technical layer: speed, errors, accuracy of conversion tracking
Internal search and its report
If tracking is set up correctly, we check what customers searched for in the shop and how many searches ended with no results. This report shows what is missing from your range and what words customers use for your products.
Typical findings: customers search by the everyday name while the catalogue uses the catalogue name; they type in a number from the packaging that the shop doesn't have; or they look for a product you don't sell but could.
Legal compliance that is easy to forget
As part of the audit we also check things that don't affect sales directly but matter during an inspection: information on the lowest price from the 30 days before a discount (Omnibus), consents in forms, the terms and conditions and returns policy, and how unit prices are shown.
This is not a legal audit. We point out where the shop departs from these requirements, and leave decisions about the content of the documents to you and your lawyer.
The shop shows the crossed-out list price instead of the lowest price from the 30 days before the discount. A plugin or promotion module won't work this out on its own unless it has been configured to do so.
What you get at the end
A list of fixes ranked by impact on sales, split into quick fixes and those that need more work. For each point we state what it is based on: analytics data, a test on a device or a comparison with competitors.
We can implement the fixes ourselves. If you have your own developer, the report is written so that they can work without needing to ask questions.
Data first, then how it looks
We start with the funnel: how many people enter the shop, how many add a product to the basket, how many go to checkout and how many pay. The biggest drop between two neighbouring steps shows what to deal with first.
Only then do we assess the design. Sometimes the owner thinks the home page is the problem, while the data shows that search traffic mostly lands on product pages and never sees the home page. Rebuilding it would then change very little.
A separate run on a phone
We go through the whole journey separately on a phone, because some problems only show up on a small screen.
Typical examples are buttons placed too close together and a basket that scrolls horizontally.
- A full order placed on a phone, from arrival to payment
- A test on a slower connection, like the one some customers use
- Checking the keyboards shown for fields: email, phone, postcode
- Checking that the consent banner doesn't cover important buttons
What determines the cost of a shop audit
The cost depends on the scope, the size of the catalogue and the number of payment and delivery methods to be tested. A shop audit includes real test orders and an analysis of sales data, so it is broader than a website audit.
| Scope | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Basic | Purchase path, checkout, speed |
| Full | Plus catalogue SEO, structured data, analytics |
| With implementation | Audit plus carrying out the fixes from the priority list |
With very little traffic, there is too little data to draw conclusions. In that case we recommend starting with work on visibility, and leaving the audit until later.
After-sales service and returns
After payment we check what the customer receives and when: whether the confirmation includes the order number and the expected delivery date.
We look at returns separately: whether the customer can find the returns policy without searching through the terms and conditions.
- Content and delivery time of the order confirmation
- Parcel tracking without creating an account
- Returns policy visible before purchase
- Automatic notifications when the status changes
Integrations: payments, warehouse and invoices
Some faults in a shop show no visible symptoms. The page opens, the basket accepts products, and one of the payment methods returns an error only for larger amounts. Customers rarely report it: they close the page and buy elsewhere.
That is why we check integrations by testing them. We place orders with every available payment and delivery method and check whether the order reaches the admin panel, the warehouse and the invoicing software. We also test an interrupted payment: what the customer sees and what happens to the order.
The second thing is stock synchronisation. A shop that shows stock levels from a day ago can sell goods that are no longer there. We check how often and in which direction data passes between the shop and the warehouse.
- A test of every payment method, including larger amounts
- How the shop behaves when a payment is interrupted
- The order in the admin panel, the warehouse and the invoicing software
- Frequency and direction of stock synchronisation
- How the shop behaves when the connection to the warehouse drops
Place a real order in your shop with every payment method you offer, and check that it has reached all the systems it should.
Working together
How we work together, step by step
Access and data
Analytics, the shop admin panel and test access. We base the order of fixes on the data.
Going through the journey
We place orders ourselves on different devices and with different payment methods.
Report and implementation
A list of fixes, a conversation and, if you want, the fixes implemented on our side.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
The basics, yes: duplicates, category descriptions, filter handling. We do a full visibility analysis as part of an SEO audit.
Yes. We audit shops on WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Shoper, as well as custom-built shops. Some recommendations depend on the platform, but the method is the same.
We will tell you straight. Sometimes the shop works properly and the problem is the price or the range. In that case, changes to the checkout will make little difference.
Related services
What else may be useful
Your city
Online shop audit in your city
For each of these cities we have a separate page describing the local market and how we work with companies there.
Let's find out where your shop is losing money
Give us your shop's address and platform. We will send you the scope of the audit and a date.