# Why is my online store not selling? 20 checks and what to fix Online store not selling? 20 checks in order: traffic, GA4, Search Console, speed, trust, shipping, checkout and payment, with a fix for each one. Source: https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/online-store-not-selling-checklist · CloudCart · 2026-11-06 An online store that is not selling almost always has one of four problems: too few visits, tracking that does not record the orders, a checkout where buyers give up, or a price plus shipping that loses the comparison. At a median conversion rate of 1.3%, one order takes about 77 visits. Check traffic in GA4 and Search Console first, then the funnel in your store. Below are 20 checks in the order a buyer moves through the store, each with where to look and what to fix. The guide is written by the team behind CloudCart, the ecommerce platform from Bulgaria, for stores selling in Bulgaria or across the EU. For a growth plan for a store that already sells, see [how to increase online sales](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/increase-online-store-sales) instead. ## Where to start: the funnel in four numbers Start with four numbers for the last 30 days: visits, carts, started checkouts and orders. The checks begin wherever the number falls the hardest. In CloudCart the three steps after the visit sit on one chart: Analytics → Conversion Funnel shows Cart → Initiated Checkout → Orders, with unique shoppers at each stage and a Desktop / Mobile / Total switch. Data in the [Analytics dashboard](https://cloudcart.com/en/analytics) arrives 1 to 2 hours late. | Stage | What you measure | Benchmark | Checks | | Visits | Sessions for 30 days, by source | about 77 sessions per order at 1.3% conversion | 1 to 4 | | Visit → cart | How many sessions reach a cart | a product with many views and no sales is a warning sign | 5 to 13 | | Cart → started checkout | The Abandoned carts rate box | on average 70.22% of carts never become an order (Baymard) | 12, 14 | | Started checkout → order | The Abandoned checkouts rate box | every drop here is a buyer who had decided to buy | 14 to 16 | | After the order | Repeat orders, unsubscribes, reviews | returning customers in Total Customers | 9, 19, 20 | The median ecommerce conversion rate is 1.3% across 438 Shopify stores; below 0.5% a store is in the bottom 20%, and above 2.7% it is in the top 20% ([Littledata](https://www.littledata.io/average/ecommerce-conversion-rate-(all-devices)), data to October 2026). On average 70.22% of online carts are abandoned, across 50 studies collected by the [Baymard Institute](https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate). ## Checks 1 to 4: is there enough traffic, and is it tracked A store with 150 visits a month and 0 orders is close to normal at a 1.3% conversion rate: the expected result is about 2 orders. The fix there is more traffic, and design changes barely help. - Check 1: how many visits you get. Take the sessions for 30 days from GA4 and divide them by 77. That is how many orders to expect at the median rate. The CloudCart Total Visits box counts sessions per hour (a visitor who browses for 2 hours is 2 sessions), so use the GA4 number for this comparison. If the expected figure is under 5, the problem is traffic. If it is over 20 and you have 0 to 2 orders, the problem is inside the store: continue with check 5. - Check 2: is the order recorded. Place a test order and see whether the purchase event arrives in the GA4 Realtime report. CloudCart sends GA4 the standard ecommerce events ( view_item , add_to_cart , begin_checkout , add_shipping_info , add_payment_info , purchase ) described in Google's GA4 ecommerce documentation . The measurement ID goes in Apps → Google Analytics . Compare GA4 purchases with admin orders for the month: a small gap is normal with a cookie banner, while 0 purchases or a suddenly growing gap means broken tracking. - Check 3: are your pages in Google. In Search Console open Indexing → Pages and see how many product and category pages are indexed. Run your most important product URL through URL Inspection. See the Search Console guide . In CloudCart the sitemap is in Marketing → SEO → Sitemap and the robots.txt file in Marketing → SEO → Robots.txt . During the trial or with an expired plan the store returns Disallow: / for the whole site, so Google sees it only once a plan is active. - Check 4: are the visitors the right ones. In the Search Console Performance report, see which searches Google shows you for. In Analytics → Sales by traffic source see which source brings money and which brings only visits. Connecting GA4 and checking the events step by step is covered in the guide to [GA4 and Google Tag Manager for an online store](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/ga4-tag-manager-online-store). Indexing and the sitemap are explained in the guide to [Google Search Console](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/google-search-console-online-store). ## Checks 5 to 7: speed, phone and in-store search When visits are high and carts are few, buyers leave in the storefront: a slow page, an awkward mobile version or a search box that cannot find the product. - Check 5: speed for real visitors. Run your product and category pages through PageSpeed Insights and read the Core Web Vitals. Google rates the experience as good at LCP up to 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds and CLS under 0.1, according to Google Search Central . Stores lose speed mostly to large photos, heavy banners and third-party scripts. In CloudCart you switch off unneeded storefront modules in Design → Modules . - Check 6: ordering from a phone. In Analytics → Online store sessions by device type see what share of visits come from phones, then compare Mobile and Desktop in the Conversion Funnel. If phones bring the visits and desktops the orders, order from a phone yourself: are the button and price visible without scrolling, and does a pop-up cover the product? The guide to the mobile version of an online store lists what to fix. - Check 7: search inside the store. Search for 10 products the way customers type them: with a typo, with brand and size, and in Latin letters instead of Cyrillic. If 3 of 10 searches return "no results" for a product you stock, you lose the visitors who were closest to buying. > Aura Search Search that understands typos and Latin spelling, from €9 a month Aura Search replaces the store search: it searches by meaning and by words at the same time and shows products while the customer is still typing. A search with a typo or in Latin letters finds the product instead of an empty page. How Aura Search works → ## Checks 8 to 10: trust, reviews and the product page A buyer who does not know you looks for proof the store is real. 19% of shoppers who abandoned a cart (excluding those just browsing) say they did not trust the site with their card details, according to Baymard's survey of US online shoppers. - Check 8: company, contacts and terms. The footer should show the company name, UIC (the Bulgarian company number), address, phone, email, terms, privacy policy and returns terms. 13% of shoppers who abandon a cart do so over unclear or inconvenient returns (Baymard). From Sep 24, 2026, Article 52a of the Bulgarian Consumer Protection Act (in Bulgarian, on lex.bg) also requires a visible withdrawal function, labelled "withdraw from contract here" or similar, available for the whole withdrawal period. In CloudCart this is the Apps → Withdraw from contract app. The rules are explained in the guide to returns and consumer rights . - Check 9: reviews. Open your 5 most viewed products. If they have no reviews at all, switch on Apps → Product Reviews and start the automated post-purchase campaign asking for a review in Marketing → Campaigns . - Check 10: photos, description and sizes. In Analytics → Products by traffic take the 5 most viewed products and compare them with Products by sales . A product in the first list and not the second has a page problem: one photo, a supplier's copied description, no size chart or an unclear delivery time. The Apps → Image Health app checks every photo and lists the products with fewer than 3 photos, a resolution under 800 px or a colour without a photo. ## Checks 11 to 13: price, shipping and stock The final total is the most common reason buyers give up. 40% of shoppers who abandoned a cart (excluding those just browsing) name extra costs such as shipping and fees as too high, and 12% could not see the total cost up front ([Baymard](https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate)). - Check 11: your price against the competition. Search for your 5 most viewed products in Google Shopping, on Pazaruvaj (a Bulgarian price comparison site) and on eMAG (the marketplace Bulgarian shoppers compare against). Compare price plus shipping: €2 cheaper with €5 dearer shipping is more expensive. If you cannot lower it, show what you add: faster delivery, warranty, an accessory bundle. - Check 12: shipping cost already in the cart. Add a product and check that the shipping price to a courier office, a parcel locker and an address is visible before the form with the buyer's details. With a free shipping threshold, the cart should say how much is left. Setting the threshold is covered in the guide to a free shipping threshold with couriers . - Check 13: stock of the products that sell. In Products → Inventory filter by quantity and see which products and variants are at 0. For stock you cannot deliver, set the product to stop selling at 0. In CloudCart the shipping price appears in checkout straight away, with 31 couriers built into the platform, among them Econt and Speedy (DPD Bulgaria), the Bulgarian couriers most local shoppers know, and BOX NOW, a parcel locker network. The shipping label is created from the order in one click. All couriers and the pricing rules are on the [Shipping](https://cloudcart.com/en/shipping) page. ## Checks 14 to 16: checkout and payment methods A high Abandoned checkouts rate means buyers start the order and give up at the details, delivery or payment. In Baymard's data 18% of shoppers leave because the site wants an account, 17% because the checkout is too long or complicated, and 9% because there are not enough payment methods. - Check 14: guest checkout and the number of fields. In CloudCart open Settings → Cart and checkout and, in the accounts block, allow orders from both guests and registered customers. On the same screen set each field (phone, apartment, company details, postal code) as required, optional or hidden, and remove every field you can ship without. What else the checkout includes is on the Cart and checkout page. - Check 15: payment methods. In Settings → Payment methods make sure you offer at least card payment and cash on delivery (COD). The trade-offs are in the guide to cash on delivery against card payments . - Check 16: a test order with every method and every courier. Order from a phone once with each payment method and each courier. 17% of shoppers give up because the site showed an error (Baymard): a stopped payment method or a courier with an expired key blocks every order while the store still looks fine. > CloudCart Pay 0% transaction fee until Dec 31, 2026 Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay are built into checkout with no bank contract and no monthly fee, and Apple Pay and Google Pay can also sit on the product page. From Jan 1, 2027 the fee is 1.29% + €0.05 excluding VAT for personal Visa and Mastercard cards from the EEA. How CloudCart Pay works → ## Checks 17 and 18: ads that bring visits without orders Ads fail when they land on the wrong page or the ad platform never learns about the orders. - Check 17: where the ad lands and what an order costs. Open every active ad on a phone: an ad for one product should open that product's page. In Analytics → Sales by traffic source take the revenue from Paid and Social and divide it by the ad spend: that is your ROAS. The ad is profitable when ROAS is above 1 ÷ your margin; at a 40% margin that is 2.5. - Check 18: pixels and purchase events. Without a purchase event, Meta and Google optimise for clicks instead of buyers. In CloudCart the Meta Pixel is connected in Apps → XML Feed → Facebook → Settings with your Facebook Pixel ID, and in Google Ads you can import GA4 purchases as conversions. Confirm the test order's purchase appears in Meta Events Manager and Google Ads. ## Checks 19 and 20: abandoned carts and email Without cart reminders and post-purchase emails, a store loses orders from people who had already chosen it. - Check 19: the abandoned cart reminder. In Settings → Cart and checkout switch on the reminder. The built-in email goes once per cart to a signed-in customer or subscriber, 30 to 180 minutes later (we recommend 60), with a link back to the cart. The yearly number of these emails depends on the plan; the "Total sent messages" counter in Orders → Abandoned shows how many have gone out, and when the limit runs out reminders stop without a warning, so check it monthly. A second and third reminder are set up as an automated campaign in Marketing → Campaigns . Everything about the feature is on the Abandoned carts page. - Check 20: do your emails reach the inbox. In Marketing → Channels → Channels setup , on the Email card, open Reputation and read the four numbers: spam, bounce, open and click rates. When spam or bounces run too high, or opens too low, CloudCart suspends the email channel and its campaigns. Send only to subscribers and never to anyone who has unsubscribed. > New store €1 a month for the first 3 months If the checks show that your current platform has no card payment in checkout, no cart reminder or no built-in couriers, you can launch the store on CloudCart with all of this and 0% commission on sales. The offer is for new stores until Dec 31, 2026, on any plan. Create a store for €1 → ## Symptom, cause and check: a quick diagnosis table Each symptom points to specific checks. | What you see | Most likely cause | Checks | | Under 300 visits a month, 0 to 2 orders | Too little traffic | 1, 3, 4 | | Orders in the admin, 0 purchases in GA4 | Tracking does not work | 2, 18 | | Lots of visits, few carts | Storefront, price or stock | 5, 7, 10, 11, 13 | | Phones bring visits, desktops bring orders | Mobile version or phone payment | 5, 6, 15 | | Many carts, few started checkouts | Shipping or the final total comes as a surprise | 11, 12 | | Many started checkouts, few finished | Account, fields, payment or an error | 14, 15, 16 | | Ads get clicks and no orders | Wrong landing page or a missing pixel | 17, 18 | | Orders stopped suddenly | A stopped payment method or courier, or a bestseller out of stock | 13, 16 | | New customers, no repeat ones | No emails and no reviews after the purchase | 9, 19, 20 | ## A 7-day plan: the checks in order The twenty checks fit into one week at about an hour a day. - Day 1: the numbers. Check 1. - Day 2: tracking and Google. Checks 2 to 4. - Day 3: the storefront. Checks 5 to 7. - Day 4: trust and products. Checks 8 to 10. - Day 5: the total. Checks 11 to 13. - Day 6: the order. Checks 14 to 16. - Day 7: ads and retention. Checks 17 to 20. ## Mistakes when looking for the cause - A new design before there is traffic. At 100 visits a month no theme brings 10 orders. - More ads for a store with a checkout problem. Paid visitors give up at the same step, only now you pay for each one. - Many changes at once. Make one big change at a time and measure it for 2 weeks. ## Frequently asked questions **Why is my online store not selling?** Most often because of too few visits, tracking that does not record orders, an unclear shipping price or a checkout where buyers give up. Look at the funnel Cart → Initiated Checkout → Orders and start with the stage where the drop is biggest. At a median conversion rate of 1.3%, one order takes about 77 visits. **My store gets traffic but no sales. What should I check first?** First place a test order from a phone with every payment method, because a stopped method or courier blocks every order. Then compare your most viewed products with your best sellers, your price plus shipping against competitors, and the stock of the variants that sell. **How many visits does an online store need for one order?** At the median conversion rate of 1.3%, a store needs about 77 visits for one order, according to Littledata data to October 2026. Stores in the top 20% convert above 2.7%, about 37 visits per order. Below 0.5% a store is in the bottom 20%, and tracking and checkout are the first things to check. **Why did my online sales drop suddenly?** A sudden drop is almost always technical: a stopped payment method, an expired courier key, a bestseller out of stock or a paused ad. Check a test order, stock and traffic sources for that day. A slow decline over months more often comes from price or Google rankings. **Will ads help if my store has no orders?** Ads help when the store already sells to the visitors it gets and the only problem is traffic. If buyers give up in the cart or in checkout, ads bring more people who give up, and you pay for each of them. Fix checkout and purchase tracking first, then raise the budget. Have a question about the numbers on your dashboard or a setting in the admin? Write to us at [support@cloudcart.com](https://cloudcart.commailto:support@cloudcart.com).