Most online stores we look at don’t have a traffic problem. They have a leak. People arrive, browse, add something to the cart, and somewhere between the product page and the thank-you page, they leave. Every rand you spend on ads to bring them back is a rand spent refilling a bucket with holes in it.
The good news is that the holes are usually in the same places. Here are seven we see again and again on South African stores, and what to do about each one.
1. The delivery surprise
A shopper finds the perfect item, adds it to the cart, and only learns what delivery costs on the last step of checkout. Unexpected costs are one of the most common reasons people abandon a cart, and delivery is the cost they least expect.
Fix it: show the delivery cost, the free-delivery threshold and a delivery time on the product page and in the cart. If you offer free delivery over a certain amount, show a progress bar in the cart: “You’re R150 away from free delivery” sells more than any banner.
2. Payment options that don’t match how South Africans pay
Card-only checkouts turn away shoppers who prefer instant EFT, and shoppers who would rather split a bigger purchase into instalments. Buy now, pay later is no longer a niche: options like Payflex, PayJustNow and Mobicred are part of how many South Africans shop online.
Fix it: offer card, instant EFT and at least one buy now, pay later option. Then show them early. A line under the price such as “or 4 interest-free payments of R249.75” changes how affordable a product feels before anyone reaches checkout.
3. Pages built on Wi-Fi, shopped on mobile data
Your store was probably designed on a big screen with fibre. Most of your customers see it on a phone, often on prepaid data. Heavy hero videos, uncompressed photos and a stack of apps all make the page slower, and every extra second is a chance to lose someone.
Fix it: compress and resize every image, load images below the fold only when they’re needed, and remove apps and scripts you no longer use. Then test the store the way your customers use it: on a mid-range Android phone, on mobile data.
4. “Create an account to continue”
Forcing a first-time shopper to register before they can pay puts a form between them and the thing they came to do. Many will simply leave.
Fix it: allow guest checkout. Offer an account after the order is placed, when all it takes is a password and the benefit is obvious: tracking, faster reorders and rewards.
5. Product pages that don’t answer the questions
Online, the product page is the shop assistant. If it can’t tell a shopper how the item fits, what it’s made of, what’s in the box or when it will arrive, the shopper either leaves to find out or doesn’t buy at all.
Fix it: write down the questions your customer service team answers every week, then answer them on the page. Add a size guide, photos that show scale and texture, and a clear delivery estimate. Good product pages sell and cut support queries at the same time.
6. No proof
Shoppers trust other shoppers more than they trust you. A store without reviews, or with reviews hidden at the bottom of a tab, is asking people to take a risk on a brand they may never have heard of.
Fix it: ask for a review in a short email after every delivery. Show the star rating next to the product name and on category pages, and give photo reviews pride of place. A handful of honest reviews does more than a perfect score with none.
7. Returns and trust hidden in the footer
Shoppers want to know what happens if something goes wrong before they pay, not after. When the returns policy is a wall of legal text linked from the footer, it feels like you’re hoping they won’t read it.
Fix it: put a one-line summary next to the Add to cart button, such as “Free returns within 30 days”, and link to the detail. Show a real address, a phone number and a WhatsApp link. Being easy to reach is one of the cheapest trust signals there is.
Where to start
You don’t have to fix everything at once. Start with the leaks closest to the money: surprise costs and payment options. Then speed, then product pages, then proof. Measure your conversion rate before and after each change, so you know what worked.
More traffic into a leaking store is the most expensive way to grow. Fix the leaks first, then turn up the tap.
Not sure where your store is leaking? Our free CRO audit checks it against 125 points like these in about two minutes, and sends you a branded report with a checklist of fixes.
