SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Ecommerce Website Optimization: Is Data the Key?

Boost ecommerce sales with expert-backed website optimization tips, from heatmaps to A/B testing. Data-driven strategies that boost conversions.

byRocket Agents

April 4, 2025

Sites that improve their websites using both user feedback and numbers consistently do better than those who guess.
Making pages load faster can make online store purchases go up as much as 15% in some areas.
65% of shoppers leave before buying—26% because they must create an account.
Phone users want quicker, simpler experiences but don’t buy as much without custom experiences.
Most A/B tests don’t “win”—but they still give helpful information for future CRO success.

If you want to double or even multiply by five your online sales, just guessing won’t be enough. Real improvement begins with information. Your online store isn’t just a place to sell things—it’s a system that is always changing and can be made better with the correct understanding. From seeing where people click to asking users questions, using information to guide your site choices is what separates small improvements from big income increases. Let’s examine actual methods used by today’s best online stores to find and make things better for purchase rate gains.

person analyzing website data at desk

Why Information Is the Base of Online Store Improvement

“Without information, you’re just another person with an opinion.”

That idea is especially true when talking about making online stores better. The online selling space is quick, very competitive, and more complex than ever. Ideas about what users do just aren’t reliable. Everything from where visitors arrive, how they click, and why they leave needs to be followed and looked at.

In online store CRO (purchase rate improvement), real gains in how well a site works happen when businesses not only find problem spots, but also understand what users are thinking and feeling at those times. This is why using both numbers and user feedback is important. Numbers show patterns, while user voices explain what those numbers mean.

frustrated shopper at computer

Phase 1: Find Your Online Store’s Current Problems

The most successful online store improvement plans start by finding out what’s not working well—or at least, where users get confused or have trouble. But what seems “obvious” to you as the site owner might be completely hidden from what your shoppers experience.

Why Finding Problems Is the First Step in CRO

Let’s say it clearly: you can’t solve issues that you haven’t found.

This step is about finding

Where customers stop using the site
Why customers don’t buy
Which parts of your site aren’t working well

And most importantly: doing this based on real information, not guesses or personal ideas.

Use Both Kinds of Information

To correctly find online store purchase issues, mix

Numbers – show a wide view (how people move through the site, how often people leave, where they exit %)
User feedback – gives you a close-up view (surveys, feedback, recordings of user sessions)

Let’s talk about the main online store CRO tools that help with a full problem finding process.

Problem Finding Toolbox

Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Watch how users move through the site to see where many leave. Use “Exploration” to make pictures of user paths.
Hotjar, Crazy Egg, or Smartlook: See how users use your site. Find places where they click many times in frustration, areas of confusion, and how far they scroll.
Semrush or Ahrefs Audit Tools: Find old tech SEO problems, too much JavaScript code, broken links, slow pictures, or issues for phone users.
User Feedback Sources
- Surveys after purchase
- Replies to emails about abandoned carts
- Chat support logs
- User feeling in product reviews

Write down patterns you see in a document linked to page addresses for context. For example

Product A = 17 user complaints about unclear size chart
Cart page = 67% leave rate after shipping step

Strategy 1: Use Numbers to See Where People Leave

Begin where the numbers are very noticeable.

The aim with tools like GA4 is to see where users are dropping out of your purchase process. Are users leaving after looking at products? At the cart? Or in the middle of checkout?

How to Look at User Paths

Use Monetization > Ecommerce Purchases report in GA4 to check general drop-off problems.
Go to Checkout Steps to see what part of users leave at each checkout step.
Watch Event-based goals like “Add to Cart,” “Begin Checkout,” and “Purchase” to find CTAs that aren’t working well.

Heatmaps & Scroll Maps: Seeing User Behavior

Next, use tools that show user behavior.

Click maps: Are users clicking things that aren’t clickable? Or not clicking buttons?
Scroll maps: Are users missing important content below where they first see the page?
Overlay tools: See how much users interact with different parts of pages.

User session recordings (20–30 examples for each page) are also very useful to connect behavior details: where users stop, click many times in anger, or suddenly leave.

woman writing feedback on tablet

Strategy 2: Turn User Feedback Into Optimization Ideas

Numbers without meaning can cause unclear plans.

To give feeling and thinking context, you need to get real user feedback. This feedback gives very useful direction and often points out easy changes for purchase rate improvement.

Ways to Get User Feedback

Open-ended survey answers: Ask “What almost stopped you from buying today?”
On-site polls (using Hotjar): “What’s missing from this page?”
Live chat logs: Find repeated problems or confusion
User testing sites: Record new users trying to do key tasks

Turning Feedback into Action

“Can’t find delivery options” → Put expected delivery times on product page
“Size info is wrong” → Make better and A/B test new size chart designs
“Too many popups” → A/B test cleaner user experience and change when pop-ups appear

Track these ideas in a shared document with groups (like Checkout UX, Product Page Clarity, Trust Signals, Speed).

Tip: Look for repeated feeling words like “confused,” “annoyed,” or “unsure”—these often show trust or clarity problems.

team working on ecommerce website design

Phase 2: Use Specific Fixes to Increase Online Store Purchases

Once you’ve found the issues, it’s time to use focused fixes that directly help get higher purchase rates. These methods show common results from top online stores that always check and adjust every important user experience.

Strategy 3: Make Pages Load Faster for More Purchases

Speed is not just a nice thing to have anymore—it helps sales a lot.

Vodafone made their Core Web Vitals better and saw

8% more sales
11% increase in cart visits
15% more lead form submissions

Page Speed Numbers to Watch

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Aim for under 2.5 seconds
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Keep under 0.1
INP (Interaction to Next Paint): Aim for under 200ms

Speed Improvement Tools

Google PageSpeed Insights
WP Rocket or NitroPack (for saving pages and making code smaller)
Tinify or ImageOptim (for making picture files smaller)
https://pagespeed.web.dev/Cloudflare for sending site info around the world quickly

90%+ of phone users leaving quickly happens because pages load slowly.

Strategy 4: Focus on Pages That Matter Most First

Work on the pages that can bring in the most money.

Start your online store improvement work on

Product pages with the most visitors
Cart + checkout pages
Category pages linked from ads

These places have the highest chance of leading to a purchase. Making blog posts or about pages better won’t increase income as much.

Use the 80/20 idea here: 20% of your pages cause 80% of your results. Focus on those.

Site structure should help users without getting in the way.

Clear menus grouped by what buyers want (“Shop by Use”, “Shop by Collection”)
Don’t use too many options in menus; use menus that work well on phones
Use search that suggests words and fixes mistakes (like Algolia or Searchspring)
Add favorites/wishlist feature available on every page

Studies show that leave rates go up by 12-15% if users find menus that don’t lead anywhere or broken filters.

Strategy 6: Make Product Pages Stronger for Purchases

Product pages are like your online sales staff.

Here’s what separates normal pages from pages that sell a lot

Standard Product Page	Improved Product Page
Basic picture set	Videos + 360° views + user pictures
“Moisture-wicking fabric”	“Keeps you dry even after running 10 miles”
Reviews you have to find	Smart review filters (“Best for…” or “Used for…”)
No trust signs	Press mentions, badges, guarantee icons

Put extra attention on

High-quality pictures
Clear return rules
Phone design for easy scrolling with a thumb
Changing features → into benefits

Strategy 7: Make Checkout Simpler

Baymard Institute found that 26% of people leave because they have to create an account. Total people leaving during checkout = 65%!

Here’s how to make it easier

Offer checkout without account
Use 1-click payment options (PayPal, Shop Pay, Apple Pay)
Show shipping costs early
Reduce form fields that aren’t needed
Add progress steps (“Step 1 of 3”)

Use trust signs (Verisign, Norton, SSL badges) before payment. These small things greatly increase how safe users feel.

On phones, focus on autofill and buttons easy to press with fingers.

person writing marketing copy on laptop

Strategy 8: Use Words Written to Make People Buy

Website text isn’t just “marketing talk”—it’s your sales person working all day and night.

Ways to Write Words That Help Sales

Use short, urgent text: “Only 3 left!” or “Try it without risk for 30 days”
Use user reviews to show you know what buyers care about
Structure text clearly: Headline, benefit list, CTA
Bring out feeling: Safety, happiness, success, or specialness

A/B test headlines and button text (“Buy Now” vs. “Try Risk-Free for 30 Days”) often.

Strategy 9: Design for Phone Use and Habits

Phone online store traffic is now more than computer traffic in almost every area—but phone purchase rates are often much lower.

Why?

Smaller screens = harder to use
Users look around more, buy less without good phone user experience

Good Phone Improvement Methods

Sticky “Add to Cart” bar that stays as you scroll
1-click checkout option
Product filters easy to tap
Show recent activity of other users
Let users without accounts “save cart” by SMS or email

Sephora increased user activity and lowered leave rates after changing their phone menu to a scrolling category section with smart filters.

Strategy 10: Make Experiences Personal Across the Whole Process

Personalization reports clearly show that users like even basic customization

Adobe found 40% of online store users expect personalization (Adobe)

Simple Online Store Personalization Methods

Show items recently looked at
Banner text based on location (like Free shipping in CA!)
Popups when leaving the page that are based on what’s in the cart
Email retargeting with product pictures from carts left behind

More complex personalization (like different landing pages based on ad links) can increase purchases up to 20–30%.

Strategy 11: A/B Test to Keep Learning

The aim of online store CRO testing isn’t always “better”—it’s learning things.

Testing Best Methods

Test pages with many visitors but low purchases
Keep traffic sources the same during tests
Run tests for 2–4 weeks or until results are clear
Use original version vs. one change—not many changes at once

Tools for online store A/B testing

VWO (affordable)
Convert (for bigger businesses)
Google Optimize (going away—find other options)
Optimizely (very detailed data)

Before and after testing also works when traffic is too low for AB—just watch for 28–60 days.

Grow Smarter with Online Store Improvement Based on Data

Online store improvement is not a one-time thing. It’s a process that always changes based on information, user understanding, and shifts in how buyers act. The brands that lead the market are always testing, making changes, and getting better based on what their users are quietly (or loudly) telling them.

Use the methods above as part of a purchase rate improvement cycle