These 5 Urgent Fixes Will Save Your Dying Online Store!

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Is your online shop struggling to make sales? Have you noticed that your website traffic is dropping month after month? Does it seem like you’re working harder than ever but making less money from your online store?

First things first. You’re not alone. A lot of businesses are facing tough times with their online stores. But there are ways to ensure that customers don’t just visit your website, but also shop from it.

Let’s discuss 5 ways to save your online store from failing and start generating income for your business.

1. Website Speed

2. Simplified Checkout Process

3. Customer Reviews

4. Product Descriptions

5. Data

1. Make Your Website Load Faster – Your Customers Won't Wait!

According to Market Dive, a 2023 research by Google discovered that 53% of mobile website visitors will leave if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Since most customers shop on their phones, it’s a cause for worry if your website is slow, especially on mobile phones.

Slow websites can be caused by oversized images that haven’t been compressed, too many plugins, unoptimised code, and even cheap hosting that can’t handle traffic spikes.

Urgent Fix

When your website loads quickly, your customers move quickly and buy more. Why? Because they don’t get frustrated waiting for images or pages to load, waste time or lose their data. Google also likes fast websites and shows them higher in search results, bringing you more customers. Knowing this, you should pay attention to things like your images and use a tool like Tinypng to compress large images before uploading. Also, upgrade your hosting and look for hosting packages designed for e-commerce, not general websites.

Bumpa Fix

The Bumpa website is designed for both mobile and web friendliness, and is super fast, making it easy for your customers to navigate through different categories and products in just minutes. Without needing to write any code, you can sign up and set up your website in minutes. We also offer different themes for easy customisation and to make sure your website is unique, beautiful and user-friendly. Start here.

You can get a custom domain easily for your Bumpa website as well on the app by following this manual.

Related: How to Choose the Perfect Domain Name for Your Business

2. Simplify Your Checkout Process – Every Extra Step Loses Sales

The average cart abandonment rate in Nigeria is a shocking 76%, according to recent e-commerce studies. This means for every 100 people who add products to their cart, 76 leave without buying! The main culprit? Complicated checkout processes.

Common Checkout Problems:

• Forcing customers to create an account before purchasing

• Too many form fields asking for unnecessary information

• Limited payment options that don't match customer preferences

• Hidden costs that appear only at the final step

• Mobile-unfriendly checkout pages

Urgent Fix

1. Enable Guest Checkout: Allow customers to purchase without creating an account. You can always invite them to create an account after they've completed their purchase.

2. Count Your Form Fields: Go through your checkout process and remove any fields that aren't necessary. Do you need their title (Mr/Mrs.)? Their middle name? Their company name? Probably not. Every field you remove increases your conversion rate.

3. Implement Autofill: Ensure your forms work with browser autofill functions so returning customers don't have to retype their information. Test this yourself by trying to complete a purchase on your site.

4. Implement One-Page Checkout: If possible, put all checkout fields on a single page rather than multiple steps. This reduces the chance of customers dropping off during the process.

Bumpa Fix

Bumpa websites with new themes come with a one-page checkout that simplifies the checkout process for customers. Learn more about Bumpa’s new themes here.

Bumpa also implements autofill so that your customers don’t have to retype their information every single time they come to shop on your website. Lastly, the guest checkout option is available on the Bumpa website, meaning that your customers don’t need to create an account or sign in to shop.

Set up your website in minutes and start selling!

3. Leverage the Power of Customer Reviews – Build Trust Through Social Proof

Nigerian shoppers are highly influenced by the experiences of others. Without reviews, your products lack credibility, especially if you're a new or lesser-known brand.

Reviews may be missing from your store because there’s no system in place to collect them, your process may be too complicated, you’re not following up with customers after their purchase, or your reviews are not displayed prominently.

Related: How to Collect Customer Reviews and Boost Sales With Them

Urgent Fix

1. Implement an automated review request system that sends an email to your customers after they purchase an item, reminding them to leave you a review.

2. Ensure that your reviewing process is very easy and includes a simple star rating system.

3. Incentivise your customers to give reviews. You could offer things like a small discount on their next purchase or early access to new products.

4. Display your reviews strategically on the product pages, so that your customers can see them when considering making their purchase.

Bumpa Fix

Bumpa implements an automated review request system, where your customers are automatically sent an email asking them to leave you a review after shopping. On the website, the reviews are displayed clearly for customers to see before they shop, and you can create coupons to incentivise your customers with when you want them to leave you a review.

Start selling the easy way with Bumpa!

4. Do More With Your Product Descriptions – Be Clear, Detailed, and Persuasive

Generic product descriptions kill sales. Many Nigerian online stores make the mistake of using the manufacturer's descriptions or writing very basic information that doesn't answer customer questions or overcome objections.

What Makes Poor Product Descriptions:

• Too short (just a few words or bullet points)

• Too technical (using industry jargon that average customers don't understand)

• Focus only on features, not benefits

• Same format and structure for every product

• No consideration of the Nigerian context and use cases

Read also: How to Write Product Descriptions that Convert Online Shoppers

Urgent Fix

1. Use this format instead: 1-2 attention-grabbing opening sentences, the problem the product solves, how it will improve the customer’s life, how and when to use the product, what’s included in the product and finally, a call-to-action that encourages the purchase.

2. Write in simple, conversational Nigerian English and avoid complex words. For example, instead of "This apparel item features moisture-wicking properties," write "This shirt keeps you dry even when you sweat in hot Lagos weather."

3. Break up long paragraphs with bullet points for key features and specifications. Most customers scan rather than read every word.

4. Use questions from customers as feedback to improve your descriptions. If one person is confused, others probably are too.

Bumpa Fix

The Bumpa app provides a long description box that you can take advantage of to answer common questions directly on each product page. You can answer questions like how long it lasts, if it’s original, if it comes with a warranty, how it compares to similar products, or if it’s suitable for gifting.

5. Use Data to Make Smarter Decisions – Stop Guessing, Start Measuring

Many Nigerian e-commerce stores operate on intuition rather than data. Without proper analytics, you can't identify real problems or measure the success of your solutions. There are ways that data and analytics can help your business grow. Data, for example, can show you why customers are not converting on your website, or what kind of content or ad brings them in, or where they’re coming from.

How to use data to your advantage

1. Set up essential tracking tools like Google Analytics and Search Console for comprehensive data, and Facebook Pixel if you’re using Facebook & Instagram ads.

2. Focus on key metrics like conversion rate (percentage of visitors who purchase), traffic sources (where your visitors come from) and revenue per marketing channel (which marketing efforts generate sales).

3. Create a simple monthly review process where you can compare the current month to the previous month and the same month last year, and identify your 3 best-performing products and 3 worst-performing products. Then, create an action plan based on your findings.

Bumpa Fix

You can easily connect your Bumpa website to Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel through the Bumpa app, and start getting detailed data about your website, business and ads. Furthermore, the Bumpa app provides you with detailed analytics on how your business is performing, and you can see information on your sales, products and customers all from one dashboard.

More on How Bumpa Can Help

Implementing all these changes might seem overwhelming, but that's exactly why the Bumpa app exists. Our platform helps thousands of Nigerian online store owners:

• Track all these metrics in one easy dashboard

• Manage inventory and get low-stock alerts

• Process orders and track deliveries

• Collect and display customer reviews

• Analyse which products are most profitable

• Monitor your store's performance from your phone

and more! You can sign up in minutes and set up your store for success, forever.

Ready to Save Your Online Store?

Don't let your online store continue to struggle. Start implementing these fixes today, one step at a time. Remember, you don't need to do everything at once – even small improvements can lead to significant results.

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