Ecommerce Improvement Plan

Shopify is used for the commercial baseline, including sales, orders, average order value and Shopify's reported conversion rate. GA4 is used to understand behavioural drop-off through the website, subject to tracking validation. Shopify records more sessions than GA4 and may include traffic that does not represent a normal shopper.

Shopify counts sessions. GA4 counts events. They are not the same unit, so do not mix one number from each column into a single rate. Both sources are shown so the same pattern can be checked twice.

What a higher conversion rate could mean

Illustrative impact using the same level of Shopify Online Store traffic and the current revenue generated per converting session. This is not a forecast.

• Traffic is held static.
• Order value is held static.
• No benefit from later average-order-value work is included.
• No benefit from email retention is included.

How online revenue grows

Revenue = traffic × conversion × value per order

1. Get more product visitors to add to cart (Stage 1A)
2. Get more carts into checkout (Stage 2)
3. Increase the value of successful orders (Stage 3)
4. Capture visitors who are not ready to buy today (Stage 1B)
5. Help shoppers find more relevant products (Stage 4)

Why the work is staged

We will not change every part of the store at once. Each stage is implemented and measured before the next conversion-stage change. This makes it easier to see what actually improved sales.

Email marketing can be built now. It does not need to wait for the product-page test.

1. Stage 1 Product page + email capture
2. Measure
3. Stage 2 Cart → Checkout
4. Measure
5. Stage 3 Average order value
6. Measure
7. Stage 4 Product discovery

Stage 1: Make products easier to buy and start retaining visitors

A. Product page

On product pages, the current mobile footer keeps Home, Search and Cart visible while Add to Cart scrolls away. We propose using that space as a persistent purchase button. The exact layout will be designed before it is built, not guessed here.

Proposed changes to test (not proven causes of the current rate):

• Keep Add to Cart visible while the customer scrolls
• Make size and frame choices easier to understand
• Keep useful delivery information visible
• Move review reassurance closer to the buying decision
• Make product information relevant to the type of item being sold
• Assess one-tap payment as a secondary option

How we will measure this

We will compare the percentage of product-page sessions that go on to add an item to cart before and after the changes. We will also check orders, revenue, average order value and desktop performance to make sure an improvement in one metric is not hiding a problem elsewhere.

We will monitor for at least two full trading weeks and continue until there is enough traffic to make a useful comparison.

B. Start building an audience we can bring back

Yard Gallery currently has no active email marketing programme. This can be built alongside the product-page work rather than waiting for the conversion test to finish.

Visitor

↓

Email signup

↓

6-email welcome / nurture series

↓

Purchase

↓

Post-purchase emails

↓

Review / return visit

Direct purchase

↓

Post-purchase emails

Customers who buy without signing up still enter the post-purchase emails.

• Website email capture
• Six-email new subscriber nurture
• Two or three post-purchase emails
• Review request
• Measurement of subscribers, clicks, sales and unsubscribes

Final email copy, incentives and discounts will be agreed separately.

How we will measure this

We will compare new subscribers with how often the signup is shown. We will also watch email clicks, sales and unsubscribes, and check that the signup does not make it harder to add to cart or start checkout.

Stage 2: Get more carts into checkout

Once the product-page work has been measured, we will simplify the step between adding an item and starting checkout.

Shopify: 117 cart sessions → 57 checkout sessions = 49%. GA4: 328 add to carts → 89 checkout starts = 27%.

Proposed areas:

• Make Checkout the clear primary action
• Reduce unnecessary choices in the cart drawer
• Assess faster payment options
• Check whether direct checkout is appropriate for some purchases
• Protect multi-item orders and average order value

How we will measure this

We will compare how many add-to-cart sessions go on to start checkout. We will also watch orders, revenue and average order value so a faster checkout path does not reduce the size of baskets.

Stage 3: Increase the value of each order

Conversion rate is only one way to grow online revenue. Once the core buying path is working better, we will test whether customers can be helped towards higher-value or additional purchases without reducing conversion.

We will first see what customers already buy together and where current order values sit before adding upsells.

We will not judge this stage on average order value alone. Average order value can rise while total sales fall. Revenue per visitor and completed orders remain important.

How we will measure this

We will watch average order value, revenue per visitor and items per order. We will also watch conversion, so a higher basket value is not hiding fewer completed sales.

Stage 4: Help customers find the right artwork

This comes later because customers are already reaching product pages. These changes help customers compare and discover artwork once the core buying path has been improved.

How we will measure this

We will watch whether more visitors reach a product they buy, plus orders and revenue. Extra browsing alone is not the goal.

Keeping the changes consistent

The existing Yard Gallery theme already contains reusable buttons, product controls, mobile navigation, cart elements and other interface patterns. We will reuse or adapt these wherever practical rather than creating a separate set of styles.