Short answer: growing an e-shop’s sales depends on much more than traffic. Sales are the product of three numbers — visitors × conversion rate × average order value — and you can improve the last two without spending a single euro on advertising. The most profitable first step is almost always fixing the checkout.
The 3 levers at a glance
| Lever | What you do | When it pays off |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion rate | Fix the checkout & product page | 2-3 weeks |
| Average order value | Free shipping threshold, bundles, upsells | ~1 month |
| Repeat customers | Email marketing & abandoned cart emails | 2-3 months |
Contents
Most e-shop owners who want to increase sales ask for the same things: more traffic, more budget, more advertising. Yet the cheapest route often lies elsewhere — and it starts with numbers you already have.
What “increasing sales” means in practice
An e-shop’s sales figure is really three numbers multiplied together: visitors × conversion rate × average order value. Improve any one of them and turnover goes up — though the cost of doing so varies enormously.
An example with numbers: an e-shop with 10,000 visitors a month, a 1% conversion rate and a €45 average order — turnover of €4,500. To double it through advertising you need another 10,000 visitors, which means twice the ad spend. If instead you raise the conversion rate to 1.6% and the average order to €58, you reach €9,280 without a single extra euro spent on advertising.
That is why the right order is: conversion rate and average order first, traffic after.
Lever 1: Conversion rate — where sales are lost
Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who buy. Measure it before you try to improve it. In Google Analytics, look up: cart abandonment, checkout completion, average order value and the share of repeat customers.
The cart is almost always the biggest leak — people who had already decided to buy leave at the very last step. Lost sales you have already paid for.
What to fix first in the checkout
- Show shipping costs early. On the product page, well before step three.
- Allow guest checkout. Suggest creating an account afterwards.
- Cut form fields. Every field you remove raises completion.
- Offer IRIS and card payment side by side. IRIS, Greece’s instant bank-payment system, is mandatory for Greek e-shops — see what applies to fines.
- Say when it will arrive. Give a date. “2-5 working days” is too vague.
None of these needs extra budget. They work on people who already visit.
Lever 2: Average order value
The most neglected lever. Average order value is how much each customer spends on average. If it rises by ten euros, turnover goes up without a single new visitor.
- Free shipping above a threshold — around 20-30% above your current average order. If your average order is €45, set the threshold at €55. At €100 it is too high.
- Related suggestions — a belt with the trousers, socks with the shoes.
- Bundles — three items together with a small discount sell better than three separately.
Lever 3: The customer who has already bought
Your cheapest audience is the people who have trusted you once. An email two weeks after the order performs better than the same spend on a new audience. The same goes for the abandoned cart email (sent one hour later).
Do you really need more traffic?
Sometimes, yes. But first ask yourself: is the traffic you already have the right traffic? A thousand targeted visitors are worth more than ten thousand irrelevant ones.
If you do need more people, bring them in the right order: Google Ads for people who are already searching, Meta to create demand, and organic SEO for steady, free traffic.
How long before you see results
Checkout fixes show results in 2-3 weeks. Average order value takes a month. Email marketing takes 2-3 months. Don’t change everything at once — otherwise you won’t know what worked.
Summary: what to do first
If you take away five things from this article, make it these:
- Measure first: cart abandonment, checkout completion, average order value, repeat customers.
- Fix the checkout before anything else — it is the biggest and cheapest win.
- Raise your average order value with a free shipping threshold and bundles.
- Set up abandoned cart emails and post-purchase emails.
- Add traffic last, once the e-shop converts properly.
Would you like us to take care of it? See our e-shop development service or get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
How do I increase e-shop sales without raising my advertising budget?
By working on the two levers that don’t depend on traffic: conversion rate (mainly the checkout) and average order value. If you raise the conversion rate from 1% to 1.6% and the average order from €45 to €58, turnover almost doubles without a single extra euro of advertising.
What is the first thing I should fix?
Almost always the cart and the checkout. That is where people who had already decided to buy drop out. Show shipping costs early, allow guest checkout, cut unnecessary fields and show a delivery date.
What should an e-shop’s conversion rate be?
A healthy Greek e-shop usually sits at around 1-2%, though the absolute figure means little. What matters is the trend: if yours is below 1%, the problem almost always lies in the checkout or the product page, and rarely in the traffic.
How quickly do results show?
Checkout changes show in two to three weeks. Average order value takes a month. Email marketing needs two to three months. Don’t change everything at once.
Is it worth putting more money into advertising?
Only after you have fixed your conversion rate and average order value. If you send more people to an e-shop that doesn’t convert, you are simply paying more for the same leak. Plug the holes first, then turn on the tap.
These practices come from our work at WebMate with WooCommerce e-shops. Last updated: August 2026.
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