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CRO · conversion rate optimization for online stores
CRO for online stores: more orders from the same visitors
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the work that makes more of the visitors you already have complete the purchase: product page, shipping costs shown early, a checkout without obstacles, payment methods, trust. UpCommerce, a CRO agency in Greece, does it as a performance agency, because every tenth of a point in the conversion rate lowers the cost per order across every channel — Google, Meta, Skroutz, email — without a single extra euro in advertising.
What CRO is
The cheapest growth channel is the site you already have
If out of 100 visitors 1.5 buy, and after changes to the site 2 buy, you have 33% more orders with the same traffic and the same budget. That is CRO: not tricks, but the systematic removal of the reasons why someone who wanted to buy did not.
Orders divided by visits. It differs per channel, device and category — mobile is almost always worse than desktop, and traffic from Meta worse than search. That is why there is no “good” rate; there is yours and its trend.
From the first page to payment there are five or six steps, and at each one a share leaves. CRO starts with knowing exactly where most of them leave — not with assuming.
Every change is compared with before: same period, same traffic, same season. Otherwise “improvements” that coincide with an offer or seasonality look like wins and hide what really works.
The 8 points
The eight points where an online store loses orders
In every audit we do, the problems are almost always on this list. The order is the order of return: the first four usually change the most.
1 · Mobile speed
Most of a Greek store’s traffic is mobile, and every second of delay sends visitors back to Google. Images, scripts, heavy themes — measured and fixed first.
2 · The product page
Images that zoom, price and availability visible without scrolling, attributes in a table, the buy button where the thumb looks for it, reviews. The page that decides, and the most neglected.
3 · Shipping and delivery, early
The most common reason for cart abandonment we see is a cost that appears at the end. Shipping, free-shipping threshold and delivery time are stated on the product page — not at the last step.
4 · A checkout without obstacles
Purchase without an account, few fields, address autocomplete, one step if possible. Every extra field is a share less — and mandatory registration is the most expensive field of all.
5 · Payment methods
Card, cash on delivery, instalments, digital wallets, bank transfer — whatever your audience uses. A missing payment method is customers leaving at the last step, without you ever knowing.
6 · Search and filters
Whoever searches inside the site has intent. Search that finds despite typos, filters that match how the customer chooses (size, brand, price), and sorting that does not hide what is in stock.
7 · Trust
Returns policy in one sentence, a phone that answers, reviews, a physical address. The visitor who does not know you decides in seconds whether to give you their card.
8 · The second click: email and retargeting
Most people do not buy on the first visit. A sign-up form that does not annoy, an abandoned-cart email within an hour, retargeting over the following days. Email marketing for online stores →
How we work an online store’s CRO
GA4 with correct events at every step: product view, cart, checkout start, payment. Per channel and device. Before anything changes, we know where people leave and how many.
Observing the buying journey — where the visitor stops, what they ignore, where they turn back — and someone from the team trying to buy from their phone. The numbers say where; observation says why.
A list of changes with estimated return and cost, in order: the easy ones with big impact first. Where traffic allows, an A/B test; where not, a before-and-after comparison under the same conditions.
Changes are made by your developer or by our build team, measured, and the cycle starts again. CRO does not end — the site, the audience and the competition change. Build & rebuild →
CRO and advertising: the same budget, more orders
If the conversion rate rises by a third, the cost per order from Google, Meta and Skroutz drops by a quarter — without anything changing in the campaigns. It is the only change that improves every channel at once.
Pouring more traffic into a site that loses half of it at checkout buys more loss. That is why CRO comes before scaling. See how we measure advertising: performance marketing agency →
An ad for “kids bikes” that sends to the homepage loses a large share of visitors before they see a product. Every campaign to the page that matches — category, collection, product — is CRO done through the ads.
A change that raises orders but lowers the average basket can reduce profit. We measure profit per visitor, not only the rate. Online store profitability →
What we measure
Four numbers, per channel and device
The conversion rate on its own can mislead. We read it together with three more, so that an “improvement” is real.
Mobile and desktop separately, Google, Meta, Skroutz, email and organic separately. An average hides the channel with the problem.
If the rate rises because you sell cheaper, you did not win. And the share that starts checkout but does not pay shows the most expensive leak.
Orders times profit per order, divided by visitors. The one number that joins CRO, pricing and advertising — and the one that has to rise.
From the same partnerships
The same clients, all the work together — not only CRO
Numbers of the whole partnership — advertising, marketplaces, email and site together — as the clients report them, not measurements from CRO alone. All case studies →
E-commerce Profitability Audit
The audit’s UI/UX area is the CRO review: where the site loses orders, with findings in order of priority, alongside advertising, payments and shipping.
Profitability Audit →E-shop build & rebuild
When the changes are many or the platform does not allow them: a site built to sell, by the team that counts the orders.
Development →Google Ads for online stores
Landing pages per campaign and measurement that agrees with CRO.
Google Ads →Email marketing for online stores
The abandoned-cart email — the cheapest CRO there is.
Email marketing →Review or implementation?
Start with a review of your funnel
If you like, in the 30-minute intro call we open your GA4 together and see where visitors leave — often the first points show right there. The team →
If you want the strategic view of the whole store — product mix, pricing, channels — before the site changes, John Kiskipelis does that as an ecommerce consultant, in a separate engagement. Ecommerce consulting →
Frequently asked questions about CRO for online stores
What is conversion rate optimization (CRO)?
It is the systematic improvement of the share of visitors who complete a purchase: measuring the funnel step by step, diagnosing where and why people leave, changes to the product page, shipping, checkout, payment methods and trust, and measuring every change against before. The goal is more orders from the same traffic.
What is a good conversion rate for an online store?
There is no single number for everyone: it differs by industry, product price, device and channel — mobile and social traffic are almost always lower. What matters is your own rate per channel and its trend month by month, together with average order value and profit per visitor.
Do I need A/B tests?
Only when the traffic can carry them. For an A/B test to give a reliable answer, you need hundreds of orders per variant; most Greek stores do not have them within a reasonable time. There we work with before-and-after comparisons under the same conditions, and with the changes experience shows almost always work.
What is the first thing that changes?
Usually one of four: mobile speed, shipping and delivery time shown on the product page, purchase without mandatory registration, and a missing payment method. They are the changes with the biggest impact and the lowest cost — and almost every store has at least one of them.
Who makes the changes to the site?
Your own developer, with our list and specifications, or UpCommerce’s build team. CRO does not require a new site; it requires someone able to change the product page and the checkout. If the platform does not allow it, we say so before we start.
How fast does the difference show?
Changes to checkout and shipping show in the numbers within a few weeks, as long as traffic is stable. To say with confidence that something worked, we compare at least one month with the corresponding one before — so that seasonality and offers do not mislead.
Is CRO only for online stores?
The same logic works for any site that wants an action: a form, a call, a booking. The funnel steps change, not the method. For businesses without an online store we do it through Bespoke DMS, together with the advertising.
How is CRO charged?
Either as part of the Profitability Audit — the UI/UX area is the CRO review, with written findings — or as monthly work together with the advertising, when changes and tests continue. The proposal comes in writing after the intro call, with what is included and who implements.
