If your B2B portal has been live for six months and your best customers still email their orders to the same rep, you are where most suppliers are after launch. The platform usually works. What’s missing is B2B customer onboarding, and in most companies nobody has been given that job.

Suppliers also tend to overrate how far they have come. In a Deloitte Digital survey of 530 US B2B suppliers and 530 buyers, 72% of suppliers said their sales processes were mostly or highly automated. Only 47% of buyers said their purchasing processes were.

Launch is day 0. The 12 months after it decide whether the portal replaces the phone or becomes one more channel your team maintains. This guide covers why existing customers don’t switch on their own, a five-stage onboarding plan from go-live to month 12, how to pay reps when their customers order online, and the numbers to report to leadership.

What is B2B customer onboarding?

B2B customer onboarding is the work of moving existing business accounts from ordering by phone, email, EDI, or through a sales rep to ordering on your B2B customer portal. It covers account setup, the first online order, reasons to come back, and changes to how sales is paid. It runs for months after go-live, account by account.

Most guides that rank for this term describe SaaS onboarding: getting a new user to their first “aha” moment in software, the topic of our user onboarding best practices. A supplier’s problem is different. Your customers already buy from you, and the old way of ordering still works for them.

Our B2B eCommerce trends for 2027 put customer adoption among the biggest jobs suppliers face next year. This guide is the detailed plan for that job.

Why B2B customers don’t use a new portal

B2B customers keep ordering offline after a portal launches for five common reasons: the old way still works, the portal’s prices or stock don’t match what the rep says, their account isn’t set up, products they buy are missing online, and their rep has no reason to send them there. These are the B2B eCommerce challenges we see most after go-live.

Buyers do want to order on their own. Gartner found that 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, and Deloitte found that 65% choose purchasing channels on ease of use. The same Deloitte research shows how far suppliers are from that: buyers were six times as likely as suppliers to describe the buying process as “mostly manual,” and three times as likely to say the supplier is difficult to do business with.

The old way still works

A buyer who has emailed the same rep for years often gets a confirmed order back within the hour. Switching means a new login and searching for products they used to name in one line of an email. Unless the portal saves them time on their first order, they go back to email.

Prices and stock don’t match

A portal price that differs from the rep’s quote or the invoice undoes weeks of onboarding. Buyers call to check, and soon they stop logging in. The fix is upstream: one source for contract pricing and stock, usually the ERP, read by the portal in real time. Our guide to eCommerce ERP integration covers the patterns.

The account isn’t ready

Many launches send every customer the same invitation email and a password reset link. The buyer logs in to an empty account: no saved lists, no order history, no colleagues set up with the right approval rights. For larger customers, single sign-on removes the login problem altogether.

Products are missing

Buyers won’t move a whole reorder to a portal that only carries part of what they buy. Wainbee, the largest distributor of Parker products in Canada, had only 10% of its 600,000+ products online because supplier data arrived in CSV and XLS files with no shared structure. A Pimcore PIM connected to its ERP and supplier feeds put the full catalog online.

Read more: Case Study: Unifying Product Information with Pimcore PIM

The rep has no reason to help

If a rep’s commission depends on orders they place themselves, every order a customer places online looks like lost income. So reps keep taking orders by phone, and the portal numbers stay flat. The commission section below covers the fix.

The 5 stages of the B2B customer onboarding process

An onboarding process that works for B2B suppliers runs in five stages: choose and prepare the first accounts before go-live, set up each account in the first 30 days, place first orders together with reps in months 2–3, give buyers reasons to come back in months 4–6, and make online the default for everyone in months 7–12. These B2B customer onboarding best practices come from the B2B projects we support after launch.

Stage 1: Pick the first accounts before go-live

Don’t launch to every customer at once. Pick 20 to 50 accounts for the first wave: customers who reorder often from a stable list, buyers who already use other suppliers’ portals, and accounts whose reps are willing to help. Repeat orders are the easiest to move online, because the buyer already knows what they want.

For each account, decide before launch who owns the move (usually the rep, with support from customer service), which buyers will log in, and what the first online order will be.

Stage 2: Set up each account in the first 30 days

Treat each large account as its own small project. Before the buyer logs in for the first time, the account should already have:

• Its contract prices and payment terms, checked against the last three invoices
• Every buyer and approver, with the right roles and spending limits
• A saved list of the products they reorder most, built from their order history
• Their past orders, so they can reorder from history instead of searching

Then run a short setup call with the buyer, ideally led by their rep. Thirty minutes on a shared screen does more than any welcome email. If you run Adobe Commerce, features such as company accounts, shared catalogs, requisition lists, and quick order cover most of this, as our overview of Adobe Commerce B2B features explains.

Stage 3: Place the first orders together (months 2–3)

Ask reps to place the first online order with the buyer, either on a call or by logging in to the customer’s account and building the cart for them to approve. The buyer sees their own prices, stock, and history in the portal, and the rep stays part of the relationship.

Macron, the teamwear and sports apparel brand, gave its team a “Shop as a Customer” feature on Adobe Commerce. Support staff log in under a partner’s account and help with bulk orders and complex configurations, using the same catalog and prices the partner sees. With SAP integration for live stock and flexible ordering by SKU, CSV upload, and reorder, Macron cut order creation time by 40%.

Read more: Case Study: Macron’s B2B Platform Evolution with Adobe Commerce

Stage 4: Give buyers reasons to come back (months 4–6)

A portal that is only a cart gets used only when someone remembers to order. Give buyers reasons to log in between orders:

• Reorder prompts. Send reminders when an account’s usual reorder date passes, based on its real order history, with a one-click link to the saved list.
• Order status and documents. Tracking, invoices, delivery notes, and certificates in the portal stop the “where is my order” calls.
• Self-service for routine requests. Returns, statement downloads, and user changes the buyer can do alone.

This is also where support costs start to fall. advancedlife, Australia’s national school photography specialist, replaced five legacy systems with one platform that includes a self-service portal for schools. Schools upload rosters, correct student data, and download images without contacting the support team. The platform went live in 14 weeks, before the busiest season, and support load dropped 95% after go-live.

Read more: School Photography Commerce: Production-Ready Platform in 14 Weeks

Reorder prompts work best as a lifecycle email program triggered by order data. Our email marketing team builds these flows on top of the portal’s order history.

Stage 5: Make online the default (months 7–12)

By month 7 the first waves are ordering online and the long tail is still on the phone. Now change the defaults:

• Customer service enters phone and email orders into the portal on the customer’s account, so history and saved lists build up there.
• New customers open accounts on the portal from day one.
• Small accounts below a set order value get portal-only ordering, with a phone line for exceptions.
• Paper order forms and spreadsheet price lists are retired.

Don’t force your largest accounts. Some will keep EDI or move to punchout from their procurement system, and that still counts as digital. Deloitte found that 92% of buyers who use EDI today plan to shift partly or fully to other channels such as eCommerce or procurement systems. Later, some orders may come from AI agents through protocols such as Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, and they will need the same account prices the portal shows.

How to pay sales reps when customers order online

Pay reps on all of their accounts’ revenue, whatever channel the order comes through. If commission only counts orders the rep places, every online order costs the rep money, and they will steer customers back to the phone. Once channel no longer affects pay, reps can treat the portal as a tool that frees their time for new business.

Three commission models work in practice:

1. Account-based commission. The rep earns on every order from their accounts, online or offline. This is the simplest fix and usually the first one to make.
2. Adoption targets on top. A quarterly bonus for raising each account’s share of online orders, for example from 20% to 60% over two quarters.
3. New business weighting. A higher rate on revenue from new accounts, so time saved on order entry goes into finding new customers.

Agree on the model before go-live. Reps who learn the new rules after the launch have already decided what the portal means for them.

How to measure B2B customer onboarding

Measure B2B customer onboarding by the share of each account’s orders placed online, tracked monthly per account. Add how many invited buyers placed a first order, how many reorder online, and how much time order entry and support take. Logins and traffic alone hide the accounts that never moved.

Report these per account. A few large accounts ordering almost everything online can make the total look healthy while two hundred small accounts still order by phone, and each group needs a different next step. Macron’s results show what to look for: returning visitors grew 32.8% after its new platform launched, and order creation time fell 40%.

If you are not sure where accounts drop off, a B2B customer experience audit maps each step from login to reorder and shows which ones lose buyers.

FAQ about B2B customer onboarding

How long does B2B customer onboarding take?

In our experience, most suppliers need 6 to 12 months to move the bulk of their accounts online. The first wave of 20 to 50 accounts can be ordering online within the first three months. The long tail of small and infrequent buyers takes longer, and some large accounts move to EDI or punchout instead of the portal.

Who should own customer adoption after a B2B portal launch?

One named person should own adoption across all accounts, usually the head of eCommerce or a digital sales manager, with reps owning their own accounts. Without a single owner, adoption falls between the eCommerce team, which built the portal, and sales, which owns the customer, and neither group reports on it.

How do you get B2B customers to order online instead of calling?

Make the first online order faster than calling. Load each account’s prices, buyers, and reorder list before they log in, have the rep place the first order with them, and send reorder reminders based on their order history. Keep prices and stock in the portal identical to the rep’s quote, or customers will call to check.

What should a B2B customer portal include on day one?

On day one, a B2B customer portal needs contract prices, live stock, saved reorder lists, order history, quick order by SKU, and user roles with approvals. Order tracking, invoices, and document downloads give buyers reasons to log in between orders. Features beyond that can wait until the first accounts are ordering online.

Should B2B suppliers force customers to order online?

Not at first. Forcing large accounts usually pushes them to a competitor or to email. Start with the accounts most likely to switch, make online ordering easier than the old way, and only make it the default for small accounts once the portal has proven itself, keeping a phone line for exceptions.

What are the biggest B2B eCommerce challenges after launch?

The biggest B2B eCommerce challenges after launch are customer adoption, prices and stock that don’t match the ERP, incomplete product data, and sales compensation that rewards offline orders. Platform features are rarely the blocker. Most stalled portals work technically but have no plan or owner for moving existing customers online.

B2B customer onboarding is the second half of the project

B2B customer onboarding turns a working portal into a channel your customers use. Plan it before launch, set up accounts one by one, let reps place the first orders, give buyers reasons to come back, and change pay so reps gain when customers order online. Then measure the online share of orders per account every month. If you want help finding new buyers as well, our guide to B2B SEO covers that side.

Portal live but the phone still ringing? Tell us where your accounts are stuck, and we'll help you plan the next 12 months of adoption.

The post B2B Customer Onboarding: Getting Customers to Use Your New Portal appeared first on scandiweb.

56% of online stores have eCommerce site search that fails to meet shoppers’ needs, according to Baymard Institute’s 2026 benchmark of Search UX on more than 170 sites and apps. One of the most common failures hits product catalogs directly: 54% of sites have problems when shoppers search with an abbreviation or a symbol, such as “usb c” or “15in”.

A shopper who gets zero results for a product you stock can’t tell that your catalog has it. They assume you don’t, and they go back to Google. This guide covers how to find the queries that fail, why search misses products that are obviously there, which best practices fix most of it, and when AI search or Adobe Live Search is the right next step.

Overview

• Most failed searches come from four causes: shopper words that don’t match catalog words, missing product attributes, broken handling of SKUs and symbols, and visibility or stock settings.
• Your search log already lists the failing queries. Sort them by volume, fix the top 50, and recheck every month.
• AI (semantic) search matches by meaning and closes much of the synonym gap, but it can’t find an attribute your product data doesn’t contain.

What is eCommerce site search?

eCommerce site search is the search box on an online store and the engine behind it: it reads a shopper’s query, matches it against the product catalog, ranks the results, and shows filters to narrow them. Good site search returns the right product for exact names, product types, features, use cases, and misspellings as well as exact titles.

The engine is usually one of three kinds. The platform’s built-in keyword engine (OpenSearch on Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce), a platform add-on such as Adobe Live Search, or a third-party search service such as Algolia or Klevu.

Why does site search miss obvious products?

Site search misses obvious products when the words in the query don’t line up with the words in the catalog. The engine can only match the text and attributes it was given, so a product titled “Rain shell, men’s” stays invisible to “waterproof jacket” unless a synonym, an attribute, or semantic matching connects the two.

The failures fall into two groups, and each needs a different fix.

Zero-result queries

A zero-result query returns an empty page. These are the easiest to find because every search tool can report them, and the most damaging, because the shopper gets no next step. The usual causes:

• Vocabulary gap: shoppers say “sofa”, the catalog says “couch”. Shoppers say “sneakers”, the catalog says “trainers”.
• Abbreviations and symbols: “usb c”, “15in”, “3/4 sleeve”, “m4 bolt”. Tokenizers often split or drop the symbol, so the query never matches the attribute value.
• Misspellings beyond the typo tolerance: many engines allow one or two wrong characters. “Wiskey glases” may be one wrong character too many.
• Missing attributes: the shopper searches “linen shirt” and the fabric only appears in an image or a PDF spec sheet.
• Products hidden by settings: out-of-stock items excluded from search, products not assigned to the store view, or B2B products outside the shopper’s shared catalog.

Wrong-result queries

A wrong-result query returns products, just not the right ones. These are harder to spot because the log shows results, so nothing looks broken. A search for “iphone 15 case” that lists the iPhone 15 itself first, or “red dress” that shows red shoes because the word “red” appears in a shoe description, are typical examples. The causes are usually ranking: every field is weighted the same, accessories outrank main products, or a merchandising rule pins products that no longer fit the query.

How to diagnose zero-result and wrong-result queries

Diagnose site search from your own search log: export the queries, sort by volume, test the top ones by hand, label each failure with its cause, fix the cause, and test again after the next reindex. The top 50 queries are a practical place to start.

1. Collect the queries. In GA4, the site search event view_search_results records the search_term when your search URL uses one of the default parameters (q, s, search, query or keyword), as described in Google’s site search setup guide. Magento (Adobe Commerce) also keeps a search terms report in the admin, and Live Search, Algolia and Klevu each have their own dashboards.
2. Sort by volume and split the list. One list for queries with zero results, one for queries with results but no clicks or a high exit rate. The second list is where wrong-result queries show up.
3. Run each query yourself. Note what came back and what should have come back. A spreadsheet with “query, expected product, actual top 3” is enough.
4. Label the cause using the table above. The labels show which fix pays off first.
5. Fix the cause behind the query. A synonym fixes one query. A missing “material” attribute fixed in your product data fixes hundreds.
6. Retest after reindexing and keep the sheet. A monthly pass on the top 50 queries catches new gaps after catalog updates, seasonal ranges, and new brands.

If the same attribute keeps coming up as missing, the fix belongs upstream in your product data. Our guide to choosing PIM software covers where that data should be maintained.

eCommerce site search best practices

The best practices below follow the order a shopper meets them: the search box, autocomplete, the results page, filters, and the empty page. Each one fixes a failure point that shows up in search logs again and again.

Make the search box easy to find and use

Put a full, visible search field in the header of every page on desktop. On mobile, make it large enough to tap and add a submit button next to it. Baymard’s research found that 21% of sites leave out that button on mobile, which leaves shoppers unsure how to run the search. Use placeholder text that shows what people can search for (“Search by product, brand or SKU”).

Use autocomplete that corrects as people type

Autocomplete is on 80% of eCommerce sites, yet Baymard rates only 19% of them at the highest performance level. The difference is in the details: suggest queries and categories as well as products, correct close misspellings before the shopper presses enter, and keep the suggestion list short enough to scan.

Handle typos, plurals and symbols

Check how your engine treats “jean” and “jeans”, “t-shirt” and “tshirt”, “usb-c” and “usb c”. Normalize those values in the catalog and add the variants as synonyms where the engine can’t handle them. Live Search, for example, runs a second, fuzzy search with an edit distance of 1 when the exact search returns nothing, so a two-letter typo still needs help.

Build synonyms from your logs

Build synonyms from the queries shoppers actually type. Use one-way synonyms where meaning only runs one way: “laptop” should find “MacBook”, but “MacBook” shouldn’t return every laptop. Review the list every quarter, because product ranges and language change.

Weight fields and keep merchandising rules honest

Rank title, category and key attributes above long descriptions. Then review your merchandising rules: rules that pin or bury products are useful for campaigns, but an old pinned product on a high-volume query is one of the most common causes of wrong results.

Make filters match the query

After a search, show filters that fit the results: size and fit for apparel, voltage and connector for electronics. Filters that make sense for the whole catalog rarely make sense for one query. If your filter pages are also indexed by Google, decide which filter pages Google should index separately from the in-store filter experience. Our guide to Magento layered navigation covers the setup side.

Never show a dead-end no-results page

When search does return nothing, show the corrected spelling, popular categories, best sellers in the closest category, and a way to contact the team. An empty page with “No results found” ends the visit for most shoppers who reach it.

What is AI site search, and can it fix synonyms?

AI site search, also called semantic search, matches a query to products by meaning instead of by exact words. It turns product text and the query into numeric vectors and returns the products whose vectors are closest, so “something warm for rainy hikes” can find an insulated waterproof jacket even when none of those words appear in the query.

OpenSearch’s documentation describes the method: text embedding models turn each product and each query into a dense vector stored in a vector index, and search compares those vectors. Most commerce search vendors now combine this with classic keyword search. Algolia’s NeuralSearch, for example, runs vector search alongside keyword search and merges the two result sets, because keyword matching still wins on exact names and SKUs.

Can AI search fix synonyms?

Mostly, yes. Semantic search connects “sofa” and “couch” or “sneakers” and “trainers” without a hand-written synonym list, which removes most of the vocabulary-gap failures. It’s weaker in three places:

• SKUs, part numbers and model codes. These have no meaning to compare, so keyword matching has to handle them. That is why hybrid search exists.
• Brand and store language. Your own product line names, internal size codes, and B2B part names may not be close to anything the model learned.
• Attributes that aren’t in the data. If fabric, voltage or compatibility isn’t in the product record, no model can match on it. AI search makes product data gaps more visible.

What AI site search needs before it works

Clean titles, complete attributes, and descriptions written for people give the embedding model something to work with. Click and conversion data improves ranking over time. Run a holdout or before-and-after test on your top queries so you can measure the change. A demo built on the vendor’s sample catalog says little about yours.

If you want shoppers to describe a need in a full conversation, a chat-style assistant is the next step beyond the search box. Our guide to a conversational shopping assistant covers the options and costs.

Adobe Live Search: what it does and where it stops

Adobe Live Search is the SaaS search service for Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 and later. It replaces the platform’s OpenSearch storefront search, is included in the Adobe Commerce license, and adds AI re-ranking, search-as-you-type, synonyms, merchandising rules and a product listing widget. It doesn’t run on Magento Open Source.

The facts below come from Adobe’s own Live Search documentation on Experience League:

• Included in the license. Adobe describes Live Search as a SaaS service “included in your license”. The install guide lists only Adobe Commerce on cloud and on-premises, 2.4.4 or later, and OpenSearch and Live Search can’t run on the same instance. If you are weighing editions, see our comparison of Adobe Commerce vs Magento Open Source.
• Semantic search arrived in June 2026. According to the Live Search release notes, it “uses AI to match products by meaning and context” to cut zero-result searches on natural-language queries. It works on English catalogs only. It is on by default for Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service and has to be switched on for cloud and on-premises installs.
• AI ranking from shopper behavior. The Live Search overview describes AI-driven faceting and re-ranking based on in-session behavior. A newer setting controls how strongly that intelligent ranking weighs against text relevance.
• Typo handling is narrow. When an exact search finds nothing, Live Search runs a fuzzy search with a maximum edit distance of 1.

The boundaries and limits page is the part to read before you commit:

Is Adobe Live Search worth it, or should you switch?

Adobe Live Search is worth it for Adobe Commerce stores on a Luma-based frontend with an English catalog that fits within its synonym and rule limits, because it is already in the license and now includes semantic search. Stores that need content search, non-English semantic matching, a Hyvä or headless frontend without custom work, or more control over ranking should compare a dedicated search service.

Questions that settle the decision:

• Is the store on Adobe Commerce or Magento Open Source? Open Source stores choose between tuning OpenSearch and a third-party service. Live Search isn’t an option.
• Is the catalog in English? If not, Live Search’s semantic search doesn’t apply yet.
• What is the frontend? On Luma, Live Search works out of the box. On Hyvä or headless, compare the cost of building on the Live Search API with a service that has a ready frontend for your stack.
• Do shoppers search for content? Size guides, delivery and returns queries need CMS search, which Live Search doesn’t index.
• What does your search log say? If most failures are missing attributes, switching engines won’t fix them. Fix the data first, then compare engines on your own top queries.

How a third-party search engine works on a Magento store

On Ionto’s Magento store, scandiweb redesigned all three store views for a B2B customer journey and enabled Klevu smart search and AI product recommendations as part of the same project, alongside ERP and PIM integration work.

Read more: Proactive eCommerce Support Secures a 90.2% Revenue Increase

Integrations aren’t always plug and play. On a B2B rebuild on Magento 2 with a PWA frontend, the Klevu extension had compatibility issues with the latest Magento and ScandiPWA versions. The team fixed them in both the frontend and the backend, including product resolvers that skip Magento processing when the data comes from Klevu. Budget for that kind of work when your frontend isn’t the vendor’s default.

Read more: Case Study: Rebuilding a Complex B2B eCommerce Site with Magento 2

How to measure site search performance

Measure site search with five numbers: the share of sessions that use search, the zero-result rate, the search exit rate, the refinement rate, and conversion from sessions with search compared with sessions without. Track them monthly and after every change to the engine, synonyms, or product data.

• Search usage rate: sessions with a search divided by all sessions. A sudden drop can mean the search box became harder to find after a redesign.
• Zero-result rate: searches with no results divided by all searches. This is the first number to move after synonym and attribute fixes.
• Search exit rate: searches after which the shopper left the site. High exits on queries with results point to wrong-result problems.
• Refinement rate: searches followed by another search. Some refinement is normal, but repeated rewording means the first query failed.
• Search conversion: orders from sessions with search compared with sessions without. Use it to size the business case for search work.

Set these up as a GA4 exploration on the view_search_results event, or use the dashboards in your search tool. The same numbers are where a CX optimization review starts when it ranks search fixes.

Frequently asked questions about eCommerce site search

What is eCommerce site search?

eCommerce site search is the search function on an online store: the search box, autocomplete, the engine that matches queries to products, the ranking of results, and the filters on the results page. It helps shoppers who already know what they want reach the product without browsing categories.

Why does my site search return no results for products I sell?

Usually because the shopper’s words don’t match the words in your catalog. Common causes are missing synonyms, abbreviations and symbols the engine splits, misspellings beyond its typo tolerance, attributes that aren’t in the product data, and visibility settings such as store view assignment or out-of-stock rules.

What is AI site search?

AI site search, or semantic search, matches queries to products by meaning instead of exact words. It converts products and queries into vectors and returns the closest matches, so natural-language queries like “gift for a runner” can return relevant products. Most tools combine it with keyword search for SKUs and exact names.

Can AI search fix synonyms?

AI search fixes most everyday synonyms, such as “sofa” and “couch”, without a manual list. It still struggles with SKUs, model codes, your own product line names and attributes missing from the product data, so keep a short synonym list and fix your attributes alongside it.

Is Adobe Live Search free?

Adobe Live Search has no separate license fee. Adobe describes it as a SaaS service included in the Adobe Commerce license. The real costs are setup, the frontend work if you don’t use a Luma-based theme, and the time to manage synonyms, merchandising rules and the product data the engine depends on.

Does Adobe Live Search work with Magento Open Source?

No. Adobe’s install guide lists Adobe Commerce on cloud and on-premises, version 2.4.4 or later, as the supported platforms. Magento Open Source stores can tune the built-in OpenSearch engine or add a third-party search service such as Algolia or Klevu.

Search logs show what shoppers want and can’t find. If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your top queries and what’s behind the failures, talk to the team and we’ll walk through them with you.

The post eCommerce Site Search Best Practices: Fix Misses and Add AI appeared first on scandiweb.

If there’s a gap between traffic and conversion, it is almost always a homepage problem, and it is the most common reason a good-looking Magento store still underperforms.

Magento (Adobe Commerce), gives you near-total control over the homepage through Page Builder, custom themes, and frameworks like Hyvä. That freedom is exactly why so many homepages drift into decoration instead of conversion. Let’s walk through Magento homepage design section by section, with the conversion principle behind each one.

What makes a Magento homepage convert?

A Magento homepage converts when every section moves a visitor one step closer to a product, a category, or a reason to trust you. The page is like a junction that routes different visitors toward the path that fits them.

Most first-time visitors do not know your catalog, sizing, or your reputation. The homepage has to establish all three quickly, then get out of the way. 

It also helps to anchor your design in proof rather than taste. If you want a reference set before you start wireframing, our roundup of the best Magento websites shows how leading brands handle the same sections covered below.

How to design a Magento homepage, section by section

Work top to bottom, and treat each section as a conversion zone with one job. The order below reflects how a visitor reads the page and where attention drops off.

1. Start with the hero that passes the three-second test

The hero is the band of content a visitor sees before scrolling. Its only job is to answer, within roughly three seconds, what you sell and why it matters. A vague lifestyle image with no words fails that test, no matter how beautiful it looks.

A strong Magento hero carries four elements: 

• A clear headline naming the category or promise
• Short subheadline that adds proof or specificity
• One primary call-to-action button (keep the button text concrete, such as “Shop the range” rather than “Discover”)
• A supporting visual that shows the product in context. 

In Page Builder, you can build this with a banner row and a button block. With a Hyvä theme, the hero is usually a templated section your developer wires to a CMS block so marketing can swap it without a deploy. 

2. State your value proposition right under the fold

Directly below the hero, give visitors a reason to choose you over the alternative one click away. This is usually a short strip of three or four benefits: free returns, fast delivery, a guarantee, or a differentiator only you can claim.

Keep each point to a few words paired with a simple icon. The goal is quick reassurance. It reduces the perceived risk of buying from a brand the visitor may not know yet.

3. Route shoppers with featured categories

Featured categories beat featured products on most homepages, because a first-time visitor rarely wants the one item you chose to spotlight. They want a fast route into the part of the catalog that fits them.

Show three to six category tiles with clear labels and representative imagery. For stores with seasonal or campaign priorities, this is where you steer demand. Reserve a featured-products block for genuine bestsellers or new arrivals, and pull it dynamically so it stays fresh without manual edits.

4. Earn trust with social proof

Social proof tells a hesitant visitor that other people have already bought and were happy. On the homepage, that means review scores, customer counts, recognizable brand or press logos, and short testimonials placed where the eye naturally lands after the category section.

Baymard Institute usability research finds that surfacing the right reassurances on a page measurably reduces hesitation. Pages carrying one to three signal types outperform those that pile on badges. More is not better; focus beats clutter. 

5. Reinforce confidence with trust signals near decisions

Trust signals are the practical reassurances that remove friction: secure payment badges, accepted payment methods, a clear returns promise, and visible contact options. Place them near the points where doubt creeps in, such as just above the footer and inside the header utility bar.

Baymard reports that 18% of cart abandonments trace directly to concerns about payment security. A homepage that signals legitimacy early prevents that doubt from forming in the first place.

6. Make navigation and search do the heavy lifting

For large Magento catalogs, navigation is a conversion tool. A well-structured mega-menu lets visitors jump straight to intent, and a prominent, fast search bar serves the high-intent shoppers who already know what they want.

Keep the top-level menu short and scannable, group categories the way customers think rather than the way your ERP does, and make search visible by default on mobile, don’t hide it behind an icon. These visitors convert at well above site average, so do not make them hunt.

7. Close with a focused footer and a single conversion offer

The footer is where motivated visitors look for shipping terms, support, and account links, so keep it organized and complete. Add one clear conversion offer above or within it, usually a newsletter signup with a concrete reason to subscribe, such as early access or a first-order incentive. One offer, clearly stated, outperforms three competing ones.

Design the homepage mobile-first

Most of your traffic is on a phone, so the single-column mobile layout is the real homepage, and the desktop version is the variant. Designing desktop first and squeezing it down is how stores end up with buried search bars and CTAs that fall below three scrolls.

Roughly 73% of eCommerce traffic now comes from mobile devices, and 53% of mobile users abandon a page that takes longer than three seconds to load, according to widely cited Google mobile research. Design the stack so the hero message, the primary CTA, and search are all reachable by thumb without hunting.

Why does homepage speed matter so much for conversion?

Speed matters because every fraction of a second between the click and a usable page is a fraction of your audience deciding to leave. A beautiful homepage that loads slowly converts worse than a plain one that loads fast.

The numbers are stark. A Deloitte and Google study, “Milliseconds Make Millions,” found that a 0.1-second improvement in mobile load time increased retail conversions by 8.4% and average order value by 9.2%. On the homepage specifically, heavy hero images, third-party scripts, and stacked sliders are the usual culprits. 

This is one reason many merchants moving off heavy legacy themes choose Hyvä themes, which strip Magento’s frontend down for speed.

Magento homepage section priorities

A pre-launch checklist for your Magento homepage

Before you push a redesigned homepage live, run it against this short list to catch the issues that quietly cost conversions:

• A first-time visitor can state what you sell within three seconds
• There is exactly one primary call to action above the fold
• The mobile single-column layout keeps the CTA and search reachable by thumb
• The value proposition strip names concrete benefits
• Featured categories route to real demand, refreshed without manual edits
• One to three trust signal types appear
• Largest Contentful Paint stays under 2.5 seconds on a mid-range phone
• Every section maps to a job, with nothing left as pure decoration.

When to bring in a design partner

You can build and iterate the homepage in-house when you have a designer who understands conversion, a developer comfortable in Page Builder or Hyvä, and analytics to test changes against. Bring in a partner when the redesign touches the theme architecture, when speed problems are structural, or when the homepage is part of a wider replatform.

If no developer is free for homepage changes, you can ask Ari for them in chat. Ari, the AI agent for Magento, builds banners and content blocks on a copy of your store, and a person releases them.

If you reach that point, our guide to choosing a design agency covers how to evaluate Magento-specialist teams without overpaying for a generic web shop.

Frequently asked questions

How do I edit my homepage in Magento?

In the Magento admin, go to Content, then Pages, open the page set as your home page, and edit it with Page Builder or the CMS editor. You assign which page acts as the homepage under Stores, Configuration, General, Web, Default Pages.

What should a Magento homepage include?

At minimum: a clear hero, a value proposition strip, featured categories, social proof, trust signals, strong navigation and search, and a footer with one focused conversion offer. Each section should map to a single job in the buying path.

Should I use Page Builder or Hyva for homepage design?

Page Builder gives marketers drag-and-drop control without code, which suits frequent campaign changes. Hyva is a lighter frontend framework that favors speed and is usually managed by developers. Many stores combine a Hyva theme with CMS blocks marketers can edit.

How long should a Magento homepage be?

Long enough to cover the core conversion zones and no longer. Most effective homepages run five to seven stacked sections, ending before the content turns into filler that visitors scroll past without reading.

Do homepage carousels or sliders help conversion?

Usually not. Rotating banners dilute the main message and most visitors never engage past the first slide. A single, focused hero almost always outperforms a carousel.

How many trust signals should the homepage show?

Baymard Institute research suggests one to three signal types convert best. Pages crowded with seven or more badges actually performed worse, so prioritize the proof that matters most to your buyers.

Want a homepage built to convert? Talk to our team and rethink your homepage around the buying path your shoppers actually follow.

The post How to Design a Magento Homepage That Converts appeared first on scandiweb.

Last updated: June 2026

Digital wallets accounted for 56% of global eCommerce value in 2025, per the Worldpay Global Payments Report 2026, and the gap between cards and wallets keeps widening at different speeds in Europe, the UK, and the US. The single biggest avoidable loss at checkout in 2026 is offering the wrong mix for the buyer’s region. iDEAL captures two-thirds of Dutch shoppers. Bancontact captures nearly three-quarters of Belgian ones. Klarna and Pay in 3 now run a quarter of UK BNPL volume. FedNow has turned account-to-account into a real US conversation. None of that shows up on a “global best practices” checklist; it appears in the country tables below.

Every region asks for a different mix of cards, wallets, and pay-later rails, and getting that mix wrong is one of the most common sources of payment friction we see at checkout across the eCommerce sites we work with.

Don’t let a buyer reach the payment step and bounce – shopping cart abandonment climbs fast when the payment methods on offer don’t match the ones shoppers trust in their market.

Popular payment methods in Europe, the UK, and the US

The right answer is country-specific. Inside each region, the patterns are split by checkout type (B2C vs B2B, low-ticket vs high-ticket) and by category (fashion runs BNPL, electronics and travel run cards and A2A). Below, we cover the share each method holds today and where the 2026 trends are pulling the mix.

Europe

Digital wallets and cards are the top two pools for eCommerce in Europe, but local rails decide regional outcomes. The European Central Bank’s SPACE study covering 2024 (released December 2024) puts online cards at 48%, e-payment solutions (wallets, PayPal, mobile apps) at 29%, direct debit at 5%, and instant payments at 5% across the euro area for eCommerce checkouts. By value, online payments reached 36% of total day-to-day euro-area spending.

The Worldpay Global Payments Report 2026 reads the same shift more sharply: digital wallets reached 52% of online value in Germany in 2025 – the highest in Western Europe – and PayPal is cited by 70% of German online shoppers. BNPL accounts for 18% of German eCommerce, driven by a longstanding consumer preference for invoice-based payments that predates the modern installment lending category.

Wero (the European Payments Initiative wallet), Bizum in Spain, and Vipps in Norway are launching in-store payments in 2026, pulling traditionally card-heavy POS markets toward digital wallets. That same wallet rail is what now decides most checkout outcomes online too.

Country-by-country trends in Europe

Each row below shows the share of online shoppers in that country who used the method in the past 12 months, per Ecommerce News Europe (updated March 10, 2026).

What this means in practice:

• In the Netherlands, iDEAL plus PayPal plus cards covers more than 80% of stated checkout preferences. Skip iDEAL, and a third of your buyers will not see a method they trust.
• In Germany, PayPal, purchase on account, and cards cover ~85%. Purchase on account is the line item most foreign merchants underestimate.
• In France and the UK, cards still lead, but PayPal sits second in both at 57% (FR) and 66% (UK) – wallet support is no longer optional.
• In Belgium, Bancontact is non-negotiable at 73% – it is the single biggest payment-method decision in the country.

Implementing iDEAL, Bancontact, Multibanco, or Klarna natively in Adobe Commerce typically falls under our Magento development work, where the regional gateway and the checkout flow are wired together as a single unit.

United Kingdom

The UK runs heavier on cards and mobile wallets than continental Europe, and BNPL adoption has accelerated faster than UK Finance predicted in 2020. UK Finance’s Payment Markets Report 2025 (covering 2024 data, published October 2025) lays out the live picture:

• Debit, credit, and charge cards (physical plus mobile) accounted for 64% of all UK transactions in 2024.
• 26.1 billion debit card payments were made in 2024 – the most-used single method overall.
• 57% of UK adults are registered for mobile wallets in 2024, up from 42% in 2023.
• 50% of UK adults used mobile contactless payments at least once a month in 2024.
• One in four UK adults (25%) used BNPL services in 2024, up from 14% the year before.
• Fashion led BNPL at 46% of transactions, average spend £114. The top three BNPL providers were Klarna, Clearpay, and PayPal Pay in 3.

For online checkouts specifically, Ecommerce News Europe (March 2026) puts the UK at cards 73%, PayPal 66%, Direct Debit 45%, Apple Pay 21%, open banking / bank transfer 20%, Google Pay 19%, Klarna 8%, other BNPL 5%.

What changes between now and 2034

UK Finance projects cards will still lead at roughly 67% of payments in 2034 – the share rises slightly because mobile contactless replaces cash, not because cards displace wallets. The rails that will pull the most volume away from cash between now and 2034 are Apple Pay, Google Pay, and open-banking-powered bank transfers (which already account for 20% of UK online shoppers). The BNPL ceiling depends on the timing of FCA regulations – the methods are not going away, but the marketing and risk treatment will tighten.

United States

US shoppers lead the world in online card use, but the BNPL and wallet trajectory is the bigger story. Per the Worldpay Global Payments Report 2026, digital wallets like Alipay, Apple Pay, and PayPal now account for over half of online and a third of in-person transaction value globally – the US sits ahead of that curve on the wallet side and behind Europe on local rails.

The BNPL numbers (Statista, Capital One Shopping, Chargeflow 2025-2026 syntheses):

• BNPL purchase volume in 2025 is expected to total $122.3 billion, up 10.9% YoY.
• BNPL reached 5% of total eCommerce payments worldwide in 2024 – and 6% in the US specifically.
• 91.5 million American consumers will use BNPL in 2025, up 5.78% YoY.
• Klarna’s US payment volume is expected to reach $25.77 billion in 2025, up 17.2% YoY.
• Klarna holds roughly 35% of the global BNPL market share.
• 52,330 US online retailers use Afterpay.

The implication for US checkout design: Affirm, Klarna, PayPal Pay in 4, and Afterpay should be treated as standard wallet tiers alongside Apple Pay and Google Pay, not as extras. For high-ticket categories (electronics, travel, home goods, B2B), the cost of card interchange is now high enough that A2A rails (RTP, FedNow) are showing up in serious checkout RFPs.

Trends in the US

Three signals to design for through 2027:

• Digital wallets continue to absorb card share at POS and online. Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal are the four to support in the default order. Worldpay projects payment apps will account for 46% of global POS value by 2030 – or $15.6 trillion.
• BNPL has moved from a niche to a standard tier, with $122.3 billion projected for 2025. Risk-adjusted pricing into the merchant fee is the design question.
• Account-to-account is the high-ticket and B2B layer. FedNow and RTP enable instant settlement without card networks, which matters for invoices, marketplaces, and any cart over ~$500 where interchange is the largest line item.

How to choose payment methods by region

The shortest decision framework that actually works:

1. Start with the top three local methods in each country you sell to. Use the country table above as the anchor – if a method sits above ~20%, it has earned the slot.
2. Layer cards plus the leading wallet (Apple Pay + Google Pay in most markets, PayPal everywhere PayPal is offered). This handles roughly 50-70% of cross-border buyers in any single market without local rails.
3. Add BNPL where category fits: fashion, electronics, home goods, beauty in the UK and US, categorized credit and purchase-on-account in Germany, Klarna and Pay in 3 in the UK, Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay in the US.
4. Add A2A for high-ticket and B2B baskets, where interchange savings of 1.5-2.5% per transaction compound into real margin. EU SEPA Instant and US FedNow are the relevant rails.
5. Pressure-test the gateway, not just the method. The same “PayPal” can mean five different gateway integrations depending on the platform, the one your acquirer offers, the one your platform’s marketplace ships, or the one your local payment service provider wraps. Reconciliation, refund flow, and dispute handling differ.

For Adobe Commerce and Magento stores specifically, our breakdown of Magento payment gateways maps each gateway to the regional methods it natively supports. If your shortlist is down to two global processors, see Adyen vs Stripe.

Account-to-account (A2A) and real-time payments in 2026

A2A rails (Wero in Europe, SEPA Instant across the euro area, FedNow and RTP in the US, PIX in Brazil) are pulling high-ticket and B2B transactions out of card networks. J.P. Morgan Payments’ 2026 trends note carries the key risk framing: “With account-to-account (A2A) payments, once money leaves an account, it is gone for good, so pre-transaction ID controls are essential.” That risk is why the EU is rolling out a digital ID wallet in 2026 for cross-border authentication.

What this means for eCommerce checkouts:

• B2C low-ticket (< $100): A2A is competing with wallets on UX, not on cost. Card or wallet wins on speed.
• B2C high-ticket ($100-1,000): A2A starts to make sense for one-tap, no-3DS-friction flows, especially in Europe (SEPA Instant) and the UK (Faster Payments / Open Banking).
• B2B and marketplaces ($500+): A2A is now the default for repeat invoices, supplier settlements, and any flow where the buyer is willing to authenticate once and authorize a recurring rail.

Account-to-account rails matter most for high-ticket and B2B eCommerce, where card interchange erodes margin, and invoice settlement is already the norm.

FAQ

Which payment methods should I support in Europe in 2026?

For most European markets, the answer is cards plus the top one or two local rails plus PayPal plus a wallet (Apple Pay or Google Pay). The local rails matter most: iDEAL in the Netherlands (66% of shoppers), Bancontact in Belgium (73%), purchase on account and SOFORT in Germany (40% and 15%), Multibanco in Portugal, Przelewy24 / BLIK in Poland. PayPal is universal across the region (52% of German online value in 2025 per Worldpay GPR 2026, 47% in NL, 57% in FR, 66% in UK, 39% in BE).

What are the most popular payment methods in the UK in 2026?

Cards lead at 73% of online shoppers, then PayPal at 66%, Direct Debit at 45%, Apple Pay at 21%, open banking / bank transfer at 20%, Google Pay at 19%, Klarna at 8%, other BNPL at 5% (Ecommerce News Europe, March 2026). Across all UK transactions (online plus offline), cards held 64% in 2024 (UK Finance Payment Markets Report 2025). One in four UK adults uses BNPL, fashion-led.

What share of US eCommerce is BNPL in 2026?

BNPL reached 6% of US eCommerce in 2024 and is projected at $122.3 billion in purchase volume in 2025 (up 10.9% YoY). 91.5 million Americans will use BNPL in 2025. Klarna’s US payment volume is projected at $25.77 billion in 2025, and Afterpay is live on 52,330 US online retailers (Statista / Capital One Shopping / Chargeflow 2025-2026 syntheses).

Which payment methods do B2C versus B2B buyers prefer in Europe?

B2C buyers in Europe split across cards, PayPal, and a country-specific rail (iDEAL, Bancontact, SOFORT, Multibanco). B2B buyers strongly prefer purchase on account / invoice settlement and direct debit, plus SEPA bank transfer for higher-ticket orders. Purchase on account is the single biggest category B2C-to-B2B payment difference in Germany at 40% of online shoppers (per Ecommerce News Europe 2026 data) – and it is the only category where most non-German merchants underprovision their checkout.

What payment methods should I support for cross-border eCommerce?

Cards (Visa, Mastercard) plus PayPal cover the broadest cross-border tail. Layer Apple Pay and Google Pay for mobile-heavy traffic. For each market where you exceed ~5% of revenue, add that market’s top local rail (iDEAL for NL, Bancontact for BE, SOFORT / purchase on account for DE, Klarna for fashion in the UK and US). Cross-border A2A (SEPA Instant for the euro area, Faster Payments/Open Banking for the UK) is the rail that will matter most for high-ticket cross-border in 2026-2027.

How does account-to-account (A2A) payment differ from a card payment for eCommerce?

A2A moves money directly from the buyer’s bank account to the merchant’s bank account, without the card network in the middle. Settlement is instant on real-time rails (SEPA Instant, FedNow, RTP, PIX, Faster Payments). For the merchant, the upside is lower fees (typically 0.2-0.5% vs 1.5-3% for cards) and no chargeback risk after settlement. The downside is that “once money leaves an account, it is gone for good” (J.P. Morgan Payments 2026), so pre-transaction ID controls and authentication carry more weight. A2A is becoming the standard for high-ticket and B2B checkouts in Europe and the US.

Will cards still dominate UK payments in 2034?

Yes – UK Finance’s Payment Markets Report 2025 projects cards at roughly 67% of all UK payments in 2034, up slightly from 64% in 2024. The rise is driven by mobile-wallet-on-card flows replacing cash transactions, not by cards displacing wallets. Cash share will keep falling, and open banking and BNPL will keep climbing inside eCommerce specifically.

Get your checkout and payments stack tuned for the region you actually sell in. Talk to our checkout team and we will map your live data, your platform, and your country mix to the payment methods that move your conversion rate, not your wishlist.

The post eCommerce Payment Methods in Europe, the UK, and the US (2026 Guide) appeared first on scandiweb.

If you are watching new users sign up and then disappear before the product ever clicks for them, you already know onboarding is where the leak is. People do not churn because your product is bad. They churn because they never reached the moment it became useful, and onboarding is the path to that moment.

This applies just as much to an eCommerce account or a checkout flow as it does to a mobile app: the first session decides whether someone comes back. Below are nine onboarding best practices that hold up in 2026, each with a real example and the principle underneath it, so you can apply them to a web app, a mobile app, or a store account flow.

Overview

• The job of onboarding is one thing: get a new user to first value as fast as possible. Everything else serves that.
• The numbers are unforgiving. Around 77% of users stop using an app within three days, and in Q2 2025 only about 8.4% of users completed onboarding within 30 days.
• Good onboarding can lift retention by up to 50%, which is why it is one of the highest-return fixes a product or store team can make.

What is user onboarding?

User onboarding is the guided first experience that takes someone from “just signed up” to “actively getting value.” It covers the welcome, any setup, and the first meaningful action, the point where the user understands what the product does for them. Good onboarding is not about showing every feature. It is about getting the user to one clear win quickly.

Why does user onboarding matter?

Because most people leave fast, and onboarding is the one lever that changes that. Around 77% of users abandon an app within three days of downloading it, and retention keeps falling from there: 2025 benchmarks put average day-7 retention near 6.9% on iOS and 5.2% on Android, dropping to roughly 3% by day 30. The longer since install, the fewer users remain active.

The cause is rarely the product itself. It is that users never saw the value clearly enough to come back. Fix the onboarding and the curve bends: studies have found proper onboarding can increase retention by up to 50%, and product teams that reworked their first-run experience have moved week-1 retention from 60% to 75% and week-10 from 10% to 25%.

How long should user onboarding take?

As short as it can be while still delivering the first win. Survey data has long shown most users expect to finish onboarding in under a minute, and that expectation has not softened. With completion rates as low as 8.4% within 30 days, every extra step is a place to lose people. Aim for the shortest sequence that reaches first value, and let everything else be learned in context later.

The 9 user onboarding best practices

1. Get users to first value in under a minute

Do not turn onboarding into an essay. Keep it short and pointed at the first win. The longer the sequence, the more people drop before they ever reach it. If your setup genuinely needs more steps, defer the optional ones and front-load only what is required to reach value.

2. Always let users skip

A real share of users prefer to explore on their own, by trial and error. Do not trap them. Let them skip onboarding at any step. Trip.com does this cleanly, with a skip option in the top corner of every screen, so confident users get out of the way and into the product.

3. Show what users can do, not what the product offers

Onboarding copy shapes how people perceive the product before they have used it. Keep it user-centered, not product-centered. Write about what the user can accomplish, not what the company built. The MUST app (for building movie libraries) does this well, framing onboarding around you creating your collection rather than around its feature list.

4. Lead with the value, fast

Use onboarding to make the value obvious, not to bury it under instructions. Show what the user can accomplish and why it is worth their time. Revolut’s onboarding is a strong example: it lists clear benefits, uses social proof, and keeps a visible call to action, so by the end you want to explore the app rather than escape it.

5. Engineer the “aha” moment

The aha moment is when the user first feels the product’s value for themselves. Design onboarding to reach it deliberately, not by accident. Identify the single action that makes your value click, then build the first session around getting users to it. Facetune does this by letting users feel how quickly they can edit a photo, the value lands before any commitment is asked.

6. Onboard progressively, not all at once

You do not need to teach everything in the first session. Progressive onboarding reveals features when they become relevant, instead of front-loading a carousel nobody remembers. Teach the first action now, surface the next capability the moment the user is ready for it, and let the product teach itself in context. This keeps the first run short while still helping users go deeper over time.

7. Reduce sign-up friction before you optimize the flow

The fastest onboarding is the one with fewer obstacles in front of it. Offer social or single sign-on, ask for only the data you truly need up front, and let people experience value before forcing account creation where you can. For eCommerce, this is the same logic as guest checkout: every required field before the first win is a reason to leave. Collect the rest progressively, once the user has a reason to stay.

8. Show progress with checklists and indicators

People finish what they can see themselves finishing. A short setup checklist or a progress bar turns an abstract process into a goal with a visible end, which pulls users through it. Keep the list short, order it by value, and celebrate completion. This works as well for a store account or a B2B portal setup as it does for a SaaS product.

9. Measure activation and keep iterating

Onboarding is never done. Define your activation metric, the specific first action that predicts retention, and track how many new users reach it. Then test changes against that number. This is where onboarding meets conversion rate optimization: the same discipline of measuring, hypothesizing, and testing that improves a checkout improves a first-run flow. Our A/B testing framework is a practical way to run those tests without guessing.

Onboarding beyond the app: web and eCommerce

These principles are not mobile-only. An eCommerce account flow, a first purchase, or a B2B portal setup is onboarding too, and it follows the same rules: reach first value fast, reduce friction, show progress, and measure activation. The “aha” moment for a store might be the first successful order or the first saved cart, and the same first-session design that retains app users retains shoppers. If you want the experience studied end to end, that is what a structured UX design and CX audit process is for.

FAQ

What is user onboarding?

User onboarding is the guided first experience that takes a new user from sign-up to actively getting value from a product. It covers the welcome, any necessary setup, and the first meaningful action, and its goal is to reach that first win as quickly as possible.

What makes onboarding effective?

Effective onboarding reaches first value fast, lets users skip, leads with what the user can do rather than a feature list, engineers an early “aha” moment, and is measured against an activation metric. It removes friction instead of adding instructions.

How long should user onboarding take?

As short as possible while still delivering the first win. Most users expect to finish in under a minute, and with onboarding completion rates near 8.4% within 30 days, every extra step costs you users.

Why do users abandon apps so quickly?

Around 77% of users stop using an app within three days, usually because they never saw its value clearly, not because the product is poor. Onboarding that communicates value early is the main lever for changing that.

Does onboarding apply to eCommerce and not just apps?

Yes. A store account flow, a first purchase, or a B2B portal setup is onboarding too. The same principles apply: reach first value fast, reduce sign-up friction, show progress, and measure activation.

How do you measure onboarding success?

Define an activation metric, the first action that predicts a user will stay, and track the share of new users who reach it. Then test onboarding changes against that metric using a structured A/B testing process.

If your activation rate has stalled and you are not sure which onboarding step is losing people, that is a measurable problem, not a mystery. Book a UX working session and we will map your first-run flow, find where users drop, and test the fixes that move retention.

The post User Onboarding Best Practices: 9 That Work in 2026 appeared first on scandiweb.

You uninstalled MageMonkey, cleared the cache, hit Connect, and the sync still throws an error. Or every store view synced except the one that actually matters for abandoned-cart emails. If that is where you are right now, you are not doing anything wrong, the Mailchimp connector for Magento (Adobe Commerce) has a handful of well-known failure points, and the documentation for them is scattered across forum threads and old release notes.

We have set this integration up many times across client stores, hit the same walls, and worked out what reliably clears them. This guide is the short version: what the integration is in 2026, why the sync fails, how to connect a multi-store setup cleanly, and when the free connector stops being enough.

Overview

• The integration is now called Mailchimp for Adobe Commerce (formerly Mailchimp for Magento 2), a free connector that syncs customers and order data to a Mailchimp audience.
• Most “sync failed” errors trace back to one of three causes: a leftover MageMonkey install, an orphan Mailchimp store, or a multi-store setup on subdirectories rather than subdomains.
• You can only fully connect one store view per Mailchimp audience, so the real decision is which store view earns the full feature set.

What is the Mailchimp for Magento (Adobe Commerce) integration in 2026?

Mailchimp for Adobe Commerce is a free integration that adds your store’s customers and their order information to a Mailchimp audience, so you can run targeted campaigns, product retargeting, and abandoned-cart automations from purchase data. It used to be branded “Mailchimp for Magento 2” and you will still see both names in the wild, the connector and the underlying behavior are the same.

You install it from the Adobe Commerce Marketplace (it is free), or via Composer, then connect it to your Mailchimp account from the store’s admin. The setup itself is short. The friction is almost always cleanup from a previous tool or a multi-store quirk, which is what the rest of this guide covers.

Before you connect: remove MageMonkey completely

If your store has been live for years and you used Mailchimp before, you were probably running MageMonkey, the older extension. As the Mailchimp documentation states, you must uninstall MageMonkey before you can use Mailchimp for Adobe Commerce.

Here is the part the documentation skips: removing the extension files is not always enough. We have seen connections keep failing after developers removed MageMonkey, because not every path and database table was cleaned up during removal, and the leftovers caused errors. Ask your developers to confirm the database is clean, not just that the module folder is gone.

Why does the Mailchimp Magento sync fail?

When the sync fails, you usually see a generic connection error rather than a clear cause. Based on the extension developers’ guidance, that error points to one of three scenarios:

1. You have a parent scope configured.
2. You are using multi-store on the same domain under one Mailchimp account.
3. You have an orphan Mailchimp store left over from a previous connection.

The next two sections handle the orphan store and the multi-store cases, since those are the ones that send most people in circles.

An orphan store is blocking the connection

If you previously connected Magento to Mailchimp through MageMonkey, uninstalling it leaves an orphan store inside Mailchimp. That orphan blocks the new connector from claiming the store.

To clear it, log in to Mailchimp and open the Connected Sites page. You will see the connected store, and a Disconnect button in the lower-left corner that removes the orphan. If you do not see any connected account but the connection still fails, contact Mailchimp support and ask them to check for orphan stores that are blocking the connection, they can see ones the interface hides.

How do you connect a multi-store Magento setup to Mailchimp?

Mailchimp can connect several store views, but the layout of your store decides how cleanly it works. If your store views sit on separate subdomains, you are fine, you can connect all of them to your Mailchimp account. If your store views are separated by subdirectories, you cannot fully connect all of them.

In a subdirectory setup, one store view connects completely and shows up under Connected Sites. The others will still sync subscriber and order data, but they will not appear in Mailchimp and will not support Connected Site features like product retargeting, abandoned-cart emails, or Google Ads. So the data flows, but the revenue-driving automations only run on the one fully connected store view.

That makes the setup a decision, not just a configuration: pick the store view that earns the full feature set. Usually that is your highest-revenue or highest-traffic market, the one where abandoned-cart and retargeting automations pay for themselves fastest.

One more rule that trips people up: each store view (each subdirectory) must connect to a separate Mailchimp audience. Create a new audience in Mailchimp for every store view you plan to connect, then point each store view’s backend configuration to its own list.

Connection steps after the errors are resolved

Once you have cleaned up MageMonkey and disconnected any orphan stores, connect in this order:

1. Uninstall the MageMonkey extension correctly, with developer help to confirm the database is clean.
2. Open Connected Sites in Mailchimp and disconnect the old sites.
3. Go to the Magento (Adobe Commerce) backend and clear the cache.
4. In the Mailchimp extension settings, save the configuration at the default scope, do not enable the extension for the default scope, just save the configuration.
5. Switch to the store view you want to connect, enable the extension, and save the configuration there. Assign a separate audience to each store view you connect.

If you still hit an error after these steps, it is almost always an orphan store the interface is not showing, go back to step 2 and have Mailchimp support confirm it on their side.

Free connector or custom integration: which do you need?

The free connector is the right call for most stores. It syncs customers and orders, powers the standard automations, and costs nothing. You should look beyond it when one of these is true:

• You run a subdirectory multi-store and need full feature parity across markets, not just one fully connected store view.
• You want data the standard sync does not pass, such as custom attributes, loyalty tiers, or product-level segmentation rules.
• You are evaluating whether Mailchimp is even the right platform. Stores chasing predictable email revenue often move to a platform like Klaviyo, our Klaviyo migration case study covers a 4.8x email-revenue increase after one such move, and our email marketing best practices guide covers what to fix before you blame the platform.

If you need the connector to carry data it does not support out of the box, that is custom Magento integration services territory rather than a settings problem.

FAQ

Is the Mailchimp Magento integration free?

Yes. Mailchimp for Adobe Commerce (formerly Mailchimp for Magento 2) is a free connector available through the Adobe Commerce Marketplace. You only pay for your Mailchimp plan based on audience size and features, not for the integration itself.

Why is my Mailchimp Magento integration not working?

The most common causes are a partially removed MageMonkey install, an orphan Mailchimp store left from a previous connection, or a multi-store setup on subdirectories. Clean up the old install and disconnect orphan stores in Mailchimp’s Connected Sites before reconnecting.

Can I connect a multi-store Magento setup to Mailchimp?

Yes, but with limits. Store views on separate subdomains connect fully. Store views split by subdirectories will sync data, yet only one can be fully connected with retargeting and abandoned-cart features. Assign a separate Mailchimp audience to each store view.

Does the integration work with Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source?

Yes. The same connector supports Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source on supported 2.4.x versions. “Mailchimp for Magento” and “Mailchimp for Adobe Commerce” refer to the same tool after the Adobe rebrand.

What data does the integration sync?

It syncs customers and their order information into a Mailchimp audience, which powers segmentation, product retargeting, and abandoned-cart automations on the fully connected store view.

Should I use Mailchimp or move to another email platform?

Mailchimp’s free connector is fine for getting started. If email is becoming a serious revenue channel and you need deeper segmentation or automation, it is worth comparing platforms, our email marketing services team can scope that against your current setup.

Still staring at a sync error, or unsure which store view to fully connect? Send us your setup and the scandiweb team will tell you exactly what is blocking the connection. Tell us about your setup, and we will get your Mailchimp data flowing.

The post Mailchimp Magento Integration: A Pain-Free 2026 Setup appeared first on scandiweb.

Will a new market actually buy what you sell, or are you about to spend a year and a sizable budget finding out the expensive way? That is the question eCommerce market research answers before you commit a cent to inventory, localization, or paid acquisition in a country you do not yet understand.

The stakes are higher than they used to be. Worldwide eCommerce revenue is projected to reach about $3.88 trillion in 2026 (Statista), and online sales are forecast to grow from 19.4% of global retail in 2023 to 22.6% by 2027 (Statista). More markets are worth entering than ever, which also means more ways to misread one and pour budget into the wrong assumptions.

When a European sporting goods retailer asked us to help them enter a new market in their region, we ran the research that answers that question before the commitment is made. This guide walks through exactly what we asked, why each question mattered, where we found the answers, and what went into the final report, so you can run the same process for your own expansion.

Overview

• eCommerce market research answers one decision: is this market worth entering, and on what terms. It covers demand, market size, buying power, competition, and how people actually shop there.
• A complete study has five areas: country overview, eCommerce trends, competitor analysis, social media analysis, and a consumer survey, validated against real users.
• Size the opportunity before the detail. A quick TAM, SAM, SOM estimate tells you whether the market is big enough to justify the work that follows.

What is eCommerce market research?

eCommerce market research is the process of gathering information about a target market, its demand, size, buying power, competition, and shopping behavior, to decide whether and how to sell there. It tells a company whether a product or service is viable in a new market, and it keeps what you sell relevant and competitively priced once you launch.

What does market research tell you?

A solid study answers the questions that decide an expansion:

• Demand: Is there real desire for your product or service here?
• Market size: How many people would realistically buy?
• Economic indicators: What is the income range and employment rate of your prospective customers?
• Location: Where do your target customers live, and can you reach and deliver to them?
• Market saturation: How many similar options do consumers already have?
• Pricing: What do people currently pay for the alternatives?

How to size the market first: TAM, SAM, SOM

Before the detailed research, put a rough number on the opportunity. Three figures do it, and you can estimate them in an afternoon from public data:

• TAM (Total Addressable Market): everyone who could buy your category in the country. Start from population and category spend per capita (Statista, the national statistics office, eMarketer).
• SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market): the slice you can actually serve, given language, shipping, payment methods, and regulation.
• SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): the share you can realistically win in the first few years, given the competition you map below.

If the SOM is too small to cover the cost of entry, you have your answer before the deep research starts. If it clears the bar, the five areas below tell you how to win it.

A rough worked example. Say you sell premium running shoes and the target country has 10 million adults, of whom perhaps 3 million are active runners who buy online: that is your TAM by headcount. If a third of them are reachable given your language, shipping, and price point, you have a SAM of roughly 1 million. Win 2% of that over three years against the competitors you map below, and your SOM is around 20,000 customers. Multiply by a realistic average order value and repeat-purchase rate, and you have a revenue ceiling to weigh against the cost of entry, all before you spend a month on the detailed study. The numbers are estimates, but they are the difference between a decision and a hunch.

This split between secondary research (existing data: Statista, government statistics, competitor sites) and primary research (data you gather yourself: surveys, five-second tests, interviews) runs through the whole study. Secondary research is faster and cheaper and tells you the shape of the market. Primary research is slower but tells you whether the shape is right for your specific product. The five areas below use both.

The five areas of eCommerce market research

Our research for the sporting goods retailer focused on five areas: country overview, eCommerce trends, competitor analysis, social media analysis, and a consumer survey.

Country overview

This area gives a high-level read on the target market. We gather:

1. GDP per capita and inflation rate
2. Average monthly income
3. Population size and demographics
4. Main populated regions

Buying power is the point here. GDP per capita and income level show how much consumers can spend, which sets the ceiling on pricing and positioning. Demographic data shows who the client is actually reaching, so they can build offers and messaging that fit the people in the market rather than the people back home.

eCommerce trends

This is where we look at the factors that matter specifically to an online business:

1. Market size: growth rate versus prior periods, and predicted growth
2. Online consumer insights: drivers and barriers to shopping online, shopping frequency, average order value, mobile commerce use and growth, local online shopping events, delivery preferences, and popular payment methods
3. Digital consumption: online penetration, social media use, popular browsers and devices
4. Popular sports in the market (our client sells sporting goods)
5. Most trusted brands in the category

What you learn here decides where you position the brand on entry and which strengths to lead with in the marketing strategy. One detail worth flagging early: payment is rarely universal. The methods that convert in one country (an invoice-after-delivery option, a local wallet, bank transfer) can be the ones your checkout does not even offer yet.

scandiweb’s Head of Growth, Reinis Groskops, covers which parts of the customer experience need localizing when you expand to a new market in the talk above, from the Meet Magento Baltics conference.

Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis is about knowing the field well enough to do better than the companies already in it. We benchmark competitors on:

1. Product categories (for our client, apparel and equipment by sport, compared as separate groups)
2. Price differences
3. Shipping terms and costs, especially whether free shipping is offered
4. Return policy
5. Payment methods
6. Online vs offline presence (online-only or with brick-and-mortar, which often explains delivery costs)
7. Unique selling proposition on the website
8. Promotions currently running
9. Loyalty program
10. Desktop vs mobile experience
11. Regional differences across a competitor’s international stores (country-specific layouts, offers, or ranges)

The output is a clear picture of the table stakes (what every serious competitor offers, so you cannot launch without it) and the gaps (what nobody does well, which is where you win).

Social media analysis

Social channels show what content and campaigns people in the market actually respond to. We start with a general read on social media use in the territory, then study each competitor on:

1. Channels: follower counts, engagement rate, posting frequency, average likes and comments per post
2. Content strategy per channel: post types, style variations, content formats
3. Added functionality: shoppable posts and stories, a Facebook store, and similar
4. Marketing activity: use of micro-influencers, macro-influencers, local celebrities or brand ambassadors, user-generated content, and contests

Reading competitors’ social presence surfaces the tactics worth borrowing on entry, micro-influencers, user-generated content with branded hashtags, and contests among them, weighted by which competitors are local players with physical stores versus online-only brands.

Consumer survey

The first four areas tell you what the data says. A consumer survey tells you whether real people in the market agree. We survey potential customers to compare our findings against actual behavior: spending habits, shopping frequency, online preferences, delivery concerns, and what tips a buying decision one way or the other.

For this client, the survey showed that a wide product assortment and better prices mattered most when choosing where to shop. After that came delivery: free delivery, fast delivery, and a generous return policy. That tracks with wider data, 65% of respondents to a 2020 International Post Corporation survey named “free delivery” as the single most important factor in their decision to buy online.

Five-second testing

A five-second test captures a potential customer’s first impression of a site, the read you get before anyone reasons about it. It points to the UI and design changes that make a storefront more appealing on entry. We ask:

1. What do you think this website sells?
2. What do you remember from it?
3. What is your first impression?
4. How would you describe the design?
5. Where would you go next?

The final report

To recap, we ran this research for a European sporting goods company and handed them everything they needed to decide how to approach the new market and which strategies to use. The final report pulled the five areas into the factors that actually move buying decisions in that market, and the strategies competitors had already proven.

Some of the conclusions and recommendations we delivered:

1. The target country is an attractive entry market, one of the larger eCommerce markets in its region, with online sales taking a rising share of retail year over year.
2. Carrying over the same free-delivery offer and parcel price the client already runs in existing markets would give them an edge on entry.
3. The client’s prices could sit at least 7% above competitors’, so pricing needed a review to stay competitive.
4. Competitors offered up to 365 days for returns against the client’s 14-day window, and return difficulty is a top reason shoppers abandon orders. A clear area to fix before launch.
5. Preferred online payment methods in the market were online banking, card, and invoice.
6. Every trusted sports brand in the market ran a membership program, so a loyalty program deserved serious consideration.
7. Sustainability was a prominent message on the international brands’ sites, worth matching.
8. Every competing brand used user-generated content with branded hashtags, plus frequent creative posting, contests, and collaborations with local fitness influencers and athletes. A similar program would fit the client.

That is how we run eCommerce market research at scandiweb, and how we help businesses build a strategy specific to the market they are entering. The same approach underpins our growth marketing work and the eCommerce uplift tactics we apply once a store is live, and it feeds straight into the conversion rate optimization work that turns new-market traffic into orders.

The tools we use for eCommerce market research

You do not need a large research budget to start. A capable study can be built from these:

• Market sizing and trends: Statista, eMarketer, the national statistics office, the U.S. International Trade Administration country guides.
• Demand and search: Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and keyword tools (Ahrefs, Semrush) to read what the market actually searches for.
• Competitor and traffic intelligence: Similarweb for traffic and channel mix, BuiltWith for the platforms and payment tech competitors run.
• Social listening: the native analytics in each platform, plus a social listening tool for share of voice.
• Primary research: a survey tool (Typeform, SurveyMonkey, Pollfish for panel reach) and a quick five-second test platform for first-impression data.

Frequently asked questions

What is eCommerce market research?

eCommerce market research is the process of gathering information about a target market, its demand, size, buying power, competition, and how people shop online, to decide whether and how to sell there. It reduces the risk of entering a market that will not return the cost of entry.

How do you do market research for an eCommerce business?

Work through five areas: a country overview (economy, demographics), eCommerce trends (market size, online behavior, payments), competitor analysis, social media analysis, and a consumer survey to validate the findings against real buyers. Size the market with TAM, SAM, SOM first to confirm it is worth the deeper work.

What tools are used for eCommerce market research?

Common tools include Statista and eMarketer for market size, Google Trends and keyword tools for demand, Similarweb and BuiltWith for competitor intelligence, native social analytics for engagement, and a survey or five-second-test platform for primary research.

How long does eCommerce market research take?

A focused study on a single market typically takes three to five weeks: roughly a week of desk research per area, run partly in parallel, plus time to field a consumer survey and write the final report. A quick TAM, SAM, SOM sizing can be done in a day to decide whether to commit to the full study.

What is the difference between market research and competitor analysis?

Competitor analysis is one part of market research. Market research covers the whole market, demand, size, buying power, and customer behavior, while competitor analysis focuses specifically on what rival companies sell, charge, and do to win customers.

Why is market research important before entering a new market?

Because the methods that work in your home market often do not transfer. Payment preferences, delivery expectations, return windows, and trusted brands differ by country. Research surfaces those differences before you commit budget, so you enter with the right pricing, logistics, and marketing rather than discovering them through lost sales.

If you want the most complete picture of a market you are about to enter, our Growth Team runs this research end to end, from sizing to the final report. Talk to our growth team and tell us which market you are eyeing.

The post eCommerce Market Research: How to Enter a New Market appeared first on scandiweb.

A website personalization tool dynamically changes what a visitor sees on the page – headlines, hero images, product recommendations, search results – based on who they are and what they have done on the site. The part most “best in 2026” lists get wrong is that personalization tools split into four very different categories, and the wrong tool in the right category routinely beats the right tool in the wrong category. Picking the right one starts with knowing which category fits the problem you are trying to solve.

scandiweb’s CX team has deployed Klevu, Algolia, Adobe Target, Insider, Dynamic Yield, Optimizely, and VWO on client projects since 2018. The 9 tools below are the ones we actually put into production in 2025 – 2026, ranked by deployment frequency, not by marketing volume.

Overview

• Website personalization tools dynamically change on-page content based on visitor signals: location, browsing behavior, account history, audience segment.
• The Gartner-tracked personalization-engines market grew 26.1% in 2024 to $1.2 billion. Adobe, Optimizely, Dynamic Yield, and Insider are named Leaders in the 2025 / 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines – Adobe for the eighth consecutive year, Optimizely for the second, Insider newly named in 2026.
• The right tool depends on what you are personalizing, the platform you run on, your annual revenue, and who will operate it day to day. Below ~$5M GMV, start with a mid-weight experimentation tool or a specialist site-search tool. Above ~$10M GMV, an AI experience platform starts paying back.

What are website personalization tools?

Website personalization tools are software platforms that dynamically change on-page content – headlines, hero images, product recommendations, calls to action, search results, navigation – based on visitor signals like location, browsing behavior, audience segment, or account history. The goal is to replace a single static experience with many tailored experiences, lifting conversion rate and average order value.

Modern personalization tools combine four capabilities to different depths:

• Dynamic content replacement – swapping headlines, hero images, CTAs per segment.
• Behavioral targeting – reacting to scroll depth, time on page, items in cart, products viewed.
• Product recommendations – algorithmic “you might also like” and search relevance.
• Experimentation – A/B and multivariate testing to choose between personalized variants.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant tracks the AI experience platforms in Category 1 below. The other categories – experimentation tools, eCommerce site search, B2B account targeting – are tracked separately by Gartner, Forrester, and G2 because the buyer, the budget, and the use case are fundamentally different.

The four categories of website personalization tools

Most “best personalization tools” articles mix four very different product types into one ranking. Here is the split that actually matters.

Category 1 – AI experience platforms (full-experience)

Large, enterprise-priced, end-to-end platforms that personalize across web, mobile, email, and messaging from a unified customer-data layer. Use when you have meaningful traffic, multiple channels, and an in-house or agency team to run the platform. Avoid when you are below ~$5M annual revenue or your team does not have the bandwidth to operate it.

Tools in this category: Adobe Target, Dynamic Yield, Insider, Optimizely – all four named Leaders in the 2025 / 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant.

Category 2 – Experimentation and content personalization (mid-weight)

Mid-weight tools that lead with A/B testing and content variation, with personalization layered on top. Use when you want to start with experimentation and graduate into personalization. Avoid when your primary use case is search or recommendations on an eCommerce catalog – these are conversion-rate optimizers first.

Tools in this category: Optimizely (sits in both Cat 1 and Cat 2 for experimentation-led use), VWO.

Category 3 – eCommerce site search and product recommendations

Specialist tools that personalize the highest-intent surfaces on a retail site: the search bar, category pages, product detail pages. Use when you run a store with a real catalog (200+ SKUs) and on-site search is a meaningful conversion path. Avoid when your catalog is small or on-site search is not a problem.

Tools in this category: Klevu, Algolia, Clerk.io, Attraqt.

Category 4 – B2B website personalization

Tools that personalize websites based on the visiting company, industry, or CRM record rather than individual behavior. Out of scope for this list (which focuses on broad eCommerce personalization), but worth flagging: Mutiny and Demandbase anchor the B2B category for teams running account-based marketing.

The 9 best website personalization tools in 2026

The table ranks the 9 tools by scandiweb’s implementation frequency on client projects – the platforms we are actually putting into production for eCommerce clients in 2025 – 2026, not the platforms with the loudest marketing.

Pricing tiers reflect 2026 public ranges plus scandiweb’s own deployment experience. Enterprise quotes are negotiated directly with vendor sales.

Personalization strategies for success

A list of tools is only useful when paired with a strategy. The biggest reason personalization programs underperform is not the tool – it is that teams turn the platform on and never define what success looks like or how they will measure it.

Setting goals and objectives

Establish clear, measurable goals before the first test fires. Vague goals (lift engagement, improve experience) produce vague outcomes. Specific goals (lift first-time-visitor conversion 12% on the category page, raise repeat-purchase rate 8% on email-led traffic within 90 days) produce decisions.

Three goal-setting rules we hold every client to:

• Tie the goal to a revenue or retention metric. Conversion rate, AOV, customer lifetime value, repeat rate. Not page-views, not time-on-site.
• Set the segment. Personalization is segment-by-segment. A site-wide goal is not measurable.
• Set the time window. Personalization needs at least 30 days per test on most accounts to clear statistical noise, many enterprise tools need 60 to 90 days.

Analyzing customer data

Customer-data analysis is what personalization runs on. The four analysis types every team needs:

• Segmentation analysis – dividing the customer base into actionable groups by demographics, browsing behavior, purchase history, or lifecycle stage. The starting point for almost every personalization test.
• Predictive analysis – using historical data and machine-learning models to forecast which customers will convert, churn, or move into a higher-value segment. Most Category 1 platforms include predictive scoring out of the box.
• Behavioral analysis – scroll depth, click patterns, cart actions, search queries. This is where Category 3 site-search tools deliver most of their value.
• Sentiment analysis – natural-language analysis of reviews, support tickets, and on-site search terms. Less commonly applied to website personalization directly but feeds the segmentation models.

scandiweb has deployed multi-market personalization on a CDP foundation (Bloomreach CDP case study), Salesforce Data Cloud-driven personalization for luxury retail (Salesforce Data Cloud case study), and omnichannel data unification for offline-and-online personalization. The pattern across all three: clean customer data is the foundation, the personalization tool is the application layer.

Implementing targeted campaigns

Once the goals are set and the data is in, the campaigns themselves are the easy part. The three types that drive the most revenue in our client projects:

• Personalized product recommendations on cart, PDP, and category pages – typically a 6 to 12% AOV lift on the targeted segments.
• Tailored content by audience segment – different hero image, headline, CTA per segment. The biggest wins come from new-vs-returning visitor segmentation, not from elaborate persona-based variants.
• Targeted email campaigns triggered by on-site behavior – basket abandonment, browse abandonment, post-purchase upsell. Pair the Category 1/3 platform with your ESP.

Read our AI-powered personalization breakdown for the implementation patterns we use most.

How to choose a website personalization tool

To choose a website personalization tool, identify the surface you are personalizing, the platform you run on, your traffic and revenue scale, and who will operate it day to day. Most teams pick the wrong tool because they answer the surface question last instead of first.

1. What are you personalizing? Search results → Category 3 (Klevu, Algolia, Clerk.io). Hero banners and content variation → Category 1 or 2 (Adobe Target, Optimizely, VWO). Full-page B2B targeting → Category 4 (Mutiny, Demandbase – out of scope here).
2. What is your commerce platform? Adobe Commerce (Magento) → native fits are Klevu, Algolia, Adobe Target, Insider. Shopify → Klevu, Algolia, Clerk.io, Dynamic Yield. Custom or headless → API-first wins (Algolia, Insider, Optimizely).
3. What is your scale? Below $5M/yr → start with Category 2 or 3, not Category 1. Enterprise platforms idle without volume to learn from. Above $20M/yr → Category 1 starts paying back.
4. Who runs it? In-house growth team → tools with clean UIs (VWO, Optimizely). Agency-operated → the heavy platforms (Adobe Target, Dynamic Yield) become viable. Solo founder → Klevu or Clerk.io plug-and-play.

A starting-point recommendation by scenario

• Small-to-mid Shopify store, $1M – $5M/yr: Klevu for search and Clerk.io for recommendations, or Algolia if budget allows.
• Adobe Commerce (Magento) store, $5M – $25M/yr: Klevu or Algolia for search, Adobe Target or Dynamic Yield for content personalization.
• Enterprise omnichannel retailer: Insider or Dynamic Yield for unified experience layer, plus Algolia for search.
• Fashion or lifestyle retail with visual merchandising needs: Attraqt plus Klevu.

Understanding the ROI of website personalization

Personalization is one of the higher-ROI investments in the eCommerce stack when implemented well. Forrester’s economic study of comprehensive personalization platforms found organizations reporting roughly 3x returns and $5 million in incremental revenue (Forrester, 2025). The lift varies enormously by team maturity: the same platform produces 5% conversion-rate lift for one team and 25% for another.

Conversion rate improvement

Personalized content and product recommendations typically lift conversion rate 5 to 15% on the targeted segments in our client work, the best campaigns we run move conversion 20 to 30%. The drivers are not exotic. The gains come from showing returning visitors a different hero than first-timers, surfacing recently-viewed products on the category page, and recommending category-adjacent SKUs at the cart.

scandiweb’s work with Byggmax drove a +15% AOV increase through personalization and marketing automation – the kind of structured lift personalization delivers when the data foundation is clean.

Enhancing customer loyalty

Personalization lifts repeat-purchase rate and customer lifetime value when the experience extends past the first transaction. Personalized onboarding (the first three to six visits after the first purchase), tailored lifecycle email, and on-site experiences that recognize the returning customer all compound retention. Across the lifecycle programs we run, personalized re-engagement campaigns recover meaningful revenue: read the $1.4M recoverable revenue case for the structural pattern.

Boosting brand recognition

A coherent personalized experience across web, email, and ad channels strengthens brand recognition by making the brand feel attentive. A visitor who sees their recently-viewed product in a follow-up email, their saved cart in an ad retargeting unit, and their preferred category prioritized on their next visit experiences scandiweb’s term for it: “the brand that remembers them”. This is the harder, longer ROI measure and the hardest to quantify in a single test, but it is the one that compounds over the 18 to 36 month horizon.

What a personalization deployment actually involves

A typical website personalization deployment runs 6 to 12 weeks across four phases: discovery and use-case prioritization, technical integration, hypothesis and test launch, and ongoing optimization. Tooling decisions matter, but implementation maturity matters more.

1. Use-case prioritization (1 to 2 weeks). Which pages, which segments, what hypothesis. We start with search and category pages on eCommerce sites because that is the highest-intent surface, but the right starting point varies by client.
2. Integration (2 to 4 weeks). Tagging plan, data flow into the tool, conversion-event mapping, QA in staging. Most overruns happen here.
3. First tests (2 to 3 weeks). Launch three to five hypotheses on the most-trafficked segments. Do not try to personalize everything on day one.
4. Optimization cadence (ongoing). Monthly review of winners, losers, segment performance, and what the data tells you about the customer base.

scandiweb has deployed Klevu, Algolia, Adobe Target, Insider, Dynamic Yield, and VWO on client projects across fashion, lifestyle, retail, and B2B. The single most common reason a deployment underperforms is not the tool. It is that the team did not commit to a sustained testing cadence beyond launch.

Personalization and AI Overviews in 2026

Google’s AI Overviews now feature recommendations of personalization tools on commercial-intent queries. Tools cited in the AI Overview for best website personalization tools in May 2026 include Optimizely, Insider, Adobe Target, and VWO. The same brand-authority dynamic that compresses paid CTR now decides which platforms reach the buyer.

The implication for vendors: AEO eligibility (snippet-shaped definitions, FAQ schema, declarative key-fact sentences) is now part of go-to-market. The implication for buyers: do not treat AI Overview recommendations as exhaustive. The four tools cited above are excellent options, but they are not the only options, and the right tool for your specific use case may not show up in the AIO at all. See our AEO services for how brand sites earn AIO citations.

Frequently asked questions

What is a website personalization tool?

A website personalization tool is software that dynamically changes the content, layout, and recommendations a website shows to each visitor based on signals like location, browsing behavior, audience segment, or account information. The goal is to lift conversion rate and average order value by showing each visitor a more relevant experience.

What are the best website personalization tools in 2026?

The right tool depends on the use case. For AI-driven full-experience personalization: Insider, Adobe Target, Dynamic Yield, Optimizely (all Leaders in the 2025 / 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant). For eCommerce site search and recommendations: Klevu, Algolia, Clerk.io, Attraqt. For experimentation and content personalization: VWO, Optimizely.

How much do website personalization tools cost?

Pricing ranges from ~$200/month for entry-tier experimentation tools (VWO) to $50,000 to $300,000+/year for enterprise platforms (Adobe Target, Insider, Dynamic Yield). eCommerce site-search platforms (Klevu, Algolia, Clerk.io) typically sit in the $500 to $5,000/month range depending on traffic and catalog size.

Which website personalization tool integrates best with Adobe Commerce (Magento)?

Native integrations exist for Klevu, Algolia, and Adobe Target. Insider and Dynamic Yield integrate via API. scandiweb has deployed all five on Adobe Commerce (Magento) client projects since 2018.

Which website personalization tool integrates best with Shopify?

Klevu, Algolia, Clerk.io, and Dynamic Yield all have strong Shopify apps. For Shopify Plus customers, Optimizely and VWO also integrate cleanly via app or SDK.

What is the difference between A/B testing and website personalization?

A/B testing compares two or more variants of the same page to find the winner. Everyone sees one of the variants. Website personalization shows different content to different visitors based on who they are. Most modern tools do both, but the primary discipline matters: experimentation tools (VWO, Optimizely) optimize toward a single winning experience, personalization platforms (Insider, Adobe Target) optimize toward many tailored experiences in parallel.

What is the ROI of website personalization?

Most well-implemented programs deliver 5 to 25% conversion-rate lift and 6 to 12% AOV lift on the targeted segments within 6 to 12 months. Forrester’s economic study reports roughly 3x returns and $5 million in incremental revenue across implementations. The variance reflects implementation maturity more than tool choice.

Do I need a website personalization tool if I already have Google Optimize or an email marketing platform?

Google Optimize was shut down in 2023. Email marketing platforms personalize email, not the website. If your goal is dynamic on-site content, product recommendations, or AI-driven search, you need a dedicated website personalization tool.

If you are scoping a personalization platform, or trying to get more from one you already own, scandiweb’s CX team has deployed Klevu, Algolia, Adobe Target, Insider, Dynamic Yield, and VWO on client projects since 2018. Reach out for a personalization roadmap – we will tell you exactly which of these tools you should be considering for your stack and scale.

About this guide

This guide is maintained by scandiweb’s CX team, drawing on our implementation experience across client projects, the 2025 / 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines, Forrester’s economic study of personalization platforms, and public vendor documentation. Reviewed by scandiweb’s CX engineering lead.

Related reading from the scandiweb blog:

• • Bloomreach CDP case study: multi-market personalization
  • +15% AOV via personalization and marketing automation
  • Salesforce Data Cloud case study
  • Omnichannel data unification for retail personalization
  • AI-powered personalization for search, upsell, and merchandising

The post 9 Best Website Personalization Tools (Updated 2026) appeared first on scandiweb.

Acquiring a new customer can cost five to 25 times more than keeping one you already have, and a 5% lift in retention can raise profits by 25% to 95%, according to research from Bain & Company and Harvard Business Review. That math is why customer engagement is not a soft metric. It is the cheapest growth a store has. The hard part is turning a one-time buyer into someone who comes back, and then into someone who brings others. This guide covers the customer engagement strategies that work, how they build loyalty, and the metrics that tell you whether they are working.

Why customer engagement and loyalty pay

Engagement is a profit lever, not a brand nicety. Returning customers spend on average 67% more than new ones (BIA Advisory), and because you are not paying to acquire them again, more of that spend reaches the bottom line. A small retention gain compounds: keeping 5% more customers can swing profit by a quarter to nearly double over time.

The opportunity is large and customers are receptive. The Antavo Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026 found that loyalty programs measuring their return report an average 5.3x ROI, roughly nine in ten owners report a positive return, and 65.9% of consumers say using a loyalty program is now part of their daily lives. Yet more than a quarter of loyalty points in the US go unspent, a reminder that signing members up is not the same as keeping them engaged. For the full picture on the revenue side of retention, see our guide to customer lifetime value.

Engagement and loyalty are not the same thing

Engagement is how often and how meaningfully a customer interacts with your brand, like opening emails, joining a quiz, replying to a post, or reading content. Loyalty is the behavior that follows when engagement is consistent and rewarded: repeat purchases, referrals, and a willingness to choose you over a cheaper option. You build engagement to earn loyalty, and you protect loyalty by keeping engagement fresh. The strategies below do both.

Customer engagement strategies that work

No single tactic carries a program. The brands that hold attention combine several of the strategies below, then double down on the ones their data rewards.

1. Build a reward program and promote it early

A reward program gives customers a reason to come back and a reason to spend more each visit. Promote it before launch to build anticipation, then keep promoting it after launch with fresh benefits based on what members actually use. Make the value obvious on your main product pages so shoppers understand what they gain by joining, and drive sign-ups through email, social, and on-site prompts.

Amazon promotes Prime through free trials and early access to deals before major events like Prime Day, building anticipation that turns into sign-ups. After joining, members get ongoing value through free shipping, exclusive content, and special discounts.

2. Add gifts and perks that feel high value

Beyond discounts, tangible gifts and perks like extended warranties or co-branded extras can tip a purchase decision in your favor. The catch is that customers often miss perks they are entitled to, so make them visible at the point of decision. Partnering with complementary brands for exclusive, limited-edition perks adds interest without discounting your own margin.

3. Personalize with data, and make it interactive

Personalization is one of the highest-return strategies available: McKinsey finds it typically lifts revenue by 10% to 15%, with faster-growing companies earning a larger share of revenue from it than slower peers. Tailoring promotions to individual preferences makes every message more relevant, and interactive formats like quizzes both engage customers and collect the data that makes the next interaction sharper. The right tools make this practical, so see our roundup of personalization tools.

4. Engage on social media and build community

Active participation in the communities around your brand strengthens ties that discounts cannot buy. Post consistently, respond to comments, address concerns, and run live sessions or Q&As so customers feel heard. Direct conversation builds trust and surfaces insight you can feed back into products and marketing.

This is not theory for us. After sustained SEO work and active community building for a multinational consumer-electronics and home-appliance brand, scandiweb delivered strong organic gains in one region, comparing Q2 against the prior year:

• +38.3% all clicks
• +53% branded queries
• +32% non-branded queries

5. Be consistent across every channel

Customers move between your website, app, email, social, and sometimes a physical store, and they expect the experience to feel like one brand throughout. Omnichannel engagement means a cart, a wishlist, and a loyalty balance that follow the customer wherever they go, plus messaging that picks up where the last touchpoint left off. Inconsistency, like an offer in email that the site does not honor, breaks trust faster than almost anything else.

6. Offer proactive, AI-assisted support

Support is an engagement channel, not just a cost center. Self-service help centers, AI chatbots for common questions, and proactive outreach when an order is delayed all keep customers engaged at the moments that decide whether they stay. The goal is to resolve the issue before it becomes a reason to leave, and to free your team for the conversations that genuinely need a human.

7. Use conversational, two-way messaging

Email, SMS, live chat, and push notifications work best when they invite a reply rather than broadcast at the customer. A back-in-stock text, a chat that remembers the last order, or a push that lands at the right moment all turn one-way announcements into a conversation. Respect frequency and consent, since the fastest way to lose an engaged subscriber is to over-message them.

8. Lead with value-driven content

Content keeps customers engaged between purchases. How-to guides, styling ideas, setup help, and honest comparisons give people a reason to come back when they are not buying, and they build the trust that makes the next purchase easier. Useful content also feeds your other channels, giving email, social, and search something worth sharing.

9. Onboard with lifecycle and trigger-based journeys

The first weeks after a first purchase decide whether a buyer becomes a repeat customer. A welcome series, a how-to-use-it follow-up, a replenishment reminder, and a win-back flow for lapsing customers all engage people at the moment that matters instead of on a generic schedule. Triggered journeys based on real behavior consistently outperform one-size-fits-all campaigns.

10. Add gamification and close the feedback loop

Challenges, streaks, badges, and tiered milestones make engagement feel rewarding rather than transactional, which is part of why tiered programs hold attention. Pair that with a real feedback loop: ask for input through surveys and reviews, then visibly act on it. Customers who see their feedback change something feel ownership, and ownership is what loyalty is made of.

Choosing a loyalty program type

A loyalty program is one of the strongest engagement strategies, but not every program fits every store. The four most common models each reward a different behavior, and many brands combine them.

• Points programs reward spend with points redeemable for discounts or products. They are simple to understand and work well for frequent, lower-value purchases.
• Tiered programs offer better benefits as customers spend more, which motivates higher lifetime value and gives members a status to protect.
• Paid memberships (like Amazon Prime) charge a fee for ongoing benefits, filtering for committed customers and creating recurring revenue.
• Referral programs reward customers for bringing in new ones, turning loyalty into low-cost acquisition.

For a deeper look at how different industries structure these, see our collection of loyalty program examples, and when you are ready to build, our step-by-step guide to setting up a loyalty program walks through the decisions. To see one built end to end on Magento, read the Holzkern reward engine case study.

How to measure customer engagement and loyalty

You cannot improve what you do not track. Use a mix of outcome metrics and leading engagement indicators:

• Repeat purchase rate is the share of customers who buy more than once, the clearest single signal of loyalty.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total expected revenue from a customer relationship. Rising CLV means your strategies are compounding.
• Retention and churn rate track the customers you keep versus the ones you lose over a period. Small gains here drive outsized profit.
• CSAT and NPS measure how satisfied customers are and how likely they are to recommend you, both early warnings before churn shows up in revenue.
• Engagement metrics like email open and click rates, program participation, and session frequency lead retention before it reaches the bottom line.

Set these up before you launch new strategies so you have a baseline, then review them on a fixed cadence and refine based on what the data shows.

Putting it into practice

Start with a written plan that names objectives, timelines, and owners across marketing and customer service, and keep it flexible enough to adjust as results come in. Connect your analytics so the metrics above are tracked from day one. Then review performance regularly, learn what works, and keep communication clear and consistent across email, social, and on-site messaging. Engagement is not a one-time campaign. It is a habit the whole team maintains.

Frequently asked questions

What is a customer engagement strategy?

A customer engagement strategy is a coordinated plan for how a brand interacts with customers across channels to build interest, trust, and repeat business, using tactics like personalization, loyalty programs, content, proactive support, and community.

What is an example of a customer engagement strategy?

A loyalty program is a common example: Starbucks Rewards lets members earn Stars on every purchase, redeem them for free items, and unlock perks, which gives customers a reason to come back and engage between visits.

What are the 3 C’s of customer engagement?

They are commonly described as consistency (a reliable experience across channels), customization (personalized, relevant interactions), and convenience (making it easy for customers to engage and buy).

Why is customer retention more valuable than acquisition?

Acquiring a new customer costs five to 25 times more than retaining an existing one, and returning customers spend about 67% more. A 5% increase in retention can lift profits by 25% to 95%, so retention is usually the cheaper path to growth.

How do you measure customer engagement?

Track repeat purchase rate, customer lifetime value, and retention or churn as outcome metrics, plus CSAT, NPS, email open and click rates, and program participation as leading indicators.

Ready to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers? scandiweb designs and builds loyalty programs and the engagement experiences around them, from strategy to the storefront. Tell us what your retention looks like today and we will map the next step – explore our loyalty program accelerator.

The post Customer Engagement and Loyalty Strategies for eCommerce Brands appeared first on scandiweb.

Across roughly 48 studies, the average shopping cart abandonment rate now sits at 70.19% (Baymard Institute, 2025), which means only about a third of loaded carts turn into orders. For most stores, that gap is the single largest pool of recoverable revenue they already paid to acquire. The shoppers added items, signaled intent, then walked. The shopping cart abandonment solutions below are the fixes that pull the most of them back.

This is not a guessing exercise. Most abandonment traces to a short list of predictable friction points at the cart and checkout, and each one has a known fix. Below you will find nine of them, ordered roughly by impact, with the current data behind each and the results we have seen applying them for real stores.

Overview

• The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19% (Baymard Institute, 2025), so roughly two of every three loaded carts never convert.
• The biggest single driver is unexpected cost: 48% of shoppers abandon when shipping, taxes, or fees first appear at checkout (Baymard / SellersCommerce, 2026).
• The highest-impact fixes are guest checkout, transparent pricing, express and one-click payment, trust signals, and a timed abandoned cart email sequence that recovers roughly 5% to 11% of otherwise-lost sales.

What is shopping cart abandonment?

Shopping cart abandonment occurs when a shopper adds one or more items to their online cart and then leaves before completing the purchase. It is measured as the cart abandonment rate: the share of created carts that do not end in a paid order. The current benchmark across 48 studies is 70.19% (Baymard Institute, 2025), and it has held near 70% for years, so a store that beats it is genuinely ahead of the field.

A related metric worth tracking is checkout abandonment, which counts only shoppers who reached the checkout flow and then dropped off. Cart abandonment is the wider funnel; checkout abandonment is the narrow end. Both matter, and the fixes overlap, but the checkout-stage drop-offs are usually the most expensive to lose because those shoppers were closest to paying.

Why do shoppers abandon their carts?

Shoppers abandon for a mix of practical and trust-based reasons, and the data is consistent year over year. The single biggest reason is unexpected cost: 48% of shoppers abandon when shipping, taxes, or fees appear at checkout (Baymard / SellersCommerce, 2026). After that come forced account creation, a long or confusing checkout, missing payment options, and concerns about payment security.

Knowing the cause is what makes the fix cheap. You do not need to guess which lever to pull when the reasons are this well-documented.

• Unexpected extra costs at checkout (the top reason, cited by 48% of shoppers)
• Being forced to create an account before buying
• A checkout that is too long, asks for too much, or feels unsafe
• Missing the payment method the shopper expected
• The shopper was comparing prices or simply not ready to buy yet

How to reduce cart abandonment

Reducing cart abandonment comes down to removing surprises, cutting steps, and proving the store is safe to buy from. The nine solutions below cover the cart experience, the checkout flow, payment, speed, trust, and recovery after the fact. Work through them in order, and you address the highest-impact friction first.

1. Make the cart and mini-cart easy to access

Before a shopper ever sees a checkout form, the cart or mini-cart is the closest thing, so both need to be easy to reach and show every detail about the items inside. Every action a shopper expects should work without hunting: changing the quantity, editing a variant, or removing a product. Getting the cart and mini-cart right is part of broader add-to-cart best practices that nudge shoppers toward checkout.

A few checks worth running on your own store:

• Is the shopper notified when a new item is added to the cart?
• Is the cart reachable from any page on the site?
• Can the shopper see the item count from anywhere?
• Can they change size, quantity, and color directly in the cart?

These sound obvious, yet plenty of stores still miss one. For one store we worked with, no confirmation showed when an item was added, so shoppers clicked “Add to cart” repeatedly, got frustrated, and left. For another, the cart was only reachable from the product page. Both fixes were small, and both lifted completed checkouts.

2. Guide shoppers to checkout with a clear visual hierarchy

Once items are in the cart, the next click toward checkout should be obvious and require no thought. When the main call to action competes with secondary buttons for attention, shoppers hesitate, and hesitation at the cart stage costs orders. One store we worked with had styled “Continue shopping”, “Checkout”, and “Remove” in the same color, so shoppers paused to decide instead of moving forward. Making the checkout button the clear visual priority removed the stall.

The same logic applies on mobile, where space is tight. Do not bury the checkout button at the very bottom of a long cart. Add a second checkout action in a sticky header so it is always one tap away, and make sure it reads as a button, not as breadcrumbs. Most of this work sits inside thoughtful checkout and eCommerce web design, where layout decisions are tested against real shopper behavior.

3. Do not force account creation

In research by the Baymard Institute, around 35% of shoppers cite being forced to create an account as a reason they abandon checkout. It feels like an easy way to capture an email, but for the shopper, it is one more password to forget. Offer guest checkout as the default and let people opt into an account afterward.

If an account genuinely adds value, say so at the point of choice: it saves their address, stores past orders, or adds a perk. And always present the option to create the account after the purchase, not before it. For one store, the checkout opened with a pop-up forcing shoppers to log in or pick guest checkout before they could continue. As soon as we removed the pop-up and made guest checkout the default, the conversion rate went up.

4. Show the full cost early and remove the price shock

Nothing kills a checkout faster than a cost that appears at the last step. With 48% of shoppers abandoning over unexpected fees, the fix is to surface shipping, tax, and any surcharge as early as you can. Let shoppers run a shipping estimate on the cart page, and flag tax or handling on the product detail page so the final total is never a surprise. If your store runs Magento, set the free shipping threshold in Magento to the same amount any banner or bar promises.

There is a real difference between seeing one large number once at the end and seeing a smaller number build up across the journey. The first feels like a trap. The second feels like a fair, transparent total the shopper agreed to step by step.

5. Offer guest, express, and one-click checkout

The fastest way to lose a ready buyer is to make them type. Guest checkout removes the account wall, but express and one-click options go further by skipping manual entry altogether. Wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay let a returning shopper confirm with a fingerprint or a single tap, which matters most on mobile, where abandonment runs higher at around 80.2% versus roughly 70% on desktop (SellersCommerce, 2026).

Treat express checkout as a primary path, not a buried alternative. Place the wallet buttons high in the cart and at the top of checkout so shoppers who want speed never have to scroll to find them.

6. Give shoppers the payment methods they expect

A missing payment option is a silent abandonment cause: the shopper reaches checkout, does not see how they want to pay, and leaves without a word. Offer the methods shoppers expect, including cards, digital wallets, and buy now, pay later, guided by popular eCommerce payment methods for your market and audience.

Buy now, pay later deserves specific attention. For higher-ticket carts, splitting a payment into installments can be the deciding factor between a completed order and an abandoned one, and it tends to lift average order value at the same time. Match the providers to where your shoppers are, since the expected wallet in Germany is not the expected wallet in the United States.

7. Speed up your store, especially on mobile

A slow store loses shoppers before they ever reach a payment screen. Every extra second of load time at the cart and checkout stage gives a distracted shopper another reason to give up, and the cost is steepest on mobile, where connections vary and patience is thinner. Since mobile abandonment already runs around 80.2% (SellersCommerce, 2026), checkout speed is not a nice-to-have on phones; it is the difference between an order and a bounce.

Trim the obvious drags: compress images, defer non-essential scripts, and keep the checkout flow on as few steps and round-trips as possible. A checkout that loads instantly and responds the moment a shopper taps feels trustworthy, and trust is what closes the sale.

8. Add trust and security signals at checkout

Shoppers will not hand over card details to a checkout that feels unsafe. Visible trust signals close that gap: a secure-payment badge, recognizable card and wallet logos, a clear return policy near the buy button, and an HTTPS lock that the shopper can see. None of these is decorative. Each one answers a quiet question the shopper is asking before they pay.

Support availability is part of trust, too. In a physical store, a shopper can ask a question and get an answer on the spot, and online buyers expect the same. Show contact options at checkout, and offer more than one channel, since some shoppers will reach for live chat while others want a phone number or a message. Removing doubt at the moment of payment is exactly the kind of friction our CRO and UX team is built to find and fix.

9. Recover lost carts with a timed email sequence

Not every cart converts on the first visit, and that is fine, because many can still be recovered. A well-timed abandoned cart email sequence typically recovers between roughly 5% and 11% of otherwise-lost sales. The key is timing and relevance, not volume. Send an abandoned cart email to give shoppers a second chance at what they left behind.

A simple sequence that works:

1. A first reminder within a few hours, showing the exact items left in the cart.
2. A follow-up a day later that adds light urgency, such as low stock or strong demand for the item.
3. A final nudge that may include an incentive like free shipping, used carefully so shoppers do not learn to abandon on purpose to earn a discount.

Pair the email sequence with retargeting. Returning visitors convert at a higher rate than first-timers, so showing abandoned items again through Meta or Google ads keeps the product in front of shoppers who already want it.

What scandiweb’s CRO work recovers from checkout

These fixes are the day-to-day of our conversion work. When we rebuilt checkout for BUFF, clearer trust and flow cues drove a 33% revenue increase in the first month, with mobile conversion and checkout completion both up. See the full checkout optimization for BUFF case study for the before-and-after.

For Northerner, fixing checkout friction recovered up to 500k in projected annual revenue, with a 12% checkout conversion lift in the first eight weeks. The pattern repeats across the stores we work with: the abandonment rate is rarely fixed by one heroic change, it is fixed by removing four or five small frictions that each cost a few percent.

What is a good cart abandonment rate?

A good cart abandonment rate is anything meaningfully below the 70.19% industry average (Baymard Institute, 2025). Most stores sit between 65% and 80%, and mobile typically runs higher than desktop. Rather than chasing a universal number, track your own rate over time and aim to push it down each quarter as you remove friction. A few points of improvement on a high-traffic store can mean a large amount of recovered revenue.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average cart abandonment rate?

The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19% across roughly 48 studies (Baymard Institute, 2025). It has hovered near 70% for years, and mobile rates run higher, at around 80.2% versus roughly 70% on desktop (SellersCommerce, 2026).

Why do customers abandon their shopping carts?

The top reason is unexpected costs, with 48% of shoppers abandoning their carts when shipping, taxes, or fees appear at checkout. Other common reasons are forced account creation, a long or unsafe checkout, missing payment methods, and simply comparing prices before buying.

How can I reduce my cart abandonment rate?

Start with the highest-impact fixes: show the full cost early, offer guest checkout, add express and one-click payment, display trust signals, and speed up your store on mobile. Then recover the carts you still lose with a timed abandoned cart email sequence and retargeting.

Do abandoned cart emails actually work?

Yes. A well-timed abandoned cart email sequence typically recovers between 5% and 11% of otherwise lost sales. The results depend on sending fast, showing the exact items left behind, and keeping the message relevant rather than sending high volume.

Does buy now, pay later reduce cart abandonment?

It can, especially on higher-ticket carts. Offering installment options at checkout removes a price barrier for shoppers who are ready to buy but not ready to pay the full amount at once, and it often raises average order value at the same time.

What is checkout abandonment versus cart abandonment?

Cart abandonment counts every shopper who adds an item and leaves without buying. Checkout abandonment is the narrower measure of shoppers who reached the checkout flow and then dropped out. Checkout-stage losses are usually the most expensive because those shoppers were closest to paying.

The first question is which checkout leak to fix first, since the wrong starting point burns weeks on a change that moves nothing. Talk to our CRO team and we will map the highest-impact fixes for your store before you touch a line of code.

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