How To Find and Fix a Leaky Sales Funnel (2026)

A leaky sales funnel means shoppers are dropping off before making a purchase, pointing to an issue somewhere along the way in your shopping or checkout process. The leak can occur for several reasons, whether that’s campaign traffic landing visitors on the wrong product page, a form that asks for too much information, checkout fees that appear late in the process, or follow-up email sequences that are broken.

In the first quarter of 2026, 1.4% of worldwide ecommerce website visits converted to purchases, while US visits converted at 1.6%. At that rate, a store depends on nearly every visitor who shows purchase intent making it through the funnel.

This guide shows how to find drop-offs using analytics, explain the reasoning behind them through customer research, and fix the pages, forms, checkout steps, and follow-up flows where customers tend to leave.

What is a leaky sales funnel?

A leaky sales funnel happens when shoppers enter an ecommerce sales funnel but leave before the intended next step, which could be viewing a product page, adding a product to their cart, checking out, subscribing, or buying again.

Look for leaks by comparing each funnel stage against the next one. For example, compare traffic to product views, product views to add-to-cart, carts to checkout, checkout to purchase, and purchase to follow-up. 

A page can look fine on its own but may still be a leak point if the stage-to-stage rate drops sharply compared to the stage before it. By comparing stages with one another, you can identify the actual point of friction so you can start optimizing and converting even more customers.

Common ecommerce sales funnel leaks

Leaky funnels can form at any stage. To find any leaks impacting your sales, try to isolate each stage or each offer so you know where the fixes need to happen. For example, a campaign that sends visitors to the wrong landing page needs a targeting or offer fix. On the other hand, a confusing checkout process needs a design fix, regardless of where the traffic comes from.

In a 2025 Shopify survey,* 37% of store owners reported marketing as their top Year One challenge. Getting traffic and converting it are two different problems, and a stage-by-stage view of the funnel shows which one might be impacting your store. Use this stage map to decide where to look first:

In the first quarter of 2026, the average conversion rate across selected ecommerce verticals worldwide was 1.4%, with food and beverage and skincare both at 2.4% and luxury apparel and accessories at 0.3%. Use benchmarks like these as context, then compare them with your store’s own stage-by-stage data.

Poor site search can make it so that a shopper with clear intent to buy falls off because they can’t find what they’re looking for. DECKED VP of Ecommerce Taylor Straley says, “For years we tried to implement a search experience and found that it wasn’t intuitive or native for the customer. They would type in something, and we’d send them to a PLP [product listing page], which was just a horrible shopping experience. And so we felt like having no search was better than a search.”

Taylor’s team addressed this by rethinking how DECKED’s store search and product discovery worked together. Implementing the Shopify Search and Discovery app helped DECKED generate a 4% increase in revenue, all from making search more accessible.

Cart and checkout abandonment are two other big areas where a sales funnel leaks. Here are some numbers surrounding this:

• According to Baymard’s 2026 cart abandonment statistics, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.22%.
• Baymard’s 2025 checkout UX benchmark also found that 64% of desktop sites and 63% of mobile sites had “mediocre” or worse checkout UX performance, and 62% of sites failed to make guest checkout the most prominent option.
• Contentsquare’s 2026 retail digital experience guide notes that retail site traffic dropped 2.6% from 2024 to 2025, while conversions dropped 5.5%; the same report says 77% of retail site traffic came from mobile devices in 2025.

Work to improve your own checkout process, especially on mobile devices, so you can see lower drop-off rates within your own online shop, allowing you to extend the funnel and patch up leaks.

How to find sales funnel leaks

In order to find sales funnel leaks, you need to first use analytics to find where users drop off. From there, you can rely on qualitative research to find out why they leave.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can help you build funnel reports that give you the insight you’re looking for. Use Funnel exploration (Explore > Funnel exploration) to visualize the steps users take to complete a task and see where they abandon the flow. Use Path exploration with an ending point to review the pages or screens users visited before a conversion or other event.

Shopify store owners can also check Shopify behavior reports for online store conversion rate over time, web performance, and search behavior. Use Shopify Analytics to spot the drop-off, then use GA4 or another analytics tool to inspect the path in more detail.

Use this short sequence to find the leak: 

1. Define the funnel stages.
2. Build a funnel in GA4 or Shopify Analytics.
3. Segment the drop-off by device, source, and page.
4. Inspect the biggest drop-off.
5. Test the likely cause.

Once you know where the drop-offs are happening, it’s easier to determine the right fix. A leak lower in the funnel is usually worth fixing first. A small increase in conversion rate goes a lot further at the bottom of a funnel than at the top, since visitors who are that far along in the process have already shown that they have purchase intent.

How to conduct quantitative research

Quantitative research shows what is happening in the funnel. In conversion rate optimization (CRO), you can use quantitative research to find the pages, devices, sources, forms, and checkout steps where the drop-off is measurable before changing anything.

In a 2025 Shopify survey, less than half of store owners reported tracking metrics like profit margins, traffic, average order value, or conversion rates. Without insight into these types of numbers, it can be hard to tell whether a change improved the funnel or coincided with an unrelated shift in traffic.

There are four main quantitative research methods that can help you find the “what” behind your customer behavior. They include:

1. Technical analysis

Technical issues can create measurable drop-offs anywhere in the funnel, especially when they affect areas like search, loading times, or checkout. Make sure to test based on your store’s own data, rather than testing every browser and device equally. There are three main areas where you’ll want to prioritize technical analysis:

Page speed optimization

If you’re testing your website’s loading time, use PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals data to find and diagnose slow pages, then use GA4 engagement and conversion data to prioritize which pages to fix first.

Cross-browser and cross-device testing

For optimizing based on device, use a tool like BrowserStack to test the store across browsers and devices, and pair it with GA4’s Tech details report (Reports > Tech > Tech details) to compare performance by browser, device category, device model, and operating system. Compare within the same family, such as Android to Android or Chrome to Chrome, to keep the comparison fair.

As of December 2024, ecommerce conversion rates worldwide were 2.9% on tablets, 2.6% on desktop, 2.3% on mobile phones, and 2.4% overall. Compare your store’s conversion rate by device to these benchmarks to get an idea of how your store is faring.

Mobile optimization

Mobile shopping is a different experience than desktop shopping, and it often comes with different intentions and motivations. A mobile website that’s just a shrunken desktop layout tends to convert more poorly than one built for how people actually shop on a phone.

A 2025 web.dev case study reports that Ray-Ban’s mobile product detail page conversion rate increased 101.47% and desktop conversion rate increased 156.16% after prerendering with the Speculation Rules API. What’s more, exit rates dropped 13.25% on mobile and 13.18% on desktop, showing that optimizing for mobile shoppers works.

2. Analytics deep dive

If you’re using Shopify Analytics, built-in dashboards and reports are available in your Shopify admin. Check for any discrepancies and tracking issues before fully relying on the data for decisions, and do the same for GA4 to ensure accuracy.

Your analytics can be a key part of investigating common leak points. Use these tips to conduct an analytics deep dive and pinpoint potential funnel leaks.

Start with a question or problem

Don’t start your analysis with a conclusion you already believe before you’ve had the chance to prove or disprove your hypothesis. Going into data analysis with preconceived assumptions makes it easy to find something that backs them up.

Instead, ask a question that will help you find the answer you’re looking for. For example, if you think your checkout process might be overly complicated and hindering conversions, ask a question like, “How many steps does it take to check out at my store?”

Organize your pages so you know which to fix first

High-volume, low-conversion pages (an old blog post, for example) or low-volume, high-conversion pages (the checkout page) offer the biggest return on time spent, since a small improvement there moves more visitors.

Tackle broken links and 404 pages

Broken links mean 404 errors, which are bad for both the user experience and search engine optimization (SEO). In GA4, use Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens to review page paths and titles, and build a Path exploration or filter by the 404 page’s title or path to investigate broken-page traffic.

Fix these by either replacing broken links with links that work or discovering why pages broke and fixing them. You can also implement 301 redirects that redirect pages you no longer need to newer pages so you won’t lose traffic.

Pay attention to internal search data

Internal search data tells you what customers are trying to find, so you can confirm whether product discovery is working on your website. There are two ways to find this:

• In GA4, use enhanced measurement site search tracking and the search term dimension. 
• In Shopify, behavior reports include storefront search data like searches by search query, which shows search terms and the number of searches, as well as search conversions over time, which reviews sessions, click rate, add-to-cart rate, and purchase rate for search traffic.

Ecommerce buyers expect product discovery to feel convenient, fast, and familiar, even with a large or complex catalog. Shopify search helps make this happen. 

Russell Hendrix CEO Stan Dabic says of his company’s switch to Shopify: “The feedback’s been overwhelmingly positive. Our customers are used to sites that match what they get as consumers when it comes to convenience, ease, and speed, and that’s what we’re delivering.”

Use customer data

Segment customer data by device, traffic source, and customer type to see if you can find any patterns. For example, if you can see that a certain traffic source, like an ad campaign, is leading customers to partially fill out a form before leaving, you can investigate to see whether your ad is misleading or your form is too complex.

To ensure you can consistently rely on this customer data, always keep customer records, lead sources, tags, and follow-up statuses accurate.

3. Form analytics

Form friction can show up as abandoned fields, repeated validation errors, long hesitation time, or unnecessary required fields that are reducing form submissions. A form analytics report should show where users stop and which fields create the most errors.

Shopify Forms analytics covers Shopify-created sign-up and lead-capture forms, providing you with numbers like form views, submissions, and completion rate. You can use completion rate in particular to identify a sign-up or lead-capture leak before adding more fields or pop-ups. 

For deeper field-level behavior, abandonment by step, and field-error analysis, Zuko is a third-party form analytics tool store owners can use when Shopify’s native metrics aren’t enough.

Nielsen Norman Group’s EAS framework recommends reducing form effort by eliminating unnecessary questions, automating what can be filled without user effort, and simplifying the remaining inputs. Sometimes all you need on a certain form, especially one designed primarily for email capture, is a single field for an email address. Little Words Project VP of Retail Sam Sisca says, “By getting customers’ emails into the Little Words Project ecosystems, customers are not then just shopping at our store. They’re also shopping online and having an omnichannel experience.”

4. Heat maps

Heat maps are visual representations of data, where values are represented by colors. Most tools use warm colors (red, orange, yellow) for high values and cool colors (blue, green) for low values.

These maps help website owners discover how people navigate their websites. Hot spots indicate where people click or scroll most often, helping business owners pinpoint which buttons or links need to be more obvious.

Heat maps can also be a great way to discover why someone might be struggling to convert on a confusing or difficult-to-navigate website. There are two main types of heat maps used in conversion rate optimization:

• Click maps. These maps show where people are clicking on your website. They’re best used for identifying places on a site that visitors think link out, so those elements can become actual links.
• Scroll maps. These maps show where people stop scrolling on a website. They can help prioritize page content so that the most important content is moved to the top, before people stop scrolling.

How to conduct qualitative research

Qualitative research explains why the numbers changed. Use it after analytics show the leak, especially when customers abandon a product page, form, cart, checkout step, or post-purchase flow.

Customer feedback, interviews, surveys, user tests, and session replays can all help you learn why shoppers leave after using analytics to determine where they leave.

1. On-site surveys

There are two main types of on-site surveys:

• Exit surveys. These activate when a visitor shows exit intent, like moving their mouse off the website and over the browser’s taskbar. This type of survey gives you a chance to gather feedback before a visitor leaves.
• On-page surveys. These activate when a visitor lands on a page, either immediately or after a set period. They’re a chance to gather feedback from visitors who are still browsing.

To get as much information as you can, use these surveys to ask open-ended questions that allow for explanations, instead of a number rating that doesn’t give you much to go on. Some open-ended questions to try include:

• What was the purpose of your visit to the site?
• Were you able to complete your task?
• If not, why?
• Is there anything holding you back?
• Do you have unanswered questions?

Micro-surveys with one to two questions have the highest completion rates, so try to include one single open-ended question, or a yes/no question followed by a request for an explanation to maximize responses. You can then use those responses to ensure that product descriptions and landing page copy matches the way your customers talk about your products.

2. Customer interviews

Recruiting the right participants ensures you’re getting relevant answers to your questions. Look for recent customers, repeat customers, and lapsed customers to understand the whole scope of the buying experience with your store.

For example, you can ask recent customers where they hesitated before buying, repeat customers what made the second purchase easier, and lapsed customers where the experience stopped meeting their needs.

Keep your questions short, open-ended, and free of cognitive biases about what the customer needs. Ask your customers about their pain points before asking about how your store can help.

Record interviews in addition to taking notes, and have them transcribed. If interviewing in person, recruit someone to help with documentation so that the interviewer can stay focused on the conversation.

3. Customer surveys

Customer surveys allow for multiple questions, unlike the single question in an onsite survey. This type of survey is most successful when focused on:

• Defining who the customer is
• Defining what problems they may have before and after purchasing
• Defining what hesitations they had before purchasing
• Identifying the words and phrases they use to describe the store and products

Send the survey to recent, first-time buyers with no previous relationship with the store. As a rule of thumb, wait until there are enough responses to see stable patterns. You can use a sample size calculator to understand how many people provide a reasonable representation of your customer base.

Some questions to consider incorporating into your survey include:

1. Who are you?
2. What are you using this product for?
3. What problem does it solve for you?
4. What do you like about the product most?
5. Did you consider any alternatives?
6. Why did you choose this product over the competition?
7. What’s the one thing that nearly stopped you from buying?
8. What was your biggest concern or hesitation about buying from this store?

Use survey answers to compare stated hesitation with measurable drop-offs. If many respondents mention shipping fees being a deterrent, compare that feedback with checkout abandonment and shipping-step exits.

4. User testing

User testing is the process of watching people try to perform tasks on a store website while they narrate their thoughts out loud. Nielsen Norman Group defines this thinking-aloud method as asking users to perform representative tasks while verbalizing their thoughts as they move through the interface.

To conduct user testing yourself, assign participants at least three tasks:

• A broad task. For example, “Find a product you like and would consider buying.”
• A specific task. For example, “Find a specific product in a set price range and add it to your cart.”
• A funnel completion. For example, “Purchase something you would like to buy.”

For an ecommerce funnel audit, match the given tasks to a suspected leak: find a product by category, use site search to find a specific item, add it to cart, choose delivery, and complete checkout up to the payment step.

5. Session replays

Session replays show actual visitor sessions from the store, without narration, capturing real shopper behavior instead of a narrated walkthrough. Watch for where visitors pause, get confused, or give up and leave. 

Pay attention to see if there are patterns across specific pages where visitors consistently stumble. Tag your replay notes by funnel stage so patterns are easier to act on, whether it’s at product discovery, product page, cart, checkout, account creation, follow-up, or re-engagement.

Reduce your sales funnel leaks

Once you’ve identified your leaks, you’ll want to fix any that are closest to revenue first, meaning look to the bottom of your sales funnel before anywhere else. A checkout leak should get looked at before a top-of-funnel traffic issue because the shopper has already shown purchase intent at that point. The following checklist is a good place to start:

• Identify the largest drop-off. Look at where you’re seeing potential customers fall out of the funnel. You want to fix those issues first, as they’re likely causing some of the biggest revenue losses.
• Validate why it happens. Use qualitative methods to pinpoint what’s happening and why customers are having issues at a certain point.
• Prioritize lower-funnel fixes. Lower-funnel issues cause the biggest losses. Those are people who have proven purchase intent. So prioritize those fixes before moving up the funnel.
• Test one change. Make one change at a time so you can validate whether that fix made the difference or if you need to go in and make more tweaks.
• Monitor results. Go back into your analytics to monitor results and see if there’s an improvement in your conversion rate. If not, test another change or move on to another fix.

Checkout fixes should start with the friction customers name most often. In 2025, Baymard found that 39% of US consumers who abandoned online purchases during checkout cited extra costs like shipping, tax, or fees; 21% cited slow delivery; 19% cited forced account creation; and 18% cited a checkout process that was too long or complicated.

For checkout-stage leaks, Shopify store owners can review abandoned checkouts and set up abandoned checkout recovery emails from the Shopify admin. For email-stage leaks, Shopify Messaging analytics show delivery, open, click, add-to-cart, and order activity for email campaigns.

*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.