Define your strategy before you build
Too many e-commerce projects fail because they start with development instead of strategy. You pick a theme, install apps, add products, and end up with an online shop nobody visits. Before writing a single line of code, take the time to clarify three things: your positioning, your target customers and your business model.
Who are your ideal customers? What problem does your product solve better than the competition? At what price can you sell while staying profitable, platform fees and logistics included? These answers steer every decision that follows. A profitable shop is first a well-thought-out shop, not just a well-built one.
Basket abandonment: an issue to plan for at the design stage
The average basket abandonment rate across all sectors stands at 70.19% according to the Baymard Institute (2026): 7 in 10 visitors who add a product to their basket leave without buying. The rate climbs higher still on mobile, at 85.65% against 73.07% on desktop.
Unexpected delivery charges discovered at checkout: 48% of abandonments.
A returns policy seen as complicated or costly: a major additional factor.
The top three causes combined (Baymard 2026): 96% of abandonments.
The key point in these figures: the top three causes of abandonment can all be fixed without a large budget, provided you think about them when designing the checkout, not after launch.
The fundamental steps of a launch
1. Market research
Analyse the competition, identify the commercial keywords your future customers type in and validate real demand in your niche. Better to discover a saturated or non-existent market before investing than after.
2. Choosing the platform
Shopify appeals through its simplicity and speed of set-up; WooCommerce offers total flexibility on WordPress; PrestaShop remains popular in French-speaking Europe. The right choice depends on your target volume, your budget and your in-house skills. Our guide to e-commerce platform migration details the strengths of each if you are hesitating or plan to switch later.
3. The catalogue and product pages
This is the heart of your shop. Professional photos, SEO-optimised descriptions and complete technical information make all the difference between a page that sells and one that leaves doubt hanging. Look after customer reviews too: they reassure and convert. The size of the catalogue matters less than the care taken over it: there is no magic threshold, but too thin an offer, under ten or so products, looks incomplete, while a large, poorly documented catalogue dilutes attention and perceived quality. A few flawless product pages beat a long, sloppy list.
4. The checkout
Every step between adding to basket and order confirmation is a chance to lose a customer. Simplify the journey, reduce the number of form fields, offer several payment methods and show delivery charges as early as possible, ideally on the product page. Hidden charges discovered at the last moment remain by far the leading cause of basket abandonment measured by industry studies.
5. The launch plan
A shop that opens without traffic does not sell. Prepare a campaign combining search engine optimisation, paid advertising and social media to bring in visits from day one. Plan the logistics too: carriers, lead times, returns policy. The balance matters: SEO takes months to bear fruit, so paid advertising and social media keep the shop alive while organic visibility builds up. Relying on organic traffic alone at launch means accepting several months without visitors.
An example of a checkout that limits abandonment
To reduce abandonment mechanically, a well-designed checkout usually applies these principles, in this order of priority:
Delivery charges visible from the product page or the basket, never discovered at the very end of the journey.
A clear, accessible returns policy, displayed near the buy button, not only in the terms of sale.
A minimal payment form: as few fields as possible, autocomplete enabled, guest checkout without compulsory account creation.
Several payment methods, so as not to exclude buyers used to a particular one.
Immediate, reassuring confirmation after payment, with a confirmation email sent straight away.
Think mobile first
The abandonment figures are a reminder of something too often overlooked: mobile is where it all happens. With an abandonment rate of 85.65% on smartphones against 73.07% on computers, a checkout designed first for the big screen mechanically loses a large share of its customers. The causes are concrete: tiny form fields, buttons that are hard to tap, pages that reload endlessly, a payment step that forces you to retype all your details with your thumb.
Designing mobile first does not mean shrinking a desktop version, but starting from the most constrained screen and keeping only what is essential. Payment in as few gestures as possible, mobile wallets that avoid manual entry, visuals that load quickly: these choices benefit every visitor, but they become vital for the majority who buy from their phone.
Secure and stabilise from the start
An online shop handles sensitive data and payments: it has to be beyond reproach on security and availability. SSL certificate, automatic backups, regular updates: these reflexes are put in place at launch, not after the first incident. Our e-commerce maintenance checklist sums up the right habits to keep a shop reliable all year round.
Get trained to be self-sufficient
Mastering the day-to-day administration of your shop is essential so as not to depend on a provider for every change. Hands-on training (order management, adding products, reading statistics, handling returns) makes you self-sufficient quickly and saves you valuable time. It is also what lets you react fast when a commercial opportunity comes up.
Foundations before speed
Depending on the size of the catalogue and the chosen platform, a shop can be ready in a few weeks. What matters is not so much speed as solid foundations: a shop launched too quickly, without a strategy or a carefully built checkout, is hard to put right afterwards, especially when hidden charges or a complicated payment journey set off a high abandonment rate from the first weeks.
Launch, then keep improving
An online shop is never set in stone on opening day. The first weeks of data are worth more than any theoretical plan: the real abandonment rate, the pages that convert, the products that sell and those that stall all show where to adjust the checkout, which product pages to rework and which obstacles really unlock sales. Opening is not a finishing line, but the start of continuous optimisation.
This is the approach we take with our online shop creation service, designed to lay sound foundations from the start, and with our e-commerce training, which makes you self-sufficient day to day. To prepare your project and estimate a realistic budget, contact us.
Sources: Baymard Institute, Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2026 · Purse, Payment friction and abandonment rates