Online stores in India often make the same mistakes: slow sites, unclear pricing, complicated checkout. Here are 9 common e-commerce bugs and how to fix them.
You've launched an e-commerce store and traffic is good — but conversions are low. Most Indian online stores make the same mistakes. Here's what's probably costing you sales.
1. The site is slow on 3G
India's average internet is 4G or slower. If your product photos are unoptimized, your checkout takes 5 seconds to load, you're losing 20%+ of orders. Compress images aggressively. Use lazy-loading. Test on slow networks.
2. Checkout has too many steps
If customers have to create an account, enter 10 fields, enter payment details separately, they'll abandon. Minimize steps. Let them check out as a guest. Auto-fill what you can.
3. No trust signals
Show a real address, real phone number, real return policy, customer reviews, security badges. Indian shoppers don't trust faceless stores.
4. Unclear product information
Small product photos, vague descriptions, no size/colour variants clearly displayed. Customers can't tell if it fits. Show 5-10 photos per product. Describe material, size, care instructions.
5. Shipping cost is a shock
Calculate shipping on the product page, not at checkout. Show exactly how much it'll cost. Hidden costs lose sales. Consider free shipping over ₹500 to encourage larger orders.
6. Payment options are limited
Indians use UPI, net banking, credit card, debit card, Razorpay. Support at least 3-4. If you only accept credit card, you're losing 60% of potential customers.
7. No abandoned cart recovery
30% of carts are abandoned. Email them a reminder with their cart contents + a discount code. You'll recover 5-10% of those orders.
8. Customer support is invisible
Phone number buried in footer. Chat unavailable. Email takes 2 days to respond. Customers want to reach you fast. Have live chat or quick email response (under 4 hours).
9. Returns policy is unclear
Write it clearly: how many days for returns, who pays shipping, how to initiate, when refund is issued. Unclear policy kills trust and increases support requests.
Fixes that move the needle
- Optimize images: compress to under 200KB each
- Reduce checkout to 3 steps max
- Add Razorpay + UPI payment
- Add customer reviews (with photos)
- Setup abandoned cart emails
- Add live chat widget
- Show shipping cost on product page
The best e-commerce sites remove friction at every step. What's costing YOU the most sales?
