When sales drop, the first reaction is usually “we need more ads”. Sometimes that’s true, but in most cases the problem is elsewhere. If the store loses most of its visitors between the product page and checkout, doubling ads just doubles the loss. The simple sales equation is: visits × conversion rate × average order value. Improving any part raises the result — and improving the last two is usually cheaper than buying new traffic.
This is a practical plan that starts inside your store and ends with the channels that bring visitors, including what’s specific to the Saudi market in payment, shipping and trust.
Step one: find where customers drop off
Before changing anything, open your store reports or Google Analytics 4 and look at the funnel: how many visitors viewed a product, how many added to cart, how many started checkout, and how many completed the order. Every major platform (Salla, Zid, Shopify, WooCommerce) shows these numbers in one way or another.
| Where people drop off | Likely cause | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Visitors don’t open products | The wrong traffic, or a confusing home page | Ad targeting and the clarity of the home page and categories |
| They view products but don’t add them | Weak photos, missing details, an unconvincing price, no trust | The product page |
| They add to cart but don’t start checkout | Surprise shipping costs, forced registration | The cart and shipping clarity |
| They start checkout but don’t finish | Their preferred payment method is missing, too many steps, a technical issue | The checkout page and payment gateways |
Exact conversion rates vary widely between categories and price points, so compare your store with itself over time rather than with general averages.
The product page: the salesperson who never sleeps
In an online store, nobody answers the customer’s question while they’re holding the product. The page has to answer questions before they’re asked.
Photos and video
Several images on a clean background, in-context shots, close-ups of details and materials, and an image showing the real size. A short video of the product in use answers questions photos can’t. Using the supplier’s photos as they are makes your store look like dozens of others.
Description
Start with the core benefit in two lines, then the details in bullet points: dimensions, material, how to use it, what’s in the box, care. Write in language the customer understands, and avoid copying the manufacturer’s machine-translated description. Provide a clear size chart for clothing and shoes, because fear of ordering the wrong size is one of the biggest causes of hesitation.
Price and offer
The price must be clear and include VAT, as regulations require, and any discount must be shown honestly. If instalments are available, show the monthly payment next to the price — it changes the purchase decision for higher-priced products.
Trust on the page itself
Expected delivery time, a short summary of the exchange and return policy with a link to the details, genuine customer reviews, and the accepted payment methods with their logos. These small details near the buy button ease hesitation more than any marketing line.
Payment: don’t lose the customer at the last step
A customer who reaches checkout has almost decided to buy. Losing them here is the most expensive loss of all. In Saudi Arabia, customer expectations at checkout have become clear:
- mada: the most widely used local card — not offering it is a direct loss.
- Apple Pay: shortens payment to a single tap on mobile, and a large share of shoppers use iPhones.
- Credit cards: Visa and Mastercard, and sometimes American Express.
- Buy now, pay later: services such as Tabby and Tamara are now expected in fashion, electronics and furniture.
- Cash on delivery: still requested by some segments and regions, but it increases orders refused on delivery, so you may need to control it with a fee, a maximum order value, or order confirmation before shipping.
Beyond that: allow guest checkout without forcing account creation, cut down the fields, and use the Saudi National Address or map-pin location to make entering an address easier. To see which payment gateways are available for Shopify stores in the Kingdom specifically, read our guide to Shopify in Saudi Arabia.
Shipping: clarity before speed
A shipping cost that suddenly appears at the final step is one of the top reasons carts are abandoned. Show shipping costs and times early — on the product page or in a bar at the top of the site. If you offer free shipping above a threshold, show in the cart how much is left to reach it; that raises average order value too.
Because the Kingdom is vast, delivery times can differ between Riyadh, Jeddah and smaller cities. Be honest about the expected time for each region, and send the tracking number as soon as the order ships. The delivery experience is part of the brand experience, and a customer whose order arrived on time is more likely to come back.
Trust: why would a customer buy from a store they don’t know?
- Official details: the commercial registration or freelance document, the VAT number if applicable, and store verification through the Saudi Business Center. Saudi customers genuinely look for these.
- Clear policies: exchanges, returns, privacy and shipping, on easy-to-reach pages written in plain language.
- Genuine reviews: ask customers to review after delivery with a simple message. Fake reviews do more harm than good and may expose you to violations.
- A fast contact channel: a visible WhatsApp button, with real replies in a short time.
- Coherent design: a store with a clear identity and consistent imagery looks trustworthy. Cluttered templates and mismatched photos suggest the opposite.
Recovering abandoned carts
Not everyone who leaves a cart has lost interest. Some got distracted, wanted to compare, or were waiting for payday. Recovering some of them is one of the fastest ways to increase sales:
- A reminder an hour or two later: via WhatsApp, email or SMS — whichever the customer agreed to — with the product image and a direct cart link.
- A second message the next day: addressing a likely reason for hesitation, such as delivery time or the return policy.
- An incentive only in the final message, if needed: don’t train customers to abandon carts to get a discount.
- Retargeting ads: dynamic ads on Meta, TikTok and Snapchat showing the same product.
Connecting WhatsApp to your store to send these messages automatically is one of the most impactful improvements in the Saudi market — as long as you respect customer consent and avoid spamming.
Raising average order value
- Complementary products: “frequently bought together” on the product page or in the cart.
- Bundles: a set of products priced below their combined individual prices.
- A free-shipping threshold: set slightly above your current average order value.
- Upgrades: suggesting the larger size or higher version when it genuinely suits the customer.
Channels: once the store is fixed, grow traffic
When the store can convert visitors, every advertising riyal is worth more. Paid ads on Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and Google bring traffic fast; search engine optimisation builds lasting traffic to product and category pages; and existing customers reached through WhatsApp and email are the cheapest source of repeat sales. More important than choosing the channel is measuring the real return of each, as explained in our article on measuring campaigns.
Speed and the mobile experience
Most visits to Saudi stores come from mobile. Open your store on an average phone over a mobile network, not on your office computer. Do images appear quickly? Is the buy button visible without long scrolling? Is the Arabic text clear and properly aligned? Do pop-ups cover the screen? Compressing images, removing unnecessary apps and plugins, and choosing a lightweight theme all directly affect conversion.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the fastest way to increase store sales?
Usually fixing the biggest leak in the funnel. If customers abandon checkout, adding the missing payment method or simplifying the steps has a faster impact than a new ad campaign.
Do instalment options really increase sales?
For mid- to high-priced products they help a lot by easing the purchase decision, but they carry fees for the merchant. Calculate their effect on your margin before rolling them out, and test them on suitable product categories.
Should I stop offering cash on delivery?
Not necessarily — some customers won’t buy without it. You can control it with a maximum order value, an extra fee, or order confirmation by message before shipping to reduce refused orders.
How many reminders can I send someone who abandoned their cart?
Two or three messages over two days is usually enough. More than that becomes annoying, and messages should only go to people who agreed to be contacted, in line with regulations.
Conclusion
Growing online store sales is an organised process: read the funnel to see where customers leak out, improve the product page, offer the payment methods Saudi customers expect, make shipping clear, build trust, recover abandoned carts and raise order value. Only then does increasing ad spend become a multiplied investment rather than a drain.
If you’re building or redesigning your store, explore the Salla stores and Shopify stores services, or get in touch to have your store’s funnel reviewed.
