cro · seo · lifecycle
Pet retailer: the mobile checkout was the whole problem
Freelance engagement. A pet supply catalog — collars, leashes, and ID tags — with steady traffic, respectable desktop performance, and a mobile experience quietly losing the sale three taps from done.
The problem
The brief was “we need more traffic.” The data said otherwise: mobile sessions converted well below desktop, and the drop-off concentrated late in checkout. Buying more visits would have made the leak more expensive, not smaller.
What I did
- Instrumented the funnel properly. Event tracking on every checkout step so the conversation could move from opinion to a specific step with a specific number.
- Rebuilt the mobile PDP and cart. Fewer taps to add, clearer variant and quantity selection, stock and shipping expectations visible before commitment rather than after.
- Fixed site speed where it paid. Image weight, script load order, and the specific templates carrying the most revenue — not a blanket performance project.
- Expanded lifecycle automation. Abandoned-cart and browse recovery, post-purchase follow-up, and win-back — capturing the demand the funnel was already generating.
- Rewrote product content for search. Collection restructuring and PDP copy aimed at how people actually search for pet gear — by problem and by fit, not by SKU name.
What happened
Organic traffic doubled. Automated email revenue went from roughly $40K to $150K, and campaign revenue improved 3.5×. Storefront conversion improvements across engagements of this type have run as high as 31%.
What I’d tell you in the interview
This is the engagement I bring up when someone asks how I handle a brief I disagree with. I didn’t refuse the traffic request — I showed what a new visitor was worth before and after the checkout fix, and let the arithmetic reorder the roadmap.