Do you obsess over the visitors who leave your website without buying?

That’s a mistake. And here’s why.

You should study those who did buy.

Why study the 5% who buy rather than the 95% who don’t? It all comes down to three different types of users who visit your website (segmented by their level of interest and the likelihood that they’ll convert).

Understanding the 3 types of website users

Just-Browsing Wanderers – visitors who wander from place to place without ever stopping. They will come to your website and won’t stop here either. They’ll never convert. They have no intention of buying.

They might be a student gathering research, a competitor spying on your website, or a grandma who clicked on your ad because she lost control of the mouse when her arthritis flared up. Just-Browsing Wanderers comprise the vast majority of visitors, and if you ask them why they’re not buying, their answers can lead you astray because they were never going to buy in the first place.

Determined Heroes – those visitors who always make it through your sales funnel, which means they’ll buy from you even if their buyer’s journey is filled with struggles and roadblocks. Sure, they’re great customers, but studying them isn’t very helpful because they won’t offer much in the way of constructive criticism.

Undecided Explorers – they fit your ideal customer profile just like the Heroes, but they aren’t as determined. Some will jump ship due to usability issues or product design flaws. Others will convert, but they’ll remain ambivalent—and their half-hearted mindset makes them the perfect customers to study.

Why? Those who (barely) convert can shed light on common customer objections, and uncovering those objections will help you convince future Explorers to take the plunge and convert.

This is why you need to focus on the buyers, and even on the specific group of the buyers, instead of those who left without buying.

4 ways to uncover the reasons why people leave your website

Some Explorers won’t make it through your sales funnel. But others will. And these can offer you valuable feedback.

They’ll highlight many of the same qualified objections that prevented their non-buying counterparts from converting. And once you address their concerns, you can convert more Explorers.

Here are four ways to identify qualified objections.

Setting up a point-of-conversion survey to hear from the Explorers

A post-purchase survey asks customers for feedback right after they make their purchase.

Ask them to rate their buying experience on a scale of 1 through 5 (five being the most positive). If they answer 1-3, we ask, “How can we improve the experience?” If they answer 4 or 5, ask, “What did you love most about the experience?”

Next, ask both groups the same question: “What nearly stopped you from completing your purchase?” This question reveals qualified objections from those who completed their purchase but could have bounced.

Watching Session Recordings from the Explorers

Once you’ve identified which buyers were unhappy or on the fence about their experience, you can use Hotjar’s Session Recordings tool to view a screencast of their session.

You can watch where their mouse moves, where they try to click, and where your instructions may have confused them.

Getting feedback from sales and support teams

Sales and support teams are on the front lines, and they have first-hand knowledge of your customers’ fears, concerns, and impediments to purchase or repurchase.

Conducting user tests

User tests tend to be the most fruitful technique. Ask a friend or anyone you can get your hands on—to participate. Once your website is refined enough, aim to user-test it on people from your target demographic and psychography.

Conclusion

With the 4 ways to uncover why people leave (both quantitative and qualitative), make sure your website addresses their most significant concerns, and ensure that your product solves their problems. Address each objection with a counter-objection.

For example, if your customers haven’t fully grasped the benefits of your product, then offering them a money back guarantee won’t address that problem. The only solution to that objection is to make the product’s benefits perfectly clear on your website and in your advertising.

If the visitors think the product is too expensive, then justify the price. If they don’t trust the company, then show evidence that the company is trustworthy. If visitors are going to think about it, then provide reasons to act promptly.

Why do people leave your website? The answer lies with your ‘Undecided Explorers’!

PS. To be clear, it would be great if you could get feedback from the Explorers who don’t buy… but it could be difficult to distinguish the Explorers who don’t convert from the sea of Wanderers who will never convert. Instead, focus on the converted Explorers (who closely resemble the Explorers who didn’t convert).