DECREASE in Conversion Since HTTPS Changeover

[JustPoppin]

Gotta start by saying that Shaun managed our changeover from HTTP to HTTPS for our full site and it went without a hitch.

However, since the changeover, our conversion has cratered even though the site seems outwardly to be operating correctly and traffic hasn't really changed.

We don't know what's going on nor do we know what to check.

Orders are completing. Yet we have some folks emailing and saying that they've "been trying to place an order but nothing is happening" or "been trying to place an order and it won't go through". Of course, that's about all you can get out of them, as in our experience, customers are HORRIBLE at explaining what the problem is that they're experiencing, regardless of how we frame our questions. It's like pulling teeth just finding out what device device or browser they're using.

We haven't had any issues when we've gone through the site and tried to complete orders.

We don't know what else to look for or what else to try.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

[Convergent7-SEO]

There are many ways to debug. Seems like you have confirmed no traffic changes...that would be the first area to check. If all good, then you need to look at the funnel.

Certainly, you should look at cart abandonment and the critical pages to see if the Exit rate has increased as well as if their Page Values have dropped. Compare prior to the HTTPS switch as well as the same period last year.

I also think it would behoove you to install www.inspectlet.com for 30 days so you can see exactly what's happening. Great tool for store diagnostics and you can filter for visitors who visited certain pages. Highly recommend if you can't find any obvious issue.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Erik Ellsworth
www.convergent7.com

[JustPoppin]

Certainly, you should look at cart abandonment and the critical pages to see if the Exit rate has increased as well as if their Page Values have dropped. Compare prior to the HTTPS switch as well as the same period last year.

From the data easily accessible via 3dcart admin, i see no increase in incomplete carts since the changeover. Can you point me to where I might find "Exit Rate" and "Page Values" data?

I also think it would behoove you to install www.inspectlet.com for 30 days so you can see exactly what's happening. Great tool for store diagnostics and you can filter for visitors who visited certain pages. Highly recommend if you can't find any obvious issue.

Interesting. Thanks for that info - will check it out.

[Convergent7-SEO]

Yeah, sorry...for abandonment, it would be best to look in Google Analytics (assuming you have it installed).

In GA you should have your conversion funnel (if not, let me know and I can explain how to set up). You can look at your conversion through the funnel for anomalies. Additionally, within GA you can find the Page Value and Exit % for the main checkout pages in your store. Using the switch over date as your main data point, you can look for trends before and after that date.

See photo I've included.

Thanks,
Erik Ellsworth
www.convergent7.com

[lukiegames]

I tested it out and this is what I found: It was terrible on a desktop with high speed cable, horrible on iphone 6s/ Ipad mini 4 on high speed, and completely unusable over LTE. Also javascript doesn't load and the css is invalid.. Very slow on desktop Chrome. The checkout loads completely out of order, can't be filled in, and sometimes disappears. This is with the adblock disabled - with it enabled, it hung Safari on the mobiles.

My best guess is that it's related to Google / Apple / etc implementing the features they've been warning us about like cancelling slow loading javascript, blocking third party cookies, etc. Also they are starting to strictly enforce certificate validation and you have a BUNCH of dynamically generated stuff from COD, wopress, etc and lots of your images, scripts, etc are loading from remote servers that are redirecting multiple times to CDNs with caching disabled. Some are even 404s. Its forcing it to go through many, many hops to verify the certificate and get the CRL and such. I was seeing 2-4 second TLS/SSL connection times. Someone else can probably elaborate on the technical details of this and why its happening now. I had actually mentioned this to 3dcart awhile ago after they built us a custom Enhanced Google Analytics "solution" that would unfortunately create these same problems in the near future.

Also you probably won't be able to get any good information out of Google analytics or 3dcarts or probably anyone else's because almost all of them are failing. (Google would probably work if implemented correctly and without the other junk blocking it). The more third party stuff you load the worse it is likely to get.

If it makes you feel any better places like Ebay are dealing with the same problems right now.

[Convergent7-SEO]

Hmmm...seems like a lot of issues from just switching to HTTPS and I am suspicious it isn't something else. I would look at webpagetest.org for loading issues.

Thanks,
Erik Ellsworth
www.convergent7.com

[thecartdesigner]

JustPoppin The switch to https:// would not affect the checkout process itself because the checkout would have been secure regardless of whether the rest of the store was or not. As I mentioned previously double check to remove/update any unused or dated scripts and find out if there is a specific payment type that is having issues to help narrow down the abandonment. Also keep tabs on the version updates to see if that is a player in the issue. We have gone through 8.0.1 and 8.0.2 within the last month or so with no exact dates since they have not been providing announcements.

Did they ever respond to your abandonment post you mentioned the other day that started in June: https://forums.3dcart.com/forum/shop...g-june-26-2017

[JustPoppin]

lukiegames Just DM'd you.

thecartdesigner Shaun, per your good advice we did remove scripts last week (some were very old) and updated the couple we kept - I guess it's possible we missed some?? - we're kind of lost looking at the list of issues Lukiegames listed: css invalid?? checkout loading out of order?? etc...???

Not sure how to "keep tabs on the version updates to see if that is a player in the issue" Have absolutely no idea how to do this.

No customers reporting issues with specific payment types.

And nope, no one responded to my abandonment post publicly or privately.

For the record, when WE go through the site on our desktop, laptop, iphone5, and ipad2, we're not experiencing issues (except one re a waitlist which is unrelated and already reported to you, Shaun). This is one of the main reasons why we're finding it impossible to figure out what's going on and greatly appreciate your help here in the forum.