Where a store loses customers: five points along the customer journey and how to turn attention into orders
Advertising gets views, people send messages, but the number of receipts does not increase. The reason is almost never the advertising itself. Between the first view and payment, a customer goes through several steps, and some people are lost at each of them: someone did not wait for a reply, someone did not find the right size, someone went away to «think about it» and never returned. In this article, we go through the customer journey step by step, show exactly where money is lost, and explain which Torgsoft features — both basic and additional — address each point of loss.
How customers make decisions in 2026
A recent Deloitte Ukraine study, «Consumer Sentiment of Ukrainians in 2025», shows how much the path to purchase has become longer. Around 34% of customers make their final decision thanks to reviews from other users, TikTok has become the main place for discovering new products for 19%, and 27% already use artificial intelligence tools, including for comparing products and finding better deals. A person who messages you has most likely already looked at competitors, read reviews and formed an expected price range.
At the same time, advertising performs worse not because it has become less visible. According to Gradus Research data from March 2026, only around 9% of consumers respond positively to advertising with an «ideal picture of life» — the overwhelming majority expect a calm tone and specific information. This means that the role of advertising has narrowed: it brings a person to the door, while the sale happens later — in correspondence, on the shop floor, through response speed and product availability.
Views and followers are not demand; they are only permission to start a conversation with a customer. Money appears where every next step a person takes — a question, hesitation, purchase, return for another purchase — is not interrupted because of the store. Therefore, the entire customer journey should be improved instead of increasing the advertising budget at the first step.
We wrote in detail about product range, prices, stock and operating during power outages in the article about retail in 2026. Here we will focus specifically on the customer journey: from the first view to a repeat purchase.
Point 1. Saw an advertisement but did not come to the store
The first thing to do when «advertising does not sell» is to calculate the journey in numbers. How many people saw the advertisement, how many sent a message or visited, how many made a purchase and for what amount. Without these four figures, it is impossible to determine where the problem lies: in advertising, the product range or the salesperson's work. With the figures, the diagnosis can be made in one evening.
A typical finding after such a calculation is that advertising brings people in normally, but they are lost once they are already inside. For example, peak traffic occurs at lunchtime and on Friday evening, when only one salesperson is working on the shop floor and a queue of three people simply turns around and leaves. This is not an advertising problem, and no additional budget will solve it.
The basic software includes a receipt analysis report: it shows the number of receipts, the distribution of purchases by amount and the average purchase amount for any period. Sales can be grouped by hour and day of the week — this makes it clear when the store is actually making sales and when the shop floor is empty, allowing staff schedules and advertising publication times to be planned around these peaks. If you need to see not only customers but the entire flow of visitors, the Visitor Tracking | 1-year licence option collects data from an entrance counter: comparing visitors with receipts provides the store's conversion rate and an objective assessment of each promotion — before, during and after it.
Point 2. Asked a question but did not receive a reply in time
A cautious customer messages several sellers at once. They buy from the one who replies quickly, confirms availability and can hold the product until the visit. This is where stores lose the most customers: a message remains unanswered for several hours, availability is checked by saying «I'll run and have a look now», while an agreement such as «please hold it until Saturday» exists only in the salesperson's memory and disappears when the shift changes.
This point can be addressed with three practical rules. First: during working hours, a specific person is responsible for enquiries, and the first-response time is measured in minutes. Second: the salesperson can see stock balances in the software and confirm availability immediately, without going to the warehouse. Third: a promise to hold a product is recorded in the inventory system, so the reserved item is not accidentally sold to another customer.
Customer orders and product reservations are basic software features. A customer's order is recorded as a document, while the reserved product is either moved to a separate temporary storage warehouse or reserved nominally — the store chooses the policy. The ordered-products report shows what must be held for the customer and until what date, so agreements do not depend on the salesperson's memory. The Customer Profile and Binotel Calls | 1-year licence option helps record customer calls: the interaction history is accumulated in the profile, and even a new salesperson can see what the customer agreed on during the previous conversation.
Point 3. Said «too expensive» or «I'll think about it»
The objection «too expensive» rarely means that the customer has no money. Most often, it means «I did not see the difference between you and a cheaper alternative». The difference is created by specific things, and they should be explained before the objection is voiced: product authenticity and origin, the possibility of returning it, consultation, availability of the required size today, and after-sales support.
The second tool against «I'll think about it» is a personal reason to return. A general discount for everyone does not create such a reason, while a targeted benefit with a deadline does. The simplest example available in the basic software is a birthday discount. It is valid for a specified number of days before and after the date, can replace the customer's standard discount or be added to it, and children's birthdays can also be celebrated — the dates are stored in the customer profile together with family information.
When a regular customer hesitates, open their history: in Torgsoft, the customer purchase report can be generated directly from the sales form using the discount card. The phrase «you bought these two models from us, and the new one is from the same product line» sounds like expert advice and works much better than pressure or yet another discount.
The basic software maintains customer profiles with purchase histories, supports one-time and cumulative discounts with thresholds, birthday discounts with flexible validity rules, and processes product returns from customers — a transparent return policy itself removes some doubts before the purchase. All of this is available without additional options.
Point 4. Bought one product instead of two
When attracting a new customer becomes more expensive, the least expensive growth comes from the person who is already standing at the checkout. However, «offer complementary products» does not work as a verbal instruction: during peak hours, salespeople forget, and without a personal incentive they do not make the effort. Upselling becomes a system when it has a mechanism, a target and motivation.
The mechanism is provided by promotional rules in the checkout software itself. In the basic Torgsoft software, a promotion can be configured for a period, particular days of the week and even specific hours — for example, a discount on the second item only on weekdays before lunchtime, when the shop floor is quiet. A separate «quantity-based» condition encourages customers to buy more units. Such targeted promotions increase the receipt amount without reducing prices across the entire range.
Staff-management tools add targets and motivation: a sales target can be set not only for revenue but also for the average receipt value, including an individual target for each salesperson. When an employee can see their performance and how it affects their bonus, a complementary offer appears in every second receipt without reminders from the manager.
The Linking the Sale of Each Product to a Salesperson option links every sold item to a specific employee — it shows who actually builds the receipts and who merely processes the sale at the checkout. The Staff Payroll and Motivation option turns targets, including average-receipt targets, into a transparent bonus calculation: salespeople can see how much they have earned at any time during the day.
Point 5. Bought once and did not return
A one-time customer covers the cost of advertising; a regular customer generates profit. To encourage a person to return, the store needs two things: to know how to contact them and to have a relevant reason to do so. Both are established at the time of the first purchase.
The customer form in Torgsoft stores a phone number, e-mail and, importantly, the method chosen by the customer for receiving information about promotions and new products. This removes the main risk of mailing campaigns — irritation: the person receives messages through the channel they agreed to. The database is then segmented by purchase history, and each group receives its own reason for contact: new customers — an introduction to the store, regular customers — early information about new arrivals, «inactive» customers — a personalised offer to return. The Bulk Messaging to Customers | 1-year licence option handles message delivery directly from the software.
The second channel for return visits and customer acquisition is recommendations. Deloitte's findings on the decisive role of reviews suggest one simple action after every sale: thank the customer and ask for a review while the impression is still fresh. When recommendations become numerous, they can be turned into a systematic process: the Referral Programme option records partners, the customers they refer and mutual settlements — recommendations stop being accidental and become a manageable sales channel.
Examples from Ukrainian retail
The EVA BEAUTY format of the EVA chain shows what a managed customer journey looks like in numbers. Based on the results of 2025, the average conversion rate of the format's stores was around 35%, the average receipt value increased by 10.9%, and the share of receipts from loyalty-programme members reached almost 80%, with more than 220,000 participants. This is a large chain, but the principle can be scaled down to a single retail location: a store of any size can measure conversion, work on the average receipt value and build repeat purchases.
The opposite side is illustrated by a Devlight study from May 2025 on the loyalty programmes of Ukrainian brands: around 56% of users change their habits only for a tangible benefit, while unclear rules and the expiration of points without warning cause customers to ignore the programme. The conclusion for a small store is that one simple mechanism which a salesperson can explain in one sentence is better than a complex system in which even the owner gets lost.
Where to start
- Go through the customer journey yourself: message your store from a new account, ask about availability and request that a product be held. Record how many minutes you waited for a reply and at which step the experience became inconvenient.
- Measure the funnel for the previous month: advertising impressions, enquiries, visits, receipts and average receipt value. Find the step with the largest loss: in most cases, this is what limits sales, and additional advertising spending will not help.
- Eliminate one point of loss per week: enable order and reservation recording, configure a birthday discount, or launch a promotion during quiet hours. After two weeks, compare the number of receipts and the average amount.
Complete checklist: a customer journey without losses
- Four monthly figures are known: impressions, enquiries, receipts and average receipt value — and the largest loss is visible.
- Advertising and salesperson schedules are aligned with actual sales peaks by hour and day of the week.
- The first-response time for enquiries during business hours is no more than a few minutes, and a responsible person has been assigned.
- Availability is confirmed using stock balances in the software, without going to the warehouse or saying «we should have it somewhere».
- An agreement to hold a product is recorded as an order or reservation, and the reserved item is not sold to someone else.
- Value arguments — returns, authenticity, consultation, availability — are explained by salespeople before the objection «too expensive» appears.
- Customer profiles contain contact details, the customer's preferred communication method and birth dates.
- At least one personal reason to return has been configured, such as a birthday discount.
- Upselling has both a mechanism and motivation: targeted quantity-based or time-based promotions, plus an individual average-receipt target for the salesperson.
- After a purchase, the customer receives a thank-you message and a request for a review, while recommendations are recorded as a separate channel.
Frequently asked questions
Sales have become more difficult because the customer's decision is spread across several steps, and each step can now be lost to a competitor. The good news is that these steps can be measured and managed: funnel figures reveal the point of loss, basic inventory features address most of them, and additional options provide automation where the workload increases. A store that has gone through its own customer journey and removed two or three obstacles can generate more sales from the same advertising.
Look at your own figures: how many receipts you issue, what the average amount is and during which hours your store makes sales. Torgsoft shows this from the first days of use.
Download the demo version- Deloitte Ukraine, study «Consumer Sentiment of Ukrainians in 2025», March 2026 — deloitte.com
- Gradus Research, annual study of Ukrainian consumer habits, March 2026 (review by the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centres) — ucsc.org.ua
- Devlight study on loyalty programmes in Ukraine, May 2025 (review by Forbes Ukraine) — forbes.ua
- Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centres, EVA BEAUTY format results for 2025, April 2026 — ucsc.org.ua
Go back to the previous step