E-commerce

What is e-commerce?

E-commerce (electronic commerce) covers any buying and selling carried out on the internet. That includes physical products (clothing, electronics), digital products (courses, ebooks, software), services (coaching, consulting) and subscriptions (SaaS, monthly boxes). In France, e-commerce was worth 159.9 billion euros in 2025, growing 10.5% a year.

There are several e-commerce models: B2C (business to consumer) is the most common (Amazon, Zara), B2B (business to business) covers sales between companies, D2C (direct to consumer) cuts out the middlemen, and the marketplace model brings several sellers together on one platform (Amazon, Etsy).

E-commerce platforms in 2026

Shopify dominates the small business market with an all in one solution: catalogue, basket, payment, shipping and analytics. More than 4.6 million shops use Shopify. Plans run from 32€ to 384€/month plus commission on sales.

WooCommerce (a WordPress plugin) is a free open source alternative with a lot of flexibility. Ideal if you already have a WordPress site. Watch out for performance: WooCommerce can become slow with a large catalogue.

Next.js + Stripe is the bespoke approach we use at ConvertiLab. An extremely fast, fully custom e-commerce site, with Stripe for secure payments and Supabase for the database. PageSpeed score of 95 or more, optimised SEO and a premium user experience.

PrestaShop is still popular in France for mid sized shops (500 to 10,000 products). Open source and customisable, but it needs technical skills to maintain.

The key parts of a high performing e-commerce site

The product page is your digital salesperson. It needs: good photos (at least 5 angles, zoom, a product video), an SEO optimised title, a description that sells the benefits rather than just the specifications, the price clearly displayed, customer reviews (products with reviews convert 270% better), and an "Add to basket" CTA that is visible and easy to reach.

The checkout should be as short as possible. 69.8% of baskets are abandoned online. The main causes: unexpected delivery charges (48%), being forced to create an account (24%), and a process that is too complicated (18%). The fixes: show delivery charges from the basket page onwards, offer guest checkout, and cut the checkout down to 2 or 3 steps at most.

Search and filters are essential for catalogues of more than 50 products. A smart search bar with autocomplete, filters by category, price, colour and size, and sorting by popularity, price or newest all make browsing easier and lift conversions.

E-commerce SEO

E-commerce SEO has its own rules. Category pages should be optimised for generic keywords ("women's shoes", "organic moisturiser"). Product pages target specific keywords ("Nike Air Max 90 white women's"). Duplicate content is a trap: supplier descriptions are identical across thousands of sites. Write unique descriptions for your best sellers.

Schema.org Product markup puts stars, price and availability straight into Google's results. That is a considerable CTR advantage and can lift clicks by 30%.

Logistics and customer service

Delivery is a major conversion factor. 66% of shoppers rate free delivery as the most important factor. Offer free delivery above a threshold, which also raises your average order value. Free returns reduce purchase anxiety and lift conversions by 17%.

The metrics to watch to steer your shop

An online shop is run on a handful of key metrics. Conversion rate (the share of visitors who buy) averages 1 to 3%: every tenth of a point you gain is real money. Average order value measures what each order is worth and is improved with upselling and cross-selling. Customer lifetime value (what a customer brings in over the whole relationship) justifies your acquisition spend. Customer acquisition cost has to stay below lifetime value, ideally by a factor of 3.

A small worked example: a shop with 10,000 visitors a month converting at 2% with an average order value of 60€ generates 12,000€ a month. Lift conversion to 3% by improving the checkout, without a single euro of extra traffic, and it reaches 18,000€, which is 50% more revenue.

Common mistakes that kill sales

Plenty of shops sabotage their own results without realising. The most common traps:

- Hiding delivery charges until the last step, the number one cause of basket abandonment. - Forcing account creation before any purchase, when guest checkout recovers sales. - Neglecting mobile speed: more than half of all purchases happen on a smartphone, and every second of delay sends conversion down. - Publishing thin product pages (one photo, two lines of description) that inspire no confidence. - Forgetting abandoned basket emails, which recover 10 to 15% of lost sales. - Having no customer reviews, when they are the first thing buyers look for as reassurance.

Checklist before launching a shop

Before you open your shop, check these essentials:

- Complete product pages (5 photos minimum, benefit led description, price, stock). - A checkout of 3 steps at most, with guest payment. - Delivery charges shown from the basket page, and a free delivery threshold set. - An active HTTPS certificate and secure payment methods (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay). - Schema.org Product markup on every product page. - Transactional emails and the abandoned basket sequence configured. - Compliant legal pages (legal notice, terms of sale, returns policy, GDPR). - The mobile version tested on several devices.

E-commerce trends in 2026

In 2026, several trends are reshaping online retail. Mobile commerce now accounts for more than 70% of transactions in many sectors, which makes a mobile first experience non negotiable. One click payment and digital wallets reduce friction and push conversions up. Personalisation (recommendations based on browsing history, segmented emails) is becoming an expected standard. Finally, shoppers increasingly favour brands that are transparent about where products come from, how long delivery takes and how returns work.

Succeeding in e-commerce is no longer a matter of putting products online: it is continuous work on conversion, logistics and customer relationships. Every day without an online shop, or with a slow and poorly designed one, is a day of lost sales.

At ConvertiLab, we build bespoke e-commerce sites with Next.js and Stripe, optimised for conversion, SEO and the mobile experience, and we support our clients over time to turn their traffic into revenue.