15 things to check if your sales have been dropping

When sales dip, it can feel unsettling very quickly. But more often than not, it’s not random and it’s rarely just “one thing”. There’s usually a clear reason once you know where to look.

This list is designed as a practical checklist you can come back to whenever sales slow down and you need answers fast. You don’t need to overhaul everything or panic change your strategy. Instead, work through each area methodically and you’ll start to spot patterns, gaps and warning signs far more quickly.

Even if your sales are healthy right now, these are still things you want to be aware of. They’re the foundations of growth and the first places cracks tend to appear when performance starts to wobble.

Think of this as your go-to diagnostic when something feels off, and a useful sense-check even when things are going well.

1. New customer recruitment

This is one of my favourite stats to track for lots of reasons but mainly because it gives you a fast insight into growth…or the lack of it. Start by looking at how many new customers you’re bringing in each month compared with last year. If that number has dipped, sales will naturally follow because you’re not replacing the customers who’ve already bought and moved on. Another good place to look is your pop up conversion, has this dropped too? Think of this as the first red flag, if new customer acquisition has slowed, nothing else you do will make up the difference until you fix the top of the funnel.

2. Ad spend and performance

Ads are often the first place the slowdown begins. Review your spend and results against previous months and years. Has spend dropped without you realising? Have your usual best performing campaigns fatigued? Are CTRs or add to carts down? Sometimes the issue isn’t that ads “aren’t working,” but that the engine hasn’t been fuelled properly for weeks or months.

3. Website conversion rate

A dip in conversion rate doesn’t need to be big to have a large impact. Even a change from 2.3% to 2% can take thousands off a month. Compare your current rate with a normal period, and break it down by mobile versus desktop. Look at add to basket, basket to checkout and checkout completion. Drops in these areas usually point to a site issue rather than a marketing problem. It’s also one of the biggest signals your business can give you.

4. Navigation, UX and tech issues

Check whether anything on your site has changed recently. New themes, layout tweaks, menu changes, pop ups, slow loading times, broken links, overlapping buttons, these things often cause frustration long before you notice them. The customer only needs one bad experience to abandon their purchase entirely.

5. Email frequency and automations

Emails are an easy thing to unintentionally reduce, and the revenue drop is often instant. Compare how many campaigns you’ve sent in the last 30 days with the same period last year. Look at whether your automations, welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post purchase, are still working properly. A single broken flow can cost you hundreds or thousands.

6. Product launch frequency and newness

Returning customers rely on novelty. If your brand suddenly has fewer launches, fewer drops, fewer new variants or less freshness overall, returning customers have nothing to come back for. Compare how many launches you had at this point last year. Even if the product offering hasn’t changed, sometimes the way you promote it has become too quiet.

Don’t forget that returning customers need something to buy - this is often overlooked.

7. Promotions, incentives and reasons to buy now

Think about whether your customers are getting fewer nudges than they used to. Maybe you ran small incentives last year, free delivery weekends, bundle offers, seasonal mini events, and you’re not repeating them. You don’t need to become discount heavy, but customers do respond to clear reasons to act now rather than later.

I know a few brands I’ve worked with this year have decided to discount less and protect more margin. This is fine but there still needs to be a ‘reason to buy’ or ‘incentive’. Don’t forget we all like to justify our purchase decisions.

8. Social posting and content cadence

Content is oxygen for discovery. If you’re posting less, going quieter, or showing up inconsistently, you will naturally see fewer people entering the brand. Engagement may still look “fine,” but the volume of eyeballs has reduced. Check how often you posted this month versus the same point last year.

9. Stock levels and product availability

You’d be amazed how often brands lose sales simply because key products are unavailable. Look at your top sellers and see if they’ve been out of stock even for a short period. Missing sizes or colours can put customers off entirely. If your range looks thin or patchy, conversions will drop, even if traffic stays the same.

10. Pricing, competition and category shifts

Sometimes the landscape around you changes. Maybe new competitors have entered your space, maybe someone similar has dropped their prices, or maybe your category as a whole has softened seasonally. Review your prices against the market and take a minute to understand whether customer expectations have shifted since last year.

11. Seasonality and timing

Some months are quieter by nature, but it’s important to compare year on year rather than reacting emotionally. If you’re down compared with last year at the same moment, it signals a real issue. If not, it may just be a normal seasonal dip. Understanding this stops you from making panicked changes unnecessarily.

12. Traffic quality rather than traffic quantity

If you’ve had a viral Reel or a sudden spike in low intent traffic, your sessions might be up while your sales feel flat. Look at where your visitors are coming from and whether they’re the kind of customers who usually buy from you. A lot of founders panic about “why aren’t they converting?” when the traffic source itself was never going to convert.

13. On site messaging and offer clarity

Sometimes the content on your site drifts without you noticing. Check your product descriptions, value proposition, delivery messaging, returns info and homepage content. Are they clear? Are they up to date? Has anything been moved or removed? Confusion or missing information can cut conversion without any change in traffic.

14. Customer service, trust and reviews

Look at your inboxes. Are messages being replied to quickly? Has response time slowed? Have any negative reviews popped up recently that might affect trust? Even small frustrations can impact sales if people sense uncertainty or slow support.

15. Checkout experience and payment options

Finally, test your checkout. Are all payment options working? Is Shop Pay active? Did a recent update change the checkout layout? Is shipping pricing showing correctly? Checkout friction, even tiny things, can kill conversions instantly, and many brands only find out when they test it themselves.