The holiday season is over. Sales reports are in. You know what you made.
But do you know what you lost?
Somewhere in those traffic spikes were customers who wanted to buy. They visited your site, looked around, and left. They went to a competitor. Or they simply gave up.
You'll never meet these people. They won't send feedback. They'll just silently inflate your bounce rate and deflate your revenue.
Now—while the data is fresh and the memory still stings—is the time to figure out what went wrong.
The Numbers That Matter
Before diagnosing problems, establish baselines. Pull these metrics for your holiday period:
Traffic metrics:
- Total visitors (compare to last year)
- Traffic sources (where did they come from?)
- Device split (mobile vs desktop)
- Peak traffic times and dates
Behaviour metrics:
- Bounce rate (especially on landing pages)
- Average session duration
- Pages per session
- Exit pages (where did they leave?)
Conversion metrics:
- Conversion rate (overall and by device)
- Cart abandonment rate (if ecommerce)
- Form submission rate (if lead generation)
- Goal completions vs visits
Now compare to your non-holiday baseline. Where did things improve? Where did they collapse?
The gaps tell the story.
Where Sites Commonly Fail
Speed under pressure
Your site handles normal traffic fine. But holiday traffic isn't normal.
A one-second delay in load time can reduce conversions by 7%. During peak periods, when visitors are impatient and alternatives are one click away, that number climbs higher.
Check:
- Did load times increase during traffic spikes?
- Did you experience any downtime or errors?
- Were specific pages slower than others?
If your hosting couldn't handle the load, visitors experienced delays—or worse, errors. Each slow load was a potential sale walking away.
Mobile collapse
Over 60% of holiday browsing happens on mobile. For many businesses, it's higher.
But mobile conversion rates are typically lower than desktop. The gap reveals friction—things that work on a big screen but fail on a small one.
Check:
- What was your mobile bounce rate vs desktop?
- What was your mobile conversion rate vs desktop?
- Where did mobile users exit most often?
If the gap is significant, your mobile experience has problems. Small text. Difficult navigation. Checkout forms that require a magnifying glass. Every friction point cost you sales.
Trust gaps
Holiday shoppers are wary. They're visiting sites they've never heard of, looking for deals. They're asking themselves: can I trust this business?
Your website has three seconds to answer that question. If trust signals are weak or missing, visitors bounce.
Check:
- Do you have visible reviews or testimonials?
- Are security badges displayed at checkout?
- Is contact information easy to find?
- Does the design look professional and current?
Compare your site to competitors. If their trust signals are stronger, they captured customers you should have won.
Message confusion
Visitors need to understand what you offer—immediately. During the holiday rush, they're scanning dozens of sites. If your message isn't crystal clear, they move on.
Check:
- Can a stranger understand your offering in 10 seconds?
- Is your value proposition above the fold?
- Do your landing pages match the ads or emails that drove traffic?
Vague headlines and buried benefits kill conversions. "Innovative solutions for modern needs" means nothing. "Same-day delivery on orders over $50" means everything.
Checkout friction
For ecommerce, the checkout is where sales die. Industry average cart abandonment is around 70%. During holidays, when shoppers are comparing and distracted, it can be worse.
Check:
- What was your cart abandonment rate?
- At which step did most people leave?
- Were there surprise costs (shipping, taxes) revealed late?
- Was guest checkout available?
- How many form fields were required?
Every additional step, every unexpected cost, every required account creation pushes customers toward the exit.
The competitor comparison
Your prospects didn't just visit your site. They visited your competitors too.
Your competitor's website might be closing your deals simply by looking more professional, loading faster, or communicating more clearly.
Check:
- How does your site compare visually to top competitors?
- Is their messaging clearer?
- Do they have more trust signals?
- Is their checkout smoother?
If competitors outclass you on basics, they captured sales that should have been yours.
How to Run the Audit
Step 1: Gather data
Pull your analytics for the holiday period (typically November through early January). Compare to the same period last year if available, or to your non-holiday baseline.
Focus on:
- Landing page performance (which pages did visitors enter on, and what did they do?)
- Device breakdown (where's the mobile/desktop gap?)
- Conversion funnel (where are people dropping off?)
- Traffic sources (which channels converted best?)
Step 2: Identify the biggest leaks
Look for the pages and stages with the biggest drop-offs. These are your priority problems.
Common patterns:
- High bounce rate on homepage = poor first impression or message mismatch
- High exit rate on product pages = not compelling or missing information
- High cart abandonment = checkout friction or surprise costs
- Mobile conversion much lower than desktop = mobile experience problems
Step 3: Calculate the cost
Don't just note the problems—quantify them.
If your cart abandonment rate was 75% and you had 1,000 abandoned carts worth an average of $150 each, that's $150,000 in potential revenue lost.
If even 10% of those could have been saved with a better checkout experience, that's $15,000 you left on the table.
This isn't hypothetical. It's what your website problems actually cost you.
Step 4: Prioritise fixes
You can't fix everything at once. Rank problems by:
- Impact: How much revenue is this costing?
- Effort: How hard is it to fix?
- Speed: How quickly can it be implemented?
Quick wins with high impact go first. Complex fixes with uncertain payoff go later.
Step 5: Set baselines for next year
Document your current metrics clearly. When next holiday season comes, you'll want to measure improvement.
Create benchmarks for:
- Conversion rate by device
- Bounce rate by landing page
- Cart abandonment rate
- Average load time during peak traffic
- Revenue per visitor
What gets measured gets improved.
Common Fixes
Based on the audit, here are typical improvements:
For speed issues:
- Upgrade hosting or add CDN capacity
- Compress images and optimise code
- Implement caching
- Remove unnecessary scripts and plugins
For mobile issues:
- Simplify navigation for thumb-friendly use
- Increase button and text sizes
- Streamline forms for small screens
- Test checkout flow on actual devices
For trust issues:
- Add customer reviews and testimonials prominently
- Display security badges at checkout
- Show real contact information
- Update design if it looks dated
For message issues:
- Rewrite headlines to focus on customer benefits
- Ensure landing pages match traffic sources
- Reduce jargon and vague language
- Make the value proposition impossible to miss
For checkout issues:
- Enable guest checkout
- Reduce form fields to essentials
- Show all costs upfront
- Add progress indicators
- Offer multiple payment options
The Uncomfortable Question
Here's what this audit really asks: is your website an asset or a liability?
During the holiday period—when traffic peaks and competition intensifies—did your website help you win, or did it quietly bleed sales to competitors?
If the answer is uncomfortable, that's useful information. It means there's room to improve before the next peak period.
A DIY website might seem cheap, but if it's costing you conversions, it's the most expensive option you have.
Before Next Holiday Season
The worst time to fix your website is during the holiday rush. The best time is now—while you have the data and the breathing room.
Consider:
- What's the one change that would have the biggest impact?
- What can you fix in the next 30 days?
- What needs a larger project (and budget)?
- Do you need outside help to get it done?
Next holiday season will arrive faster than you think. The businesses that win will be the ones who used this quiet period to improve.
Don't let another peak season expose the same problems.
Want an objective assessment of what your website cost you? Book a call with our team. We'll audit your site honestly and show you where the opportunities are—before your competitors find them.
