Why Your First Purchase Experience Might Be Costing You Second Orders
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The Most Expensive Sale You’ll Ever Make Is the First One
It takes time, money, and creative effort to get someone to buy from you once. But if your post-click experience doesn’t convert that buyer into a repeat customer, you’re just spinning your wheels.
The First Purchase Experience Audit from Sticky Digital helps you fix that.
What Is the First Purchase Experience Audit?
This is a free downloadable worksheet designed to help Shopify DTC brands evaluate the entire first-time buyer journey—from landing page to unboxing—and identify where you're losing trust, momentum, or future sales.
Download the First Purchase Experience Audit (Excel)
The worksheet includes 15+ checkpoints across:
- Homepage clarity and site speed
- Product discovery and navigation
- Product page copy, reviews, and sizing support
- Cart + checkout usability
- Transactional emails
- Unboxing, delivery, and post-purchase follow-up
Why It Matters
Your most at-risk customers aren’t people who abandoned checkout. They’re the ones who bought once and never returned. This audit helps you stop that cycle by revealing friction points that damage trust or block momentum after the first conversion.
It’s not a CRO checklist—it’s a retention strategy worksheet.
How to Use the Audit
1. Go Through the Journey Like a First-Time Buyer
Choose one product, start from your homepage, and work through to delivery. Or better yet, have someone unfamiliar with your site do it and provide feedback. Rate each section on a 1–5 scale and jot down friction points in the notes column.
2. Identify Experience Gaps That Hurt Repeat Sales
Are size guides unclear? Is shipping slower than promised? Is your thank-you email just a receipt? Anything that causes confusion, delay, or disappointment puts a second purchase at risk.
3. Prioritize Improvements Based on LTV Impact
Start with what’s easiest to fix and most likely to improve customer trust. For help turning audit notes into strategy, talk to our team.
4. Re-Audit Quarterly
We recommend using this worksheet before major marketing pushes—especially before Q4 or influencer campaigns. As your products and site evolve, so should your customer experience.
What Makes This Audit Different
This tool was built by the Sticky Digital team that manages retention for top-performing Shopify brands. It reflects what actually causes churn after a first purchase—and how to fix it.
It isn’t about vanity UX updates. It’s about making sure the customers you paid to acquire actually come back.
Download the Audit
Get the First Purchase Experience Audit (Excel)
Want help improving what the audit reveals? Book a free retention audit with Sticky Digital and we’ll show you how to turn first-time buyers into loyal customers.