$382K of watches in carts. $8.45K bought.
In two weeks, buyers put watches worth $382K into the carts of a Doha watch brand's online store. Only $8.45K was bought. We found the fault that was blocking payment and fixed the online store, in four weeks.
- Client
- Overdrive Watches, Qatar
- Platform
- WooCommerce
- Channel
- Facebook and Instagram
- Delivery
- Four weeks
Challenge
Steady ad spend, full carts and very few orders, with no one able to say why.
What we did
Audited the online store and tracking, found a payment fault that was silently blocking orders, redesigned the product page and checkout, and rebuilt the campaigns.
Result
Over $22K in blocked sales uncovered, and 80% of the quarterly sales target reached before the campaign paused.
In brief
Overdrive Watches, a premium German watch brand with a boutique at The Pearl in Doha, was paying for ads and seeing full carts but few orders. In a two-week test, buyers added $382K of watches to their carts and $8.45K was bought. ABECODS found a 3D Secure payment fault silently blocking transactions, redesigned the product page and checkout on its WooCommerce store, and rebuilt the Meta campaigns, all within four weeks.
Full carts, empty orders.
Overdrive Watches sells precision timepieces to professionals and collectors, from a boutique at The Pearl in Doha and through its own WooCommerce online store. The online store was meant to become its main sales channel across the Gulf.
The ads were working. Visitors arrived, browsed and added watches to their carts. Orders did not follow, and nobody could say why.
What the numbers showed
- 304 adds to cart worth $382K in the two-week test. 13 purchases worth $8.45K.
- Across the whole campaign, 673 adds to cart worth $837K. 20 purchases worth $14,955.
- Some abandonment is normal. A gap this wide was not.
What nobody could see
- Tracking was incomplete, so the point where buyers dropped out was invisible.
- Over 15 issues across the product page, cart and checkout.
Diagnose first. Then spend.
Grouped by stage of the journey.
- Convert
Audited the online store
Twelve months of traffic data and over 15 issues found across the product page, cart and checkout. Examples: missing short descriptions, weak imagery, no reviews, no filters and checkout fields in the wrong order.
- Build
Fixed the tracking
Add-to-cart and purchase events tracked properly, so every sale was counted and every drop-off became visible.
- Convert
Found the payment fault
Once tracking worked, the gap had a cause: a 3D Secure issue in the card payment step, run through a well-known international payment processor, was silently blocking transactions. We helped the client escalate it until it was resolved.
- Convert
Redesigned the product page and checkout
A clearer product page and a checkout with the fields in a sensible order and a visible safe-checkout cue.
- Attract
Found the right buyers
The people who buy: men aged 25 to 34 in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar led on cart value.
- Attract
Rebuilt the campaigns
A new structure from scratch, audiences split into cold, warm, lookalike and subscribers, and spend focused on Facebook, which brought over 76% of social traffic.
What the diagnosis found.
Blocked
Whole campaign
Target
Cart value is the value of watches added to a cart, not revenue. Figures from Meta reporting for a two-week test campaign and the full eight-week campaign on Facebook and Instagram.
| Test campaign (2 weeks) | Full campaign (8 weeks) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 210,200 | 605,000 |
| Adds to cart | 304 | 673 |
| Cart value | $382K | $837K |
| Purchases | 13 | 20 |
| Purchase value | $8.45K | $14,955 |
More ad spend would not have fixed this. The money was already arriving at the cart. It was leaving at payment, and only a diagnosis could show where.
ABECODS brought clarity, structure, and results to our digital marketing. For the first time, our online store was generating real sales, not just traffic. Their team identified issues we hadn't seen, optimized every step of the user journey, and helped us connect with our ideal customer.
Digital Marketing LeadOverdrive Watches
Questions people ask
Why were carts full but orders low?
A 3D Secure fault in the card payment step, run through a well-known international payment processor, silently blocked transactions, together with over 15 other issues on the product page, cart and checkout. Fixed tracking made the gap visible and traceable.
Did the fix need more advertising?
No. Buyers were already reaching the cart. The work was in the online store, the payment step and the campaign structure.
Which channels were used?
Facebook and Instagram, with spend focused on Facebook, which brought over 76% of social traffic.
How long did it take?
Four weeks to audit the online store, fix the tracking and payment fault, redesign the product page and checkout, and rebuild the campaigns.
Keep exploring.
Related guides
Why an online store gets traffic but no orders: a diagnostic checklist
A checklist for finding where buyers leave your online store before they pay, in the order to check it: tracking, homepage, products, cart and payment.
How to choose an e-commerce agency in Qatar, and what to ask before you sign
The questions to ask before you sign with an e-commerce agency in Qatar: what proof to ask for, how work is measured and what to check in a proposal.
Overdrive found what was blocking its sales. Want to know what is blocking yours?
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