Case study · Omnichannel retail · Synthetic product analytics

Where conversion slows
and value leaks

A Bash-shaped commerce model built to show how acquisition, checkout, fulfillment, and returns interact. The goal is not a prettier dashboard. The goal is a decision view that product, growth, and operations can act on together.

Period 05 Jan 2026 - 29 Mar 2026
Dataset 18,000 users · 62,959 sessions · 4,186 orders
Model Synthetic workflow, seed 42
Session to purchase
6.65%
62,959 sessions into 4,186 purchases
App vs mobile web
8.78% vs 3.30%
Mobile app vs mobile web
Late-order impact
31.1%
12.1% of orders arrive late
Top return category
Footwear
22.9% return rate
Net revenue after returns
R4,138,436
R4,568,018 before refunds

Traffic reaches product. Conviction breaks later.

Of every 100 sessions, only 6.7 convert to purchase. Product-stage exits alone absorb 59.0% of all non-converting sessions.

Funnel by device

App, desktop, and mobile web through the same five-step journey.

Bash funnel by device
Read this as
The model gets 70.4% of traffic to a product page, but only 21.8% of PDP visitors add to cart. Discovery is working better than product conviction.
Where non-converting sessions fall out

Each stage shows its share of total dropoff and the biggest reason inside that stage.

Browse
18,641 sessions lost

Top reason: Landing bounce (38.6% of this stage).

Product
34,670 sessions lost

Top reason: Size uncertainty (30.9% of this stage).

Cart
2,851 sessions lost

Top reason: Delivery cost shock (34.8% of this stage).

Checkout
2,611 sessions lost

Top reason: Payment failure (34.5% of this stage).

Mobile app and mobile web are not the same business.

The same catalogue performs very differently across surfaces. That makes the mobile web gap a conversion problem, not a traffic quality problem.

Session-to-purchase by device

Three surfaces, three very different outcomes.

Best
Mobile app
8.78%
27,293 sessions in model
Desktop
7.61%
14,241 sessions in model
Fix first
Mobile web
3.30%
21,425 sessions in model
Revenue cost of the gap
If mobile web converted at even 4.39% - just half of app performance - the same traffic would generate roughly 233 extra purchases.
Checkout completion by acquisition channel

Completion rate among sessions that already reached checkout.

Checkout abandonment by acquisition channel
Action item
Affiliate is the weakest checkout source at 54.4% completion. The path into checkout matters as much as the volume entering it.

Late delivery becomes product debt fast.

Late orders make up 12.1% of the model, but they lift support contact to 31.1% and return rate to 21.6%.

Late vs on-time impact

Support rate, return rate, and delivery days split by outcome.

Late vs on-time fulfillment impact
What the delay cascades into

One delivery slip creates pressure far beyond logistics.

Support contact
31.1%
vs 9.8% on-time orders
Return-rate uplift
+6.7pp
21.6% late vs 15.0% on time
Split-shipment support gap
+9.1pp
16.8% split vs 7.7% single parcel

Returns are concentrated, not evenly spread.

Footwear carries the highest modeled return rate at 22.9%. The strongest signal inside the return mix is size issue.

Return rate by category

Footwear leads the pressure profile, with Women Apparel close behind.

Return rate by category
Top return reasons

Return volumes point directly to content and expectation gaps.

Size issue
169
Not as expected
102
Changed mind
86
Fit preference
68
Quality issue
67
Duplicate purchase
65
Delivery delay
53
Damaged on arrival
51
Key signal
Size issue is the leading return reason. In Footwear, that points to fit guidance, expectation-setting, and better post-order reassurance.

Four actions to take next quarter.

Ordered by practical commercial impact. Every move below is grounded in a visible signal from the modeled journey.

Growth

Fix mobile web checkout before buying more traffic.

Halfway to app performance would add about 233 purchases from existing sessions.

Operations

Reduce split shipments before they reach support.

Split deliveries push support contact to 16.8% versus 7.7% on single-parcel orders.

Product

Move delivery reliability into the weekly product review.

Only 12.1% of orders are late, but they trigger a 31.1% support-contact rate.

Category

Target Footwear first for fit and expectation fixes.

22.9% return rate with size issue leading the return mix.

This case study uses synthetic but behaviorally consistent data designed to reflect an omnichannel retail workflow. It is a decision model, not a claim of access to internal TFG data.