In e-commerce, most businesses obsess over pre-click metrics, such as ad CTRs, email open rates and keyword performance. But once a user lands on your site, what then? How much do you know about what is really happening after the click.
This post-click phase, where users will explore, hesitate, get frustrated or convert to a customer, is where the true customer experience unfolds. Yet most retailers and e-commerce teams rely on the surface level analytics like bounce rates or scroll depth to measure success. These tell you what is happening, but rarely why it’s happening.
This is where session recordings can come in. By visually capturing real user sessions, they show the exact experience that a customer goes through. You will get information such as what they saw, clicked, hovered over and abandoned. And for a growth-focused business, this insight is gold.
The Metrics Mirage: When Analytics only shows half the picture
Traditional web analytics tools will give you the “what”:
- Bounce Rate
- Time on Page
- Exit Rate
- Conversion Rate
All of these are very useful, but can be misleading when used in isolation.
Imagine this: your product page has a 70% exit rate. Google Analytics shows that users are spending an average of 42 seconds on the page. Scroll depth is showing that most users get just past the product image, then your insight ends.
By why are users leaving? Was your pricing unclear? Were they distracted by a confusing layout? Did they try to interact with an element and it didn’t work how they thought?
These platforms don’t answer these questions, they leave you guessing. That is the metrics mirage, looking at numbers that imply something is wrong, but providing no direction on how to fix it.
What Are Session Recording, and Why Do They Matter?
Session recordings (also known as session replays) are an anonymised recording of a real users interactions on your site. They show mouse movements, clicks, scrolls, rage clicks, pauses and navigation flow, frame by frame.
Think of it as watching your customers trying to shop in your store, but blindfolded and with gloves on. You get to see exactly where they are struggling and what friction gets in their way.
Key behaviours session recordings reveal:
- Rage Clicks: Users clicking repeatedly on non-clickable elements, for example dead links or misleading texts.
- Scroll hesitations: Users scrolling up and down in confusion, looking for a key element such as a “Buy Now” button)
- UI bugs or rendering issues: Users abandoning because elements don’t load correctly on mobile
- Broken Flows: Form steps or checkouts with unclear directions
- Timing Gaps: pauses that indicate confusion or second-guessing
Where traditional analytics will say “80% of users dropped off at the basket page”, session recordings will tell you “50% of them entered an inactive promo code field, then quit”.
That’s the level of insight that drives results.
Session Recordings in Practice: The Retailers Advantage
Let’s explore how session recordings will give you a practical edge in conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and User Experience (UX) design.
Example 1: Cart Abandonment
Problem: A Mid-sized fashion retailer sees 68% of users abandoning at checkout.
Metrics alone show:
- 68% drop off at step 2
- Mobile abandonment rate is higher than desktop
- Average time on checkout page is <30 seconds
Session Recordings Reveal:
- Users try applying a discount code, but nothing visually confirms it worked
- Error messages weren’t visible unless the user scrolled back up
- On mobile, the checkout “Continue” button is below the fold and hard to reach
The Fix:
- Add real-time validation + confirmation after applying discount codes
- Anchor error messages near the submit button
- Adjust responsive layout to bring CTAs higher on mobile viewport
Result: Within 4 weeks, a 14% lift in completed checkouts
Example 2: High Bounce Rate on Category Page
Problem: A homeware store notices that its “New Arrivals” category page has a 74% bounce rate.
Session Recordings Reveal:
- Above the fold space is occupied by a large, slow-loading carousel
- Product cards only load after 4 seconds
- Users scroll 2-3 times, then give up due to empty white space
The Fix
- Replace the carousel with a fast loading featured grid
- Lazy-load images with immediate placeholder fallbacks
- Show producuts above the fold to help keep engagement high
Result: Bounce rate drops to 48% and dwell times increases by 38 seconds
How to Implement Session Recordings
The good news? Modern session recording tools are lightweight, privacy compliant, and often free at end level. Here’s how to get started:
Tools to Consider
- Microsoft Clarity (free, lightweight, ideal for small/medium sites)
- Hotjar (has recordings, heatmaps, and user feedback tools)
- FullStory( enterprise-grade, with machine learning insights)
- Smartlook (great for both websites and mobile apps)
How to use them effectively:
- Tag high-value pages: Product pages, checkout flows and lead generation forms
- Filter by friction events: Sessions with rage clicks, quick exits or abandoned carts
- Prioritise repeat patterns: if 30% of users behave the same way before dropping off, investigate the user flow
- Share clips with your team: Use them to brief dev teams, content writers, and UX designers, using the evidence to back you up
- Pair with quant metrics: Use funnel data to identify where, then recordings to understand the why
Pro tip: Don’t watch 1,000 recordings of everything, Watch 20 high filtered ones that are tied to real drop offs.
How to Use These Insights for CRO and UX Strategy
Session recordings can become even more powerful when you combine them with other methods:
- Customer Journey Mapping: Understand what goals users have at each step
- A/B testing: Use the recordings to form hypotheses for experiments
- Voice of customer data: Validate what your users are doing with what they said they’re doing (via surveys or NPS feedback)
- Heatmaps and click maps: Aggregate visual data for recurring trends in customer usage
Action Steps to get you started this week
- Install a session recording tool (We recommend Microsoft Clarity) across your funnel
- Tag session where no conversion occurred (especially on key landing / product pages)
- Schedule a weekly CRO review with your ops, dev or marketing lead to discuss findings
- Assign one UX hypothesis per week to test or fix using what you’ve learned
Conclusion: You Can’t Optimise What you Can’t See
The post click user journey is where most of your revenue is made, or lost. Metrics alone wont show you where the friction lies. They can highlight a drop-off, but only session recordings can show you what users tried, what confused them, and what make them leave.
If you’re a retail or e-commerce brand that is serious about growth, implementing session recordings should be looked at as a strategic necessity, not an optional extra.
Need Help auditing your post-click journey or setting up the right CRO framework?
Get in touch and we will walk you through where customers are really getting stuck and how to fix it.
