It starts the moment they click away.
A customer has just spent time on your website. They found the product they wanted. They checked the size. They looked at the images. They read the description.
They were ready to buy.
But there was no way to complete the purchase. So they left.
You probably think the story continues neatly from there. They click your “Find A Stockist” page, scan the list, recognise a name nearby, navigate to that retailer’s website, search for the product again, hopefully find the right size and colour, check if it’s actually in stock, create an account, enter their details, and complete the purchase.
All on a different website. For a product they’d already decided to buy on yours.
In reality, most customers won’t do all of that. Each additional step is a new opportunity to abandon the process entirely. Each new website is a new distraction. Each login screen is a new reason to think “I’ll do this later.”
Later rarely comes.
Here’s what actually happens in the 60 seconds after they leave.
Second 1-5: The Cookie Fires
The moment they exit your site, the tracking pixel you almost certainly have installed fires a cookie onto their browser. This is standard practice and it’s working exactly as intended — except it’s now working for everyone, not just you.
Every other brand whose pixel they’ve ever triggered now knows they’re in a buying mindset. They’ve just visited a product page. They didn’t convert. They’re a warm lead.
And warm leads are worth paying for.
Second 6-15: The Auction Begins
Programmatic advertising works in real time. In the milliseconds it takes a webpage to load, hundreds of advertisers are bidding for the right to show that person an ad.
Your competitors are in that auction right now.
They know someone just visited a watersports brand, or a cycling brand, or a workwear brand, without buying. That’s a signal. That signal has value. And they’re willing to pay for it.
Second 16-30: The First Competitor Ad Appears
By the time your customer has opened a new tab — whether it’s Google, a news site, social media, or anywhere else — the first competitor retargeting ad has already appeared.
It might be subtle. A banner in the corner. A sponsored post in their feed. A “people also viewed” suggestion.
But it’s there. And it’s not yours.
Second 31-45: Social Media Joins In
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok — they all have their own pixel data and their own interest signals. The moment someone visits a product page and doesn’t convert, the algorithm files that information away.
Within minutes your customer is scrolling their feed and seeing ads from brands they’ve never even visited. Brands that have been waiting for exactly this signal — someone actively shopping in their category who hasn’t yet committed.
Your marketing budget just generated a warm lead for your competitors.
Second 46-60: The Window Closes
Here’s the brutal truth about purchase intent.
It peaks at the moment of decision and decays almost immediately afterwards. The customer who was ready to buy 60 seconds ago is now distracted, retargeted, and being pulled in four different directions at once.
The longer the gap between intent and purchase, the less likely the purchase ever happens.
Research consistently shows that conversion rates drop dramatically within minutes of a customer leaving a site without buying. Every minute that passes, every competitor ad that appears, every distraction that intervenes — the chance of getting that customer back shrinks.
By the time they’ve finished scrolling their feed, your brand is one of five they’re now vaguely considering. And you were the only one they’d already decided on.
The Maths Nobody Talks About
Think about your marketing spend for a moment.
Every pound you spend on Google Ads, social media, influencer partnerships or SEO is designed to do one thing — bring a customer to your website at the moment they want to buy.
If that customer leaves without buying, you’ve paid for the acquisition but captured none of the value.
Worse — you’ve paid to warm up a lead that your competitors then convert for free.
This happens thousands of times a day across wholesale brands who send customers to stockist finders instead of completing the sale at the point of intent.
The stockist finder isn’t a solution. It’s an expensive delay.
The Point of Intent Is Everything
The most valuable moment in any customer’s journey is the moment they decide to buy.
Not the moment they research. Not the moment they compare. The moment they decide.
That moment happens on your website. It happens when they’re looking at your product, reading your copy, and reaching for their wallet.
If you can’t capture that moment — if you have no way to complete that transaction right there and then — you are giving away the most valuable thing your marketing spend creates.
There Is a Better Way
Relay Orders was built for exactly this moment.
When a customer places an order on a brand’s website, Relay Orders instantly broadcasts that order to the brand’s entire reseller network. The first reseller to confirm stock claims the order and fulfils it from their own inventory.
The customer completes their purchase at the exact moment of intent. On your website. In your brand environment. With your customer data captured.
The retargeting clock never starts. The competitor auction never fires. The 60 second window stays firmly closed.
Your resellers fulfil the order. Your brand keeps the customer. Your marketing spend finally converts the way it was always supposed to.
The demand was always there.
Relay Orders makes sure it doesn’t disappear in 60 seconds.