The conversion rate is the answer to the crucial question: [.is--yellow-highlight]do users buy things on my site?[.is--yellow-highlight] .
On average, the conversion rate of an e-commerce site is between 1% and 4%. But it varies enormously depending on the type of products you sell.
There are two ways to double your e-commerce revenues: by doubling your traffic, or by doubling your conversion rate! Find out what your sector's e-commerce conversion rate is, how to calculate yours, and how to boost it effectively!
And to get the most out of it, we've prepared a checklist for optimizing your e-commerce conversion rate , with 100 items to check.
Access the checklist for optimizing your e-commerce conversion rate
The vast majority of e-commerce sites have a conversion rate of between 1 and 4%.
What is a good e-commerce conversion rate?
It's very subjective: it all depends on the context. And in particular your objectives, what you sell, your business model, what your traffic costs you... It's better to have a conversion rate of 2% on free traffic, than 3% on traffic paid for at a premium on Adwords.
In the big lines, the average conversion rate is around 3%. This is the golden ratio, or waterline if you prefer. This means that out of every 100 visits, only 3 will result in a transaction.
This is also what emerges from the latest Contentsquare* study on the subject: it estimates the average e-commerce conversion rate at 2.96%. This is slightly higher than the overall web conversion rate for all sectors, which stands at 2.3%.
The other most significant study comes from Unbounce**, a Growth Hacking tool. According to a survey of 11,000 e-commerce landing pages, their average conversion rate is 5.2%.
The conversion rate is the ultimate measure of your site's quality. It tells you how good your site is at its task: persuading visitors to make a purchase.
Every site keeps a close eye on its conversion rate. Especially since traffic acquisition costs have skyrocketed, and Google Ads has become very expensive.
The e-commerce conversion rate is calculated as follows. We take the number of sessions that lead to a transaction, and divide it by the number of sessions on your site. This gives you the proportion of visitors who become customers. It's very useful in determining whether you should focus on conversion or traffic acquisition, with one ultimate goal in mind: to increase your revenues!
The conversion rate of a merchant site is calculated as follows:
Conversion rate = Number of sessions with orders / Number of sessions
For example, your e-commerce site received 1,300 sessions in June, according to Google Analytics. At the same time, 56 sessions led to a transaction. The conversion rate is therefore :
56 / 1300 = 4,3%
In e-commerce, we're mainly interested in the ultimate conversion: the transaction, or finalized order. But in other sectors, we may take another action into account when calculating a conversion rate. For example:
In e-commerce, you can analyze your conversion rate by acquisition channel. You'll see big differences, depending on whether users arrive on your site from paid search (Adwords), free search (SEO), social (social networks), email, etc. We can therefore calculate the conversion rate for each of these channels.
In general, you don't need to calculate it by hand. This indicator is available in Google Analytics, once you've set up your conversions. This gives you access to your conversion rate in real time, in Google Analytics.
Not all conversion rates are created equal! Depending on what you're selling, they can be higher or lower.
According to the Unbounce study :
The Contentsquare study confirms these trends, despite more conservative figures. Tech and gadgets e-commerce has plateaued, with a conversion rate of just 1.4%. Fashion averages 3.3%. The health and beauty sector achieves a conversion rate of 3.9%. Food reaches 6.8%, with a big boost from covid.
According to the Contentsquare study, there are big differences - from simple to double - depending on the type of device used:
According to the Unbounce study, the best traffic comes from email campaigns. A visitor who clicks on a link in your email has a 21.8% chance of completing a transaction. This is also due to the fact that most Internet users haven't even opened the emails.
Traffic from social networks has excellent statistics. From Facebook, Instagram, TikTok: 7.6% of visitors convert.
The worst channel is "paid search" traffic, for example from Adwords. It generates 3.5% conversions, the worst rate in the Unbounce study.
Would you like to know the conversion rate of your e-commerce site at all times? You can find out in real time by setting up your Google Analytics account. You can also calculate it by hand if you have the right data.
In e-commerce, the formula is as follows:
Conversion rate = Number of sessions with orders / number of sessions
It is important to take a significant period of time. Over a day, the rate is less significant. Over a month, you'll have eliminated fluctuations. Be careful to take into account seasonal changes (the November-December period records the best e-commerce conversion rates) or annual changes (2021 saw rates rise due to the health crisis).
You can calculate your e-commerce conversion rate at any time using this form:
No matter what your conversion rate is, you're bound to benefit from boosting it!
Start by analyzing your e-commerce funnel to find out when you're losing conversion potential.
Are your total sessions too low? Try attracting more traffic to your site by improving awareness and acquisition.
Is the percentage of sessions with a product page open too low?
Is the percentage of sessions with a product added to the basket too low?
Is the percentage of sessions with a transaction below standard?
In general, your e-commerce funnel displays the percentages below:
If you notice a big difference between these percentages and your own, you may be able to deduce ways of improving your conversion rate. Here are a few levers:
Overall, a good landing page is crucial for the conversion rate. It's all about improving ergonomics, fine-tuning graphics, clearly explaining the value proposition, adding elements of reassurance and social proof (customer reviews), etc... And proposing links to the most interesting products and categories.
Your landing page texts should be shorter and simpler. This is what the Unbounce study revealed: pages with less than 300 words have better conversion rates. Ease of reading, with simple words and short sentences, is also a factor correlated with a high conversion rate.
Sessions with a high page count are more likely to convert. This is another finding of the Unbounce study. Sessions that convert have an average of 22 page views! You can make the most of this by offering better navigation on your site, in particular by improving internal linking.
Capture the phantom traffic you've been missing until now. There's an effective tool for this: the Hey Pongo Booster. This growth hacking tool is in fact a small contest widget designed for e-commerce sites. By offering the chance to spin a wheel and win prizes, it boosts your site's engagement. The Booster also generates conversions, by offering coupons that lead to purchases. For Deal Ultime, a site selling online subscriptions, the Booster activates around 10% of traffic and generates €200 in sales every day.
Pop-ups help personalize the customer experience. They engage ghost visitors with personalized messages. For example, you can display an exit pop-up to offer a coupon, or ask the visitor why they left. E-commerce pop-ups generate more engagement and conversion.
Among traffic acquisition channels, paid search has the lowest conversion rate (while being very costly). On the contrary, traffic from email and SMS campaigns is more likely to generate transactions. You can activate this lever with Hey Pongo, the specialist in SMS campaigns with enriched customer files, to increase your e-commerce conversion rate.
In general, improving each part of the customer journey will boost your conversion rate. You can break it down and analyze each stage: landing page, product page, shopping cart, checkout... With detailed statistics, you'll be able to detect areas for improvement, particularly with Growth Hacking tools.
*Contentsquare survey: Source
**Unbounce study: Source
