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Conversion rates E-commerce
I often get questions about average conversion rates at workshops. This updated post gives a summary of different sources on conversion rates for E-commerce which you can compare to your own.
Conversion rates for E-commerce are highly sought after information since companies are keen to benchmark their conversion performance against others in their sector, oten since conversion rates are surprisingly low.
Average conversion rates are of limited value since they vary so much according to type of referrer, customer, product, brand awareness, etc. But, if nothing else, this post should be a reminder to separate out your conversion rates to better evaluate your performance.
Options for more granularity on conversion rates include:
- Conversion rates by visit/visitor
- Conversion rates by new and returning visitor (or customer)
- Conversion rates by referrer source
- Conversion rates by product
The posts below give an indication of how conversion rates can vary significantly when you break them down in different ways.
Most recent conversion rates posts
Conversion rates higher for direct navigation and search according to HBX
- Direct navigation (typing in URL, bookmarked) 4.23%
- Search engines (natural and organic not split out) 2.3%
- Other Internet links 0.96%
Conversion rates higher for repeat visitors
These variations are unsurprising, but a useful reminder about the value of repeat visitors / customers.
- New visitors (All categories - 1.5%)
- New visitors (computer and electronics - 1.49%)
- New visitors (apparel - 1.37%)
- Repeat visitors (All categories - 12.61%)
- Repeat visitors (computer and electronics - 23.12%)
- Repeat visitors (apparel - 7.56%)
These are some sources on conversion rates which are updated regularly, but mainly have a US bias:
ClickZ Summary of conversion rates from 2004 - useful indication of overall conversion rates from different search engines.
E-commerce conversion rates from Nielsen Netratings MegaPanel
This periodically released data suggests a wide range in conversion rates. Top site conversion rates at Feb 2005 (percentage of visitors) were:
- QVC 16.3%
- Lands’ End 14.8%
- sportsmansguide.com 13.5%
- FTD.com 13.4%
- llbean.com 13.4%
- Amazon 12.8%
- Coldwater Creek 12.7%
- eBay 12.3%
- Yahoo! Shopping 12.1
The report notes that conversion rates are often lower for bricks and clicks retailers since visitors are often researching purchases and then by in-store or by phone.
This data is isn't released in volume to non-panel members, but there is some data about on-site search increasing conversion
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I've set it up to be quick, but you can't add true hyperlinks - just text.
Thanks, Dave Chaffey.
