eCommerce conversion rates are a balancing act between analysis and action. Here’s how we can help. Understand how conversion rate optimization can contribute to success.
eCommerce conversions are your success story as an online seller. Your conversion rate is the ratio that proves your marketing efforts are working, or need work.
Imagine you’re an old-school cheesemaker. You’re constantly separating curds and whey, using the former to create cheese, while discarding much of the latter. Your curds - the ingredients for success - are your conversions. The whey is the website traffic that does not convert to sales.
You also create different varieties of cheese based on your business needs. Parmesan will get you a better return on investment than burrata, which is less popular. Parmesan contains more curds than burrata, so we want to optimise the cheesemaking process for that outcome.
This, in essence, is what conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is all about. We want to find small ways to tweak our marketing efforts - whether it's a landing page or an entire eCommerce website - to ensure it is delivering what we want to see. Without optimisation, your eCommerce conversions could be suffering.
CRO and return on investment (ROI) go hand-in-hand. Application of CRO will lead to an improved ROI. It all starts with clear and defined business objectives. By setting benchmarks and creating goals, you can give yourself something to strive toward.
What is eCommerce conversion rate?
To get started, let’s define some terms that will come up in this article.
- eCommerce store - an online store (eCommerce website) with product pages and landing pages.
- Website visitors - human customers in your target audience visiting your eCommerce store.
- Conversion rate - the rate at which website visitors are converting into paying customers.
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO) - the discipline of optimising a site’s conversion rate to produce more leads or sales.
eCommerce conversion rate optimization is the application of CRO in eCommerce. And it’s not necessarily a dark art, either. You’re probably aware of some of the most popular ways eCommerce sellers improve their CRO.
Here are some ways to quickly increase your conversions and improve eCommerce conversion rates:
- Offer free shipping over a certain dollar amount
- Inspire urgency with a countdown clock
- Deliver a 10% off coupon code for new site visitors
These conversion rate optimization strategies for eCommerce should not be used without some idea of what you should be achieving. Like setting attainable business goals, you must strive towards benchmarks that apply to your industry and your chosen marketing channel.
Sometimes, eCommerce businesses need a hand to calculate their optimal conversion rate. At EngineRoom, our Conversion Rate Optimisation service can take an in-depth look at your business and give you some insights into what you should achieve. Better yet, we can work with you to create goals for your eCommerce website, aligning your successes to an outcome and delivering better ROI.
How do I calculate my eCommerce conversion rate?
In the context of eCommerce, a conversion rate is calculated by taking the number of website visitors who purchased a product and dividing it by the total number of visitors your site received for the same time period. For example, if you make 100 sales from 1000 clicks on your PPC ad, you’ve achieved a conversion rate of 10%.
On face value, these examples paint different pictures of businesses trying to make sales in eCommerce. What’s missing is the context. Were our auto parts seller’s product pages optimised for quick sales in a rapid industry? Was our cocktail-making class just selling via email blast? Are people more likely to buy in specific industries or for specific types of products?
All of these variations can influence your conversion rates. So, let’s take a look at how benchmarks can affect your results.
eCommerce conversion rate benchmarks
Understanding the average conversion rate for your business goals is essential for success. This benchmark provides you with a visible and achievable goal. Defining benchmarks can also give you a realistic target to reach.
What is a good eCommerce conversion rate?
A good eCommerce conversion rate meets your goals and exceeds expectations in your industry. If you’re reading this article, it’s probably fair to say that your current conversion rate could need some work, and that’s great! This is the first step to hitting the benchmark.
There is no universal conversion rate benchmark for eCommerce. Don’t be fooled by people telling you that you should be humming along at a flat rate of 5% yearly. It’s far more nuanced than that. Let’s take a deeper look at benchmarks by industry and benchmarks by channel to get a better understanding.
eCommerce conversion benchmarks by industry
A good place to start benchmarking is by your industry. You do the same thing with competitors in your niche, so you should also look at the wider market context before settling on a benchmark that works for you.
IRP Commerce is an amazing aggregator of eCommerce industry data and marketing insights. They’ve compiled some average eCommerce conversion rates across popular industries.
[table]
[thead][tr][th]Industry[/th]
[th]Conversion rate[/th]
[/tr][/thead]
[tbody][tr]
[td]Agricultural supplies[/td]
[td]1.14%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Arts & crafts[/td]
[td]4.01%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Baby & child[/td]
[td]0.71%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Cars & motoring[/td]
[td]1.36%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Electrical & commercial[/td]
[td]2.70%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Fashion, clothing & accessories[/td]
[td]1.41%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Food & drink[/td]
[td]0.90%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Health & wellbeing[/td]
[td]2.02%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Home accessories & gifts[/td]
[td]1.46%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Kitchen & home appliances[/td]
[td]1.61%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Pets[/td]
[td]2.51%[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody][/table]
Your industry might not be there, and that’s okay. This is just a rough guide based on some popular eCommerce categories.
At EngineRoom, we work with eCommerce clients in everything from garden supplies to skin care. We know just how vast the differences are between industries. That’s why we apply a custom approach to each client. We offer eCommerce strategies that compile industry data from a variety of sources. This data is readily available on our platform, ready for you to make informed business decisions.
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eCommerce conversion benchmarks by channel
Channel plays a huge role in understanding conversion rates, especially when married with industry. If you want some easy examples of what we mean, let’s consider the following examples:
- Online shoppers looking for eCommerce goods in the evening will likely be purchasing via mobile.
- Mobile users will more readily interact with emails surrounding events and music.
- Organic searches for catering will likely be high thanks to word-of-mouth and prior experience.
These three examples of how conversion are impacted by different marketing channels don’t happen in isolation either. So it’s critical that you investigate benchmarks in your industry across different channels in order to understand what’s achievable for your business.
To help you with this process, we’ve looked at some of the most popular channels for eCommerce, and here are some quick tips on how to improve your conversion rate for various marketing channels.
What is a good SEO eCommerce conversion rate?
Business-to-customer (B2C) SEO conversion rates hover around an average of 1.3%, while business-to-business (B2B) conversion rates are slightly higher at 1.85%. This data can skew either way based on the price of the goods, with higher-priced products converting at a lower volume.
Looking at SEO conversion statistics yields several insights:
- Low conversion rates for large audiences mean that incremental improvements can yield amazing results.
- SEO creates conversion-focused content in a range of different page types, including:
- Blog articles talking about a range of products or solutions
- Landing pages displaying eCommerce products
- Video ads using products in-situ, like tutorials
What is a good PPC eCommerce conversion rate?
PPC eCommerce conversion rate, through Google Ads and other programmatic advertising, can have higher conversion rates than SEO. You can expect anywhere from 5% to 10% for eCommerce PPC campaigns. Again, the final benchmark will depend on your industry and business goals.
Regardless, here are some tips we can give you for creating a better PPC eCommerce experience:
- Create a landing page or product pages that contain offers and call-to-actions (CTAs)
- Add high-quality video and images to your product pages
- Offer a competitive pricing strategy that is visible
- Tweak and test your checkout process, and use cart abandonment software
- Build trust with a security certificate and live chat functionality
What is a good email eCommerce conversion rate?
Email marketing is closer to SEO in terms of conversion rate, with an average of 2% to 5%. However, email open rates for eCommerce stores are quite high, coming in at around 23%. This allows you to optimise your email marketing campaigns to capture more conversions from that high open rate.
Here are some ways we go about capturing more conversions via email:
- Align your message from the subject line to the in-mail content
- Instead of spamming, segment and send with cadence
- Offer personalisation and engage with fun content
- Check your results, and consistently A/B test
What is a good mobile eCommerce conversion rate?
Capturing an eCommerce conversion on a mobile device might seem easier than ever. Everyone has one in their back pocket or hand at any given time. But like any other marketing channel, results aren’t guaranteed, and resting on your laurels is a great way to burn through budget. The average eCommerce conversion rate for mobile is around 1.82%.
If you’re not meeting this mark, or want to go higher, here are our hot tips for optimising your mobile eCommerce conversion rate:
- Design your product pages to be mobile-friendly and simple with strong CTAs
- Increase your yield with product recommendations and upsell offers
- Ensure that you are providing e-wallet payments with Apple Pay, PayPal etc.
- Promote trust and privacy with shopping security certificates
- Obey Google’s mobile-first indexing and optimise your pages for organic search
Now you know how to do it better, let’s talk about how you’re going to track it.
How to keep track of your eCommerce conversion rate
When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The same rings true for tracking. Suppose you’re not keeping track of your conversion rate. In that case, you risk:
- Pouring budget on poorly optimised eCommerce content
- Attributing budget to the wrong channels
- Not meeting your business goals
Google Analytics can give you deep insight into how your pages are performing by tracking visitors and conversion. You can tell Google exactly what you deem a conversion, giving you more accurate data. It also integrates seamlessly with Google Ads.
Google Analytics can also give you insight into:
- How a customer found your eCommerce platform
- How long visitors stay on your page
- If visitors are new or returning
- What device, browser, and operating system they are visiting on
Additionally, HotJar is a heat mapping tool that gives you a recorded understanding of how users interact with your website. It can capture up to 10,000 pageviews and show you what people are clicking on (or not clicking on).
The EngineRoom platform synthesises these tools (and many others) and your business goals. Every dollar you spend is attributed to an outcome when you set your benchmarks on our platform. You can then optimise your eCommerce strategies to perform at their peak.
Key takeaways
Your optimal conversion rate is a sum of many parts, and is influenced by many factors. Success in eCommerce is a balancing act that can yield fantastic results if you commit to improving your conversion rate.
Here’s a plan we recommend that you follow when looking to improve your eCommerce conversion rate:
- Set attainable but aspirational business goals
- Figure out conversion rate benchmarks for your industry and the channels you advertise on
- Continually track your conversion rate
- Use insights to optimise where you can
- Work with an experienced agency who has a proven track record
Yes; we slipped that last one in on purpose. We know what it takes to manage all of the above steps, and we have the tools and expertise to do it on your behalf as we have with so many of our other clients. The EngineRoom platform is here to put your conversion rate into overdrive.
We work with clients to help them understand their business goals, and what marketing mix will work best for them. Then, we can calculate a conversion rate that will meet these goals. Finally, we will use the data from Google Analytics and other sources as a basis for implementing conversion optimization strategies across your website and other marketing channels.
In the end, you’ll increase conversions, leading to a better return on investment. It’s what we do best. You can get started today with a free strategy session with our digital advisors.
If you’d like to maximise the ROI on your B2B marketing efforts, book a free strategy session with one of our senior digital advisors to see how you can take things to the next level today.
