The Average E-Commerce Conversion Rate
An online store's conversion rate is an important metric, as it gives an insight into a website’s overall health. Once you know this metric, you can take the necessary steps to improve or maintain your site’s performance, such as using e-commerce marketing strategies.
But how do you know if your conversion rate is “good”? The average e-commerce conversion rate in the United States ranges between 1% and 4%. Although falling within this range is acceptable, you’ll want to find yourself above it, joining the ranks of the top ten e-commerce sites, who all have a minimum conversion rate of at least 11%, in order to rise above the competition.
What Is An E-Commerce Conversion Rate?
An e-commerce conversion rate is the ratio of transactions to sessions on an e-commerce site, represented by a percentage. For example, if two out of ten customers purchase a product, the conversion rate is 20%. You can calculate these numbers yourself or obtain them from built-in analytics on your site. The basic features of the best e-commerce website builders for small businesses will include conversion metrics.
Factors That Affect E-Commerce Conversion Rates
Many factors affect an e-commerce site's conversion rate, both from the business’s side and the side of its customers. These factors include the products, market prices, promotional efforts, website experience, device, location, and customer demographics.
Why Is An E-Commerce Conversion Rate Important?
Knowing your website’s e-commerce conversion rate is essential to gauge your online shop’s overall health, performance, and competitiveness. It allows business owners to identify their customer’s pain points, adjust ineffective strategies, and make any necessary fixes. When addressed, these problems become opportunities to make the most out of incoming traffic, which translates into sales.
The Average E-Commerce Conversion Rate
On average, e-commerce websites in the United States see a conversion rate between 1% and 4%, depending on the industry, with the average global e-commerce conversion rate falling around 2.5%.
E-Commerce Conversion Rate By Industry
The average e-commerce conversion rate is an acceptable benchmark. But it’s better to consider the average e-commerce conversion rates of shops in your industry when gauging your site’s performance. Here are the numbers for 2020-2021:
● Sports and recreation: 1.75%
● Arts and crafts: 3.79%
● Baby and child: 0.99%
● Cars and motorcycling: 1.55%
● Electrical and commercial equipment: 2:23%
● Fashion clothing and accessories: 2.44%
● Food and drink: 2.73%
● Health and well-being: 3.62%
● Home accessories and giftware: 2.16%
● Kitchen and home appliances: 2.48%
● Pet care: 3.28%
What Is A Good E-Commerce Conversion Rate?
It’s important to understand that e-commerce conversion rates are contextual. For example, an online shop selling high-end, premium products might see a lower conversion rate compared to an online store selling $10 jewelry. In the same way, a brand with a loyal following waiting for a new drop of items will produce a higher conversion rate than a new and relatively unknown online shop.
Generally, a reasonable e-commerce conversion rate falls above the industry average. To stand out from the competition, you should aim to get your numbers up to that of the top 10% performing e-commerce websites, which regularly produce an average of 11.45% conversions.
How To Improve An E-Commerce Conversion Rate
A well-thought-out strategy, an optimized website, and effective marketing campaigns are three essential drivers for consistently growing e-commerce conversion rates. Here’s a breakdown of each one:
Strategy-Building
A good strategy sets the foundation you need to grow an e-commerce website through internal efforts. It’s something that your business relies on to guide its success. All the decisions and actions made to develop the venture stem from this foundation, including improving and scaling a website.
If you see dismal conversion rates, you must review your business strategy and take the necessary steps to change that with your goals in mind.
Website Optimization
A functional, intuitive, and seamless website is key for any e-commerce shop. All your customers are interacting with you through this platform, and if it’s not performing in the way they want it to, they’ll drop off from the site.
So, you must ensure you optimize your website with user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) techniques. That means empowering your customers to make purchasing decisions (through high-quality product photos, elaborate descriptions, product options, etc.) and providing them with the tools to check out (e.g., an easy checkout process, multiple payment options, etc.).
You should apply search engine optimization (SEO), which is a set of strategies designed to help your website rank higher on search engine (e.g., Google) search results. Ranking higher will allow you to connect with more potential leads as they can find you easily.
E-Commerce Marketing
To generate leads, sales, and conversions, you must know how to promote your website or products in relevant channels, i.e., where your customers are. E-commerce marketing examples include digital marketing (e.g., paid ads, etc.), social media marketing, content marketing, and even offline marketing.
Remember: The Goal Is To Be Above-Average
Knowing the average e-commerce conversion rate is helpful, as you know where you stand. To gauge your website’s performance accurately, you must investigate the conversion rates for your industry. To set yourself apart from the competition, you must aim towards being above average, positioning yourself in the ranks of top-performing sites in your field.