Conversion rates are certainly not the only way to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. However, conversions are one of the most common key performance indicators (KPIs) used by ecommerce brands to measure success. So how do you know if your conversion rates are worthwhile? Below, we’ll discuss average ecommerce conversion rates and what they mean for your business.
Conversion Rates Across the Ecommerce Marketing Funnel
Taking a look at ecommerce conversion rates across the marketing funnel helps provide some insight as to how online retail consumers convert throughout their buyer’s journey. A report from SaleCycle shows the average conversion rates across the retail buyer’s journey. In 2017, the average conversion rate breakdown across the funnel is as follows:
- 48% of consumers who visit the site make it to the product page view.
- 14.5% of these visitors will then get to the “add-to-cart” phase of the journey.
- 3.3% of the total sessions will end in a transaction.
It should come as no surprise that the highest conversion rate across the ecommerce marketing funnel is for product page views at almost 50%. Ecommerce brands can use this percentage as a benchmark for product page views for their own site. If you find that your site’s conversion rates are well below this average, it may be time to make some adjustments. Review your site design and content to drive more visitors to your product pages.
The jump from 14.5% of sessions resulting in an add-to-cart conversion to just 3.3% actually ending in a transaction demonstrates that abandoned shopping carts remain a primary issue for ecommerce businesses. There are a few ways that online retailers can work to preemptively solve this problem through improvements to their product pages and online shopping cart.
Ecommerce businesses need to make sure that their product pages are optimized for conversions. Adding customers reviews to your product pages is an effective way to influence immediate conversions.
Many consumers like to compare products and review customer feedback before making a purchase. By including customer reviews on the product page, your business can work to influence these conversions sooner.
It’s also essential that online retailers ensure that it’s as easy as possible for consumers to convert. The checkout process should be simple and clear. Having clearly marked steps is a great way to let the consumer know where they are in the process and what they can anticipate. Also, don’t ask for more information than you need. If your site requires a log-in for checkout, consider including a guest checkout option for those who don’t want to create an account.
Another vital step in improving transaction rates is addressing customers after they have left their shopping cart behind. Reaching back out to consumers through abandoned shopping cart campaigns can help encourage online shoppers to return to your website to finalize their purchase. These campaigns can boost sales conversion rates over time.
One way to reach out to shopping cart abandoners is through email marketing.
By sending personalized messaging through email, your business can encourage consumers to return to your site to complete their transaction.
In this email messaging, you may want to remind consumers of what specific products they have left behind and include strategic messaging that invites consumers to complete their purchase.
Another way to reach back out to consumers is through re-targeting ads. These ads allow you to serve targeted ad content to consumers who have visited your site. You can even show them the specific products that they looked at or added to their cart within the ads. This re-targeting ad content may be just the reminder that consumers need to finalize their purchase.
Ecommerce Conversion Rates by Device
Looking at ecommerce conversion rates by device can help you better understand how consumers are shopping for your products. As smartphones and other mobile devices become more popular and accessible, more consumers have started using these devices to purchase from their favorite online retailers. Ecommerce brands need to understand what type of benchmark conversion rates they should be aiming for when it comes to mobile consumers.
Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly’s benchmark data shows a breakdown of conversion rates by device in the U.S.:
- Desktop: 3.73%
- Smart Phone: 1.14%
- Tablet: 3.06%
- Other: .19%
As you can see, smartphone conversion rates are less than half of the desktop users. Even though online retailers have improved their site’s mobile experience over time, these mobile device conversion rates continue to remain steady.
The comScore Mobile Hierarchy report highlights a few reasons why mobile consumers may not be converting as often as their desktop-using counterparts. Their findings show the top reasons that mobile consumers don’t convert:
- 20.2% cite security concerns
- 19.6% can’t see enough product details
- 19.3% find it difficult to navigate the mobile site
- 19.6% cannot use multiple screens to browse and compare
- 18.6% find it too difficult to input the details of what they’re looking for
Ecommerce brands can use these insights to improve their mobile shopping experience to boost conversions. Make sure that your mobile site is secure and easy to navigate. Consumers should be able to quickly find what they are looking for, add products to their cart, and check out without any concerns.
It’s also important to note that while conversion rates are lower for smartphone users, consumers are still often using this device to browse and research before they buy. Keeping this in mind, ecommerce brands need to ensure that their mobile site gives consumers the details they need to make an informed buying decision. Though you can certainly adjust your mobile site to improve conversions, you should also be aware of how consumers are using this site to learn more about your products and make a purchasing decision.
Improving Overall Ecommerce Conversion Rates
Now that you have a better idea of which benchmarks you should use for measuring your own ecommerce conversion rates, let’s talk how to improve conversions. As reported by Moz , there are a variety of factors that can have an impact on ecommerce conversion rates. By understanding what these factors are, your business can work to improve certain aspects of your site to boost overall conversions.
There is a significant correlation between average session duration and conversion rates (.60). That means that if you want to boost conversions, you will need to keep consumers on your site longer. One of the most effective ways to increase time on site is by optimizing traffic for relevance. If your site is not relevant to the consumer, they will leave immediately. Make sure that the ads and content that are driving traffic back to your site are optimized for your target audience.
The Moz report also shows that ecommerce sites that get more traffic through Facebook tend to have a higher time on site. You can test how well this works for your specific brand by trying to drive more traffic to your site from Facebook. Use Facebook ad campaigns and promote more organic content that encourages your Facebook audiences to check out targeted landing pages or product pages that may be relevant to their interests.
There is also a significant correlation between organic traffic from Google and conversion rates. This finding emphasizes the importance of organic SEO efforts for ecommerce businesses. Consumers are turning to the search engines to research products and browse different buying options before they make a purchase. Though paid ad campaigns can certainly help your business drive more conversions, organic search results are still an important part of driving relevant traffic back to your site.
The more relevant content you create for your ecommerce site, the better your chances of ranking higher on the search engine results page (SERP). Work to develop high-quality content that is valuable for your target audience. Whether its blog posts focused on the very challenges that your products solve or extensive product buying guides, relevant content plays an essential role in improving your organic search traffic.
Final Takeaways for Increasing Ecommerce Conversion Rates
The research above should help you better understand what benchmarks you need to consider when measuring your own ecommerce conversion rates. More importantly, this research provides some important insights into how your business can improve conversions over time. Remember, optimizing your site for conversions is an ongoing process that takes time, research, and careful planning. But the process will be well worth it when you start to see conversion rates climb!
