In a competitive digital world, there are several do’s and don’ts when it comes to boosting online purchases. As an entrepreneur, e-commerce manager, or marketing director, you also want to make your online efforts pay off. This can be done, for example, by increasing online revenue or conversion rates. The e-commerce conversion rate is one of the most important metrics to keep an eye on.
What is a good conversion rate? Are there benchmarks for this? Is it useful to compare your conversions with other webshops? You can find the answers to all these questions below!
What is the conversion rate?
Let’s start by defining what the conversion rate is exactly: The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your webshop that achieves a predetermined goal. A goal can be an online order, a quote request, or downloading more information. Every time a website visitor requests a quote or places an order, we can consider it a conversion. By dividing the number of users who achieve a goal by the number of visitors, you can calculate the conversion rate.
You can calculate the e-commerce conversion rate of your webshop by dividing the number of online orders by the total number of visitors. Suppose there were a hundred visitors to the webshop last month, and one visitor placed an order, then you have achieved an e-commerce conversion rate of 1%.
What is a good conversion rate for a webshop?
No one wants to achieve a lower conversion rate (CR%) than their main competitors. Most webshops only know their own conversion rate. Every organization with a webshop is curious to know how their CR% compares to the competition. For this reason, comparative market studies are regularly conducted on the different conversion rates per industry, usually in the US. In e-commerce, the average conversion rate is usually between 3-4% (Monetate), but beware, these percentages are of little use. Are they not useful at all? Not always, as many factors play a role:
Golden rule of conversion rate by industry
Let’s get straight to the point: there is no golden conversion rate! The reason for this is that the conversion rate can fluctuate enormously due to factors such as periods, industries, types of visitors, etc. In the fashion sector, conversion rates can be much higher during sales periods than during other months. A webshop with many regular customers can convince these types of visitors to place an online order faster than new online start-ups.
Differences can also be significant between certain industries, such as between the “food” and “electronics” sectors. You usually order a pizza when you’re hungry, but not an audio system. The purchase process is simply much longer for a luxury product like electronics. Price differences, occasions, and circumstances have a strong influence here.
The type of market you are active in also affects the conversion rate. Do you sell in the B2B sector (businesses) or B2C sector (consumers)? Conversion rates also vary from country to country. The country you are active in impacts the conversion rate. In the US, users are, for example, more accustomed to ordering more things via an online platform than in Belgium.
Are conversion benchmarks really important?
Benchmarking a conversion rate with an average conversion rate is not always good. Benchmarks are averages based on multiple factors. Therefore, these types of e-commerce benchmarks are not very valuable for a conversion specialist.
A benchmark is only useful if you can compare webshops with the same product groups, in the same country, in the same market, and with the same type of visitors. Only then do you have an accurate benchmark. Then you finally know if your webshop is performing worse than your competitor’s webshop and if you really have a lot to improve.
How can I increase the conversion rate of my webshop?
What really matters at the end of our e-commerce story? Achieving good online results, of course! Conversion optimization is much more important than comparing all those different percentages. The way to improve your conversion rate is by continuously researching and analyzing your webshop. This results in action points such as certain A/B tests that increase the conversion rate.
Here is an overview of what you can improve:
• Uncertainties on the webshop
• Reducing the number of clicks to products
• The checkout process
• Clear call-to-action buttons (CTAs) e.g., “Order Now”
• Improving trust and appearance
• Product pages
• Promotional actions
• Prices
• Load times
• UX
You don’t have to do it all alone. Get support from our experts and watch your business grow!
