What is the eCommerce Conversion Rate (CVR)?

The eCommerce conversion rate is the ratio of the total number of transactions on a site to the number of sessions/visitors. 

For example, if 1,000 web surfers found their way to your online store and only 30 of them complete a purchase, your CVR would be 30:1000. Divide the number of visitors who completed their purchases (30) by the total number of visitors during that period (1000). The conversion rate of this particular site is 0.03. You can also express as a percentage by multiplying the result (0.03) by 100, which would be 3%.

A complicating factor in the calculation of CVR is the fact that most eCommerce merchants sell their goods across multiple platforms.

Why is the eCommerce Conversion Rate so Important?

In conjunction with other metrics, the conversion rate serves as an essential measuring tool to check on the health, competitiveness, and performance of an online store. The higher the conversion rate, the lower the customer acquisition cost, and the better the customer value proposition.

Your conversion rate is to the success of your eCommerce business. You could be raking in 50,000 visitors to your site through ads, but if the user experince is poor, you may only end up with a handful of visitors converted to customers.

Most eCommerce sites are expensive to maintain in terms of time and money. You need to make sure that every cent that you invest in the business brings back a favorable return.

eCommerce conversion rates are useful to track over time because they act as a measuring stick on the improvements and adjustments that you make on your site. Do they have an impact on your bottom line?

What is a Good eCommerce Conversion Rate?

Conversion rates vary across different industries. It wouldn't be worth your while to compare your CVR to an overall benchmark. If you are going to compare your store's conversion rate to someone else's, you will want to find some common ground for both categories.

If you have done a cost vs. benefit study and realized that you make more money selling items online, you are at a good starting point. From this point, you should concentrate your efforts on optimizing your store for efficiency and profit.

If a category in your inventory is performing exceptionally better than the others, try to bring the lagging categories to the winning standard. With this approach, you will start to notice that CVR is reflective of your personal target and effort.

If you are a new entrepreneur starting from scratch, below are some industry-specific benchmarks that can help you establish a target:

Industry-Specific eCommerce Conversion Rate Benchmark

Below are figures from IRP Commerce, an institution that collects data across different industries, and ShippyPro. These numbers were updated last in September 2019.

• Agriculture: 0.62% - 1.41%
• Health and Wellbeing: 1.87% - 2.02%
• Arts and Craft: 3.84% - 4.01%
• Giftware and Home Accessories: 1.46% - 1.55%
• Baby and Child: 0.71% - 0.87%
• Kitchen and Home Appliances: 1.61% - 1.55%
• Cars and Motorcycling: 1.35% - 1.36%
• Pet Care: 2.51% - 2.53%
• Electrical and Commercial Equipment: 2.49% - 2.70%
• Food and Drink: 0.90% - 1.00%
• Sports and Recreation: 1.18%

eCommerce Conversion Rate Optimization

1. Upload Tutorial and Product Information Videos on Your Product Page

You want to have some product videos on the product page. Upload videos that showcase the product from different angles. At times it may be hard for images to depict factors like size and fit. In such instances, videos are quite useful. If a picture is worth a thousand words, you can only imagine the value of a video.

2. Use Clearer Product Images

Sometimes a potential customer will want to zoom into an image to examine the finer details. There are few things more annoying than zooming into an image only to end up with a blurry image.

Take professional-quality photos. Upload high-resolution images to meet your customers' expectations.

3. Tighten Your Copy

In this industry, you do not want to give your customers a reason to turn to the competition. Ensure that your product descriptions are clear and free from grammatical mistakes. In general, your product page should be intuitive and the product descriptions and images should be accessible.

Your product copy should be tight. There should be a specific description of product dimensions and variety. In chemical and food products, make sure that you list down the ingredients in the product.

Product measurements, warranty information, and material specifications are some of the crucial details that should appear in your product copy.

4. Add a Chat Feature to Your eCommerce Website

Chat features allow potential customers to ask about the product. It is highly unlikely that you will be able to go through or respond to all the questions posted on your website, but chats will play a role in convincing the unsettled souls.

5. Test a Variety of Call-to-Action (CTA) Options, Placements, and Wordings

Adjusting your CTA is a classic CVR optimization strategy. Switching your call-to-action placement is a low-effort, high-impact tactic to driving more sales. Studies show that a majority of CTA tests do not yield statistically significant results. However, those that do can create a great impact with on-page conversion lifts averaging about 49%.

6. Allow Guest Checkout

Your customers should be able to create and save accounts for future purchases. However, limiting purchases to users who have accounts can be a deal-breaker to some potential customers. You should have a provision for those customers who stand firmly against saving personal information on the internet.

According to Trustpilot, having account creation as a requirement for checkout is the second biggest reason for cart abandonment. Repeat buyers will eventually save their information once they feel comfortable sharing personal details. In the meantime, allow guest checkouts.

7. Add Additional Payment Option

Run a survey to get a picture of your customer's preferences in terms of payment options. With the data from the survey, you can add the relevant payment methods. According to the Merchant Payments Ecosystem, 50% of consumers will end a transaction when they cannot find their preferred payment method.

Conclusion

Exploring the online data universe can be taxing. Every year we see hundreds of new studies setting new benchmarks. Where do you draw the line? To improve your bottom line, you need to adopt a focused approach to conversion optimization. With the tips in this article, you can improve your conversion rates.