What is an average ecommerce conversion rate? Let me give you a word of caution first, then some numbers that may be helpful.
An average conversion rate is a tricky number, for several reasons. The largest reason is that it is very hard to compare apples to apples. The reason is that there are many factors that influence conversions that you can’t see.
The biggest unseen conversion factor is traffic sources. Some websites have large amounts of traffic from a print catalog or offline advertising. Traffic from offline sources can be highly qualified and convert at a much higher rate than online traffic. Some websites also depend largely on email marketing to drive traffic – prospects responding to an email will usually convert at a very high rate also, since they have already read the offer and responded to it.
Other “unseen” factors that influence average ecommerce conversion rates include brand awareness, one-to-one sales strategies, repeat customers, and return visitors. So when viewing average conversion rates, you should treat them with caution – data you gather from your own site is usually much more useful.
Ecommerce conversion rate averages vary by industry, but most are 1-4%. The top converting ecommerce sites on the internet get up to 30% conversion rates, but there are “hidden factors” that help them achieve those numbers. The top 10 ecommerce sites usually fall in the 10-15% conversion rate window. For small to medium sized ecommerce websites, though, a rate under 5% is usually a more reasonable goal. Of course, this varies by industry, product, etc.
