What is conversion? What should it be in an online store?

Most commonly used conversion reference in an online store is the number of orders placed per 100 people who visit the online store.

Definition of Conversion

Definition according to E-commerce Dictionary
conversion "desired behavior of the recipient as a result of the application of marketing strategies intended for this purpose, e.g. making a purchase, filling out a form, setting up an account, subscribing to a blog or wanting to receive a newsletter, contacting the service, etc."

Data conversion is the process of converting the value of one data format into another (https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konwersja_danych).

What is the average conversion rate in online stores?

Is there such a value? Is it dependent on the industry and offer? If 3 out of 100 people who visit the page make a purchase, is it good or bad?

The average store conversion rate is 1%

If 100 people visit the store and 3 make a purchase, the conversion rate will be 3%.

The conversion rate of orders in an online store varies depending on the industry, offer, reach, marketing activities and many other factors, so it is important to measure it for your store and compare the same calculated values ​​in different periods.

Types of Store Conversion

Conversion in an online store is not only the number of orders in relation to visitors (order conversion). It can also be:

• the percentage of people who sign up for the newsletter,
• the percentage of people who contact by email or phone,
• the percentage of people who add any product to the basket,
• the percentage of people who, having a product in the basket, complete the order,
• the percentage of people who make an order excluding those who spent a few seconds on the page,
• and many others.

More accurate value of store order conversion

A good solution for calculating conversions is to exclude those visitors who entered our page and immediately left. The percentage of such visits is (e.g. in Google Analytics) referred to as Bounce Rate.

If we don't know the bounce rate, we can assume an average value of 50%.

If 200 people visit us, the bounce rate is 50%, then the number of real visitors will be 100. If in a given period 1 person makes a purchase, then the more accurate conversion rate will be 1%.

If we did not deduct "random visits", it would be 0.5%. It is worth taking both values into account and trying to achieve the highest percentage of conversion with the lowest bounce rate.

If someone sends a newsletter or advertises to uninterested people, the conversion rate drops. In such a situation, one can think that the offer is unattractive or the prices are too high and take action based on bad data.

It may turn out that the offer is good, the prices are reasonable, but the bounce rate is very high, e.g. over 80%. Therefore, first of all, it is worth improving the advertising campaign or methods of obtaining page visits in order to reduce the bounce rate to the level of 50-60%.

A more accurate conversion rate allows for better estimation of which elements to optimize and improve. Calculations should be made for a minimum of 30 days.

Measuring conversion in Google Analytics

Good store visit statistics can be obtained using Google Analytics. See how to activate integration in the store: Google Analytics