Conversion rate (CVR) is an essential performance metric for any business. Most broadly, it indicates how effective your brand is at encouraging the completion of actions. 

A high conversion rate means you're attracting the right audience and convincing them to take action. A low conversion rate can indicate that there are issues with your website or marketing strategy and that you're missing out on potential customers and revenue.

In this article, you will learn everything from how to calculate your conversion rate to the factors that can influence it.

Additionally, we'll cover conversion rates across different channels, including eCommerce, Amazon, and retail stores, and provide you with strategies for improving your conversion rate in each. 

What Is Conversion Rate?

Conversion rate is widely used in digital marketing to evaluate the performance of website traffic, marketing campaigns, and conversions. At its simplest, conversion rate is the percentage of completed actions out of a number of possible actions. 

A conversion can refer to any desired action that you want the user to take, such as registering for an event, making a purchase, or signing up for an email list. Websites and apps often have multiple conversion goals, each with its own conversion rate. Conversion rate can be applied to various parts of a business, from advertising and social media to purchasing behavior, encompassing top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel activities.

It's worth noting that some metrics, such as click-through rate and buy-to-detail rate (i.e., the % of product detail page views resulting in a purchase), can overlap with smaller microconversions. Ultimately, the conversion types that matter most to your business will depend on how you define conversion and which actions are most valuable to your brand.

Good marketers obsess over CVR because increasing it enables you to get more sales (or other desirable actions) with the same amount of traffic. 

How to Calculate Conversion Rate

To calculate your overall conversion rate, simply take the total number of conversions and divide it by the total number of opportunities for conversion:

The actual inputs to this formula vary. If you’re calculating conversion rate in the context of ad conversion, you might divide total number of clicks by impressions over the same time period. 

What about Calculating Conversion Rates for Retail Stores?

While calculating the CVR for online channels such as eCommerce and Amazon is relatively straightforward, it can be challenging for brick-and-mortar, at least in terms of the technology used. The formula will ultimately be the same. 

Tracking foot traffic and determining which visitors make a purchase requires more advanced technology, such as foot traffic analyzers, and combining those with point-of-sale systems. 

Despite the complexity, it can be worth it. Understanding the CVR of your retail locations gives you valuable insights into customer shopper behavior, and it helps you identify opportunities to drive purchases and fix any issues with the in-store shopping experience.

What Is a “Good” Conversion Rate?

Conversion rates vary widely depending on a number of factors, such as industry, product type, traffic sources, and more. 

Let’s take a look at some key benchmarks for the main channels.

eCommerce

The average eCommerce CVR globally is 3.68%. However, some industries have higher or lower average rates. The food and beverage industry shows a CVR of 6.23%, whereas for luxury goods this is significantly lower.

Amazon

The average conversion rate on Amazon ranges from 10-15% for Amazon Ads. However, this can vary substantially based on factors such as product category and competition. Certain ad words are incredibly competitive and expensive on Amazon, just as they are on Google or Facebook.

Retail

A good CVR for physical retail stores is 20% or more, and therefore significantly higher than online. However, this can vary based on factors such as location, store layout, and product offerings. 

Google Ads

The average conversion rate across Google Ads is 4.40% on the search network and 0.57% on the display network. Of course, this will depend on your industry, with apparel having the lowest CVR at 2.77%, and other industries like law and vehicles coming in at over 7%.

Facebook Ads

The average CVR for Facebook Ads is around 9.21%, although this also varies depending on the industry. Some industries experience rates as low as 1-2% and others over 10%. 

How to Increase eCommerce Conversion Rates

Leverage acquisition SKUs to improve ads

Determine which products or SKUs are the most popular from a conversion perspective and double down on those to boost conversions.

Do an ad audit

Check your ads regularly to ensure that the user journey makes sense. For example, if your ad showcases a product, make sure that clicking on it leads to a landing page or product page for that specific product.

Optimize your product pages

Uninspiring product pages can negatively impact your CVR. Ensure that your product pages have high-quality images, an engaging description, accurate pricing, and a clear call-to-action.

Streamline the checkout process

Long and complicated checkout processes can lead to cart abandonment. Simplify the checkout process by reducing the number of steps, including convenient payment options, and offering guest checkout.

Show product reviews

Product reviews provide social proof, which helps build trust with potential customers and increase conversion rates. Having 50 or more reviews per product can increase CVRs by 4.6%. Make it easy for customers to leave reviews and display them prominently on your product pages.

Simplify and promote your shipping options

High shipping costs are one of the top reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts. Make sure to offer transparent and easy-to-understand shipping options on your website, and consider offering free or discounted shipping to incentivize customers to complete their purchases. 

If you have consistently low-converting product pages, check the following:

Are your product images high-quality and appealing?

Product images are critical in eCommerce because customers can't physically touch or see the product before buying. Use high-quality images that show the product from different angles, zoom in on details, and have good lighting. 

Are discounts properly displayed and applied?

Customers like to feel that they're getting a good deal, and accurate pricing can help increase trust. Make sure special offers are clear, and that any discounts are properly applied and displayed.

Are call-to-action buttons noticeable and compelling?

Ensure that the button stands out and is clear. Use action-oriented language, such as "Add to cart" or "Buy now," to encourage customers to take action.

Is the checkout process broken or displaying any pricing information incorrectly?

Test your checkout process to ensure it's user-friendly and easy to navigate (you may want to leverage a usability testing tool). Any sources of friction, like limited payment options or unexpected shipping costs and taxes can put shoppers off completing their purchases. 

How to Increase Amazon Conversion Rates

If you're marketing on Amazon, there are many Amazon metrics and reports you can use to drive business results. Competition is fierce, and conversion rates are crucial to your success. Here are three key strategies to increase your Amazon conversion rates:

Optimize your Amazon ads

‍To maximize conversions, it's essential to have strong ad performance on Amazon. A well-crafted ad campaign can not only generate revenue from the ads themselves but also help your advertised products rank higher organically. 

You do not want to make ads for products that have a low CVR, unless you’re trying to launch a product. The most successful brands on Amazon are not trying to sell through their entire catalogs via Sponsored Products. They are optimizing their ads around their hero product(s), and they drive enormous volume: that’s how they hit their numbers. 

To optimize your Amazon Ads, make sure to target the right keywords, craft compelling ad copy, and continuously monitor and adjust your campaign based on performance metrics.

Improve your PDPs‍

The product detail page (PDP) is the primary landing page for your Amazon listings, and it's crucial to make a positive first impression. To improve your PDP, ensure that your product descriptions are accurate, informative, and engaging. 

High-quality product images and videos can also help attract and convert shoppers. Additionally, incorporating customer reviews and ratings on your PDP can provide social proof and build trust with potential customers.

Win the Buy Box‍

The buy box is the top section on an Amazon product detail page where shoppers can add an item to their cart or click buy now. Winning the buy box can significantly impact your CVR, as the vast majority of Amazon sales go through this feature. 

To increase your chances of winning the buy box, make sure your pricing is competitive, maintain high seller ratings, and fulfill orders quickly and efficiently.

How to Increase In-Store Conversion Rates

If you're looking to optimize conversion rates for brick-and-mortar stores, there are several key strategies to consider:

Hire compelling salespeople and train them well

‍In contrast to online channels, CVRs in physical stores depend heavily on staff interactions with customers. 

By hiring skilled people and investing in their training, you can ensure that your employees are knowledgeable about your products and provide excellent service to create a positive shopping experience. Staff should be super familiar with your product range, so they can upsell and suggest alternatives if the product is out of stock.

Optimize store layout and organization

‍The layout and organization of your store can also impact your conversion rates. Make sure your products are displayed in an intuitive and easy-to-navigate manner. 

Use signage and other sales aids to draw attention to specific products and promotions, and consider testing different layouts in different stores to see what works best. You can even try out new technology like AR mirrors and VR displays to elevate the shopper experience. 

Test and tweak product selection

‍It's important to continually test and optimize your product selection to ensure that you're offering what your customers want and need. Keep track of which products are selling well and which are not, and adjust your inventory accordingly. 

By regularly analyzing your product selection, you can stay ahead of trends and meet your customers' changing needs.

Other Factors That Influence Conversion Rate

The path to purchase can be complex, and there are many factors that can influence CVRs. Here are some key considerations:

Geography

Your conversion rates may vary depending on the region or country where you're selling. Online shopping may be less common in some areas, so you may need to adjust your strategy accordingly. If you have local retail locations, people may browse online and then visit your store to test products and make a purchase in person. 

Device types 

The device that shoppers use to access your website might be impacting your CVR. Check which device types are sending the most traffic, and ensure your site is optimized for them. If you have high mobile traffic, your mobile experience needs to be absolutely seamless. On the other hand, if for example traffic from tablets isn’t converting so well but the traffic is near negligible, that shouldn’t be as high a priority. 

UX issues

User experience (UX) can be a significant factor in conversion rates. Are there any issues with your website that could be discouraging shoppers from making a purchase? 

Luxury leather brand Nour Hammour used Daasity’s site funnel analysis to find a pain point in their shopping funnel. By addressing this on-site with messaging regarding free returns, duties, and taxes, they were able to improve their CVR. 

What you actually sell

The type of product you're selling can also impact your conversion rate. For example, luxury brands or expensive items may have a lower conversion rate because they require more consideration and research before making a purchase.

On the other hand, low-cost, everyday items may have a higher conversion rate because they're easier to buy impulsively: a couple bags of coffee might come to $35 for a customer, but a high-quality leather jacket might cost 40x that.

Tracking and Analyzing Conversion Rate With Daasity

Daasity is the only data and analytics platform purpose-built for consumer brands selling via eCommerce, Amazon, retail, and wholesale. Daasity was founded by data experts and analysts from enterprise consumer brands, so we know how incredibly important conversion rate is, and we provide a number of ways to track it out-of-the-box (with dozens of other potential reports and analyses that can be built).

For instance, in our merchant-favorite Daily Flash dashboard, merchants can quickly track their CVR yesterday and compare it to the same time last week and last year (in this case, for their eCommerce site):

And, they can get a look at sitewide traffic and conversions, and explore it further:

This is all just the tip of the conversionberg, though.

For more information about Daasity and how we can enable you understand, track, and optimize your conversion rates, we're here to help. Learn more here.

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