E-commerce Conversion Rate Statistics to Explore in 2023

It's not a secret that as an online store owner or marketer, you've put in a lot of work just to build and launch your e-commerce business.

From brainstorming what to sell, designing, and setting up your website, to how to source your products and advertise them, you have done a great deal of work.

But are those enough actually to convert your traffic into sales?

Buzzkill alert—It's a NO. 👀

This article explores the concept of online store conversion rates along with up-to-date statistics.

We'll provide valuable e-commerce conversion rate statistics, benchmarks, and optimization tactics to help you boost your conversion rates and thrive in the e-commerce industry. Let's get started.

What Is a Good E-commerce Conversion Rate?

First of all, you need to know what is an online store's conversion rate.

The e-commerce conversion rate is a KPI metric defined by the percentage of visitors on your website that completes the desired action successfully, which is buying, in a set period of time.

Note that this metric is not the only one that you should keep track of for your e-commerce website.

If you are looking for an answer to "what is a good conversion rate for e-commerce, here is the quick answer:

An average conversion rate of 2%+ is considered to be a good e-commerce conversion rate, although it varies depending on the industry.

How Do You Measure The Conversion Rate for an E-Commerce Website?

To calculate your e-commerce conversion rates, divide the number of conversions you get in a given time frame by the total number of visitors and multiply it by 100%.

Conversion rate = (conversions / total visitors) X 100%

For example, if your e-commerce store is getting 5,000 visitors and 50 conversions in a certain time frame, then your conversion rate is 1%.

Just as simple as that!

Here's how Google Analytics defines e-commerce conversion rate:

"The ratio of transactions to sessions, expressed as a percentage. For example, a ratio of one transaction to every ten sessions would be expressed as an Ecommerce Conversion Rate of 10%".

What is an Average E-commerce Conversion Rate?

Average e-commerce conversion rates fall around 2% to 4%.

A report by Statista about online shopping shows that in the United States, 2.3 percent of visits to e-commerce websites during the second quarter of 2022 resulted in purchases.

By investing time and money in e-commerce conversion rate optimization tactics, you can expect to see conversion rates as high as 3% to 4%.

E-commerce Conversion Rate Benchmarks By Industry

E-commerce conversion rates vary greatly across industries. According to Adobe's study in Q4 2022, the top six ecommerce verticals had the following average conversion rates:

As you can see, food and beverage, along with health and beauty, stood out as the highest-converting verticals in 2022.

According to Statista's report on online shopping conversion rate, in the fourth quarter of 2022, the food and beverage sector experienced the highest online conversion rates among e-commerce sites, reaching 4.6%.

Following closely were the skincare and health and beauty sectors, with conversion rates of approximately 3.3% each. In comparison, the average conversion rate for e-commerce sites across all sectors surveyed was 2.5%.

The same report also states that over the past few years, there has been a gradual increase in the percentage of consumers who abandon their online shopping carts, reaching nearly 70 percent in 2021.

It is stated that this trend indicates the growing challenge that e-commerce sites face in converting website traffic into actual purchases.

However, in 2022, the groceries category stood out as one of the product categories with the lowest rate of online cart abandonment, which further supports the food and beverage sector's comparatively high conversion rate.

In the United States, one of the primary reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts is due to high additional costs such as shipping, tax, and service fees during the checkout process.

E-commerce Conversion Rate Statistics by Device

When measuring specific KPIs like conversion rate and comparing yours to industry averages, benchmarks for specific devices (smartphone, tablet, and desktop) are also worth considering.

According to Statista's report in 2023, in general, the conversion rate for online shoppers in the United States is higher for desktop users compared to mobile users.

As of Q2 2022, three percent of e-commerce website visits made through desktop computers resulted in purchases, while this figure was two percent for smartphones.

According to Oberlo's mobile conversion rate statistics in 2023, roughly 2% of mobile visits to online stores result in conversions. It's important to highlight that mobile conversion rates are lower than desktops (3.64%) and tablets (3.43%).

Mobile conversion rates have remained relatively stable throughout the year. In January 2023, the rate was 2.34%, slightly decreasing to 2.3% in February 2023.

In the previous two months, mobile ecommerce conversion rates experienced significant growth, surpassing 3%. November 2022 recorded the highest rate of 3.93%, followed by a slight decline to 3.41% in December 2022.

We know that online shoppers are growingly inclined towards smartphones and tablets to make online purchases. Therefore, as an e-commerce business owner, it's vital to know which conversion benchmarks you should aim for on a smartphone is vital.

For higher conversions on mobile, we recommend you start optimizing your conversion rates:

• Checking your page-loading speed on mobile
• Using mobile-responsive popups
• Implementing a user-friendly navigation

Why Mobile Consumers are Less Likely to Convert

From the overall perspective, mobile users seem to be less likely to buy since the benchmarks show that conversion rates are the lowest for mobile devices.

The comScore Mobile Hierarchy report sheds some useful light on the "whys" of this, which online retailers can use to understand and improve their customer experience on mobile:

E-commerce Conversion Rate Statistics by Country

Formulating a country-specific KPI can prove insightful when segmenting your customer base to assess e-commerce conversion rate benchmarks.

You must consider that conversion rates can highly differ based on country. For example, the conversion rate you'd expect from the Netherlands would be very different from that of the US.

This difference stems from many factors, including:

(Source: Ecommerce Europe's Study)

In the table above, Germany leads with the highest e-commerce conversion rate of 2.22%, while Italy has the lowest with 0.99%.

Keeping up with the latest country-wise conversion rates, stats, and trends serves your business well, helping you understand how your business compares.

As Statista states in its report about US online shopper conversion rates, during the second quarter of 2021, the conversion rate for online shoppers in the United States reached its peak at 2.6 percent, surpassing all other periods examined.

In the subsequent year's second quarter, around 2.3 percent of visits to e-commerce websites in North America resulted in purchases. When examining the conversion rate by device, computers maintained their lead over tablets and mobiles.

Another report by Statista related to the e-commerce conversion rate in Canada in 2023 states that online shopping exhibited a conversion rate of 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2023, which was consistent with the previous year's rate.

The highest conversion rate within the analyzed period was observed in the fourth quarter of 2022, standing at 2.5 percent.

Average Ecommerce Conversion Rate by Channel/Source

Besides country-specific and industry-wise conversion rates, segregating conversions based on the channel or source is also vital.

E-commerce conversion rates by traffic source can help you set channel-specific goals while giving you a hint on which channel performs the best.

According to Adobe's article, as of Q2 2022, recent e-commerce conversion rates are highest through referral and organic traffic, with 5.44% and 3.0%, while social media lags at 1.0%.

Referral traffic is driven from external sites that link to your store. This can be an expert post recommending one of your products or a comment on a blog post.

As Statista's research about user-generated content impact suggests, in 2022, a study analyzing 1,200 e-commerce websites utilizing user-generated content (UGC) technology found a conversion rate of 3.2 percent.

When visitors reached a point where they encountered UGC while scrolling, their chances of conversion increased by an average of 3.8 percent.

While UGC had a positive influence on conversion, the impact was particularly significant when visitors actively engaged with the content. Users who interacted with UGC experienced an impressive 102.4 percent increase in conversion during that year.

E-commerce Conversion Rate Optimization Tactics

1. Offer Free Shipping

Free shipping offers are one of the most powerful drivers impacting customers' buying decisions. According to a study, 24% of consumers would spend more to qualify for free shipping.

Offering your customers a free shipping option not only helps boost the conversion rate but also gives you a potential advantage over your competitors. You may increase your product prices to clever for the cost of free shipping if needed.

2. Use High-Quality Product Images & Videos

Think about it. The only way people can see the product they purchase online is through images and videos.

They simply can't touch it or put it on.

That's why the least you, as an online retailer, can do is upload detailed and high-quality product images and videos while considering your website speed as well.

3. Have a Cart Abandonment Strategy

Recent cart abandonment stats show that the average cart abandonment rate is 69.80%, and that's a lot!

If you are getting a high amount of cart abandonment, meaning adding a product to the cart but leaving without completing the purchase, then you should start planning out a strategy.

What can you do to win back cart abandoners or convince them to buy before they leave?

Use exit popups

You can create a free exit popup with Popupsmart, a no-code popup builder, which detects users' intent to leave and shows your win-back offer.

Get Started With Popupsmart Today!

Create a follow-up email sequence

What you use in your email copy matters, but what's even more critical to driving high open rates is to craft converting cart abandonment email subject lines.

4. Test & Optimize Your Checkout Process

18% of online consumers abandon their shopping carts because of a long and complicated checkout process.

Keep the forms clean and easy to fill in and get rid of unnecessary ones. Showing the image of the item in their cart while checking out is also a great tactic to keep prospects engaged.

In short, make sure to provide a smooth and easy-to-follow checkout experience for users.

5. Offer Limited-Time Coupons

Consumers LOVE coupons. In fact, statistics show that over 90% of all consumers have used coupons in some way.

The most used methods to offer coupon codes to customers are through popups and emails. However, test if your coupon codes are actually working because broken coupon codes are one of the reasons consumers abandon their carts.

Bottom Line

Navigating the world of e-commerce is challenging and complex, with numerous benchmarks and studies published each year. It can be overwhelming to determine which ones to prioritize and which ones to ignore.

I believe it's best to rely on a handful of well-researched studies based on different aspects and metrics relevant to your KPIs.

Remember, e-commerce conversion rate statistics serve as a guide to understanding your own performance better and shaping your goals and conversion rate optimization strategy accordingly.

We have mainly tried to answer "what is a good e-commerce conversion rate," and the answer is a conversion rate higher than 2%.

Now, it's time to assess your own conversion rate.

How does yours compare? Leave us a comment below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Traffic Sources Offer Higher Conversion Rates for E-Commerce?

Compared to social media, referral, and organic traffic sources frequently have higher e-commerce conversion rates. Referral traffic that originates from outside websites and has a high likelihood of making a purchase has a tendency to convert well.

Which Devices Have The Highest Rates of E-Commerce Conversion?

Compared to mobile devices, large-screen devices like desktops and tablets typically have greater e-commerce conversion rates. Given the rising trend of online buying on smartphones, it's crucial to track and improve your mobile conversion rates as well.

How Can I Increase My Website's Conversion Rate For Online Sales?

You can improve your e-commerce conversion rate using a variety of strategies. The use of high-quality product photos and videos, a cart abandonment strategy, testing and optimizing your checkout process, and providing time-limited offers are a few strategies.