Conversion rate in e-commerce: the barometer of success

Web entrepreneurs know it, the conversion rate in e-commerce must be constantly monitored. A bit like the vital constants of a patient in an intensive care unit. Indeed, its measurement, analysis and interpretation reflect in real time the state of health of your marketing strategy. An integral part of the conversion tunnel, its improvement has an immediate impact on your turnover. A true barometer of the effectiveness of an e-commerce site, its analysis is essential for developing your online business. But what is this key performance indicator? essential to improve to earn your living on the web? Learn in this article, how to calculate and interpret it. But that’s not all. Also find out how the editorial content of your online store can significantly boost it.

What is the conversion rate?

The conversion rate, also called conversion rate, is the most important KPI (Key Performance Indicator). It makes it possible to evaluate the number of visitors who take action. This allows you to check the effectiveness of your conversion funnel. For an e-merchant, this analysis of a customer’s journey before confirming his order is of major interest. 

For an online store, the conversion rate corresponds to the ratio between the number of transactions carried out and the number of Internet users during a fixed period. If it increases, your turnover should increase considerably too. If it decreases or stagnates, a strategic reflection and an analysis of the purchasing process are essential. 

This rate is often thought to only imply purchases on a site. But in reality, it is possible to calculate it for many other actions such as:

• subscription to a newsletter;
• the opening rate of your e-mails;
• answering a questionnaire;
• Downloading a product (e-book, PDF, video, etc.);
• sharing an article or a page; 
• etc.

Tip: If you are an e-merchant, the e-mailing conversion rate is also important for you. Indeed, capturing the e-mail of Internet users who surf on your pages, will allow you to bring them back to your site later and increase their confidence in you, in your brand. The more subscribers you have to your newsletter, the greater the chances that your visitors will come back to you and take action by becoming customers.

How to calculate your conversion rate in e-commerce?

First of all, you have to define the objective to be achieved that you want to measure. For example, calculating transactions or newsletter sign-ups. Then simply divide the number of actions taken by the number of visitors. To obtain a more precise conversion rate, you can choose to only take unique visitors into account (in this case, this means counting each Internet user only once, even if they visit the same page several times). times).

Let’s take an example: in January, 150,000 unique visitors visited your site and 4,000 transactions were made over the same period. Your e-commerce conversion rate is (4,000/150,000) x 100 or 2.6%. 

To obtain your conversion rate in a very simple way, you can also consult your dashboard on Google Analytics. If you have selected e-commerce there, it will automatically appear in the “E-commerce” section.

Interpreting its average conversion rate

After its calculation, it is a question of carefully analyzing the result before thinking about the means to put in place to improve it. In order to properly interpret the average conversion rate obtained by your site, it is necessary to ask yourself the following questions.

What is the average conversion rate in your industry?

To determine this, you have to compare yourself to your competitors. In order to help you, different organizations, whether independent or not, publish different studies each year. For France, you can, for example, consult the annual report of the FEVAD (Federation of E-commerce and Distance Selling).

In general, for an e-commerce site, a satisfactory conversion rate is around 3%. However, some of them with well-crafted strategies approach 20%. Some figures can make you dizzy, so be careful to compare what is comparable and not rely too much on averages. A high conversion rate for one business sector may be low for another and vice versa.

What factors does it depend on?

The average conversion rate depends on several factors:

• the type of product (retail products, subscription, luxury products, training, etc.);
• the area of ​​the activity;
• the average basket;
• geographical location;
• brand awareness;
• seasonality;
• etc. 

Your reflection around an improvement of your conversion rate must therefore be done in relation to these factors. It is useless to compare the conversion rate of sites whose difference between the average baskets is enormous.

Example: A platform that sells training at 600 euros each and an online store of consumer goods that sells products at low prices.

Indeed, it will take many more conversions for the latter to reach the same turnover as the first. Its rate will therefore be much higher, but that does not mean that its turnover will also be higher. Their sales strategies will also be very different.

Indeed, the commercial process will be much longer for the platform. He will have to gain the trust of a client to convince him to spend a larger sum.

The importance of editorial content to improve the conversion rate

Now that you have discovered the importance of this KPI. You have certainly understood the need to include it in your strategic thinking to conduct an effective marketing campaign. In your action plan to improve your conversion rate, if there is one aspect that should not be overlooked, it is editorial content.

Working constantly to generate traffic on your e-commerce site is already a very good thing. But if the leads you attract to your product pages don’t click to buy, you’ll have worked for nothing. Editorial content will be decisive in your SEO strategy and for your referencing, but also in your sales funnel.

Do not hesitate any longer and surround yourself with a team of professional web editors. ghostwriters will be unrivaled when it comes to writing impactful category pages and product sheets for you. Both for your potential customers and for search engines. These pages are often overlooked by e-merchants.

However, they are decisive in the purchasing process. Make a difference and give your prospects all the information and details they need to make up their minds. This will give them an additional reason to trust you rather than another. The e-commerce conversion rate having no more secrets for you, now is the time to get to work. From now on, in addition to attracting visitors with a good strategy, you will redouble your efforts to keep them on your page and encourage them to take action. More than ever, an excellent user experience (UX) and quality content are essential assets for your success. Do not hesitate any longer and call on the freelancers of Web and make your business take off on the web.