In online marketing we call conversion rate to the percentage of visits that perform a certain action on a website. When we talk about conversion rate in electronic commerce we refer to the percentage of visits that make a purchase in an online store.
To calculate it is enough to divide the number of sales that we have obtained in a certain period between the visits in that same period. For example, if our website for a month has had 5000 visits and these have generated 60 sales, we will say that our conversion rate is equal to 1.20%.
Currently it is understood that an electronic commerce works properly when its conversion rate is between 1% and 3%, getting higher values is very rare and only usually get websites from large brands that generate a lot of confidence or those Online stores with years of experience that have been highly optimized
Factors that influence the conversion rate in an electronic commerce:
There are many factors that can influence a in the conversion rate, some of the most important are:
- The quality of the visits: although it seems obvious, all visits are not the same. We will have to analyze very well where they come from. If they come from links in other websites, social networks, if they come from a search engine and in this case what keyword used to find us, see if in your home country is possible to sell, if the web is translated into your language, etc. .
- Price: without doubt the most important factor. Numerous studies agree that the most determining factor when buying online is the price. Therefore having a competitive price compared to our competition is essential for our online business to work.
- Shipping costs: it is one of the factors that causes much of the dropouts in the buying process. Many online stores are not transparent with shipping costs, they usually show at the end and often increase above what the visitor considers acceptable to reduce the price of the product.
- Delivery time: websites like Amazon can deliver in 24 or 48 hours. If our delivery time is more than a week, many visitors will opt for websites from the competition that will get your order faster, even paying more for it.
- Trust; It is fundamental that our electronic commerce generate confidence to the user. Using trusted third party seals, secure browsing, and opinions from other users will improve our conversion rate.
- Usability: that the user is comfortable navigating our e-commerce will help improve the conversion rate. It is important that the web loads fast, adapts to different devices such as mobile phones and tablets, that it is easy to find the product they are looking for and that the buying process is simple and in few steps.
Improving the conversion rate should be a key objective for any e-commerce owner, since it depends to a large extent on whether the business is profitable. To do a good web analytics of the site is fundamental, tools like Google Analytics will help us to carry out this work
