The Right Way to Calculate eCommerce Conversion Rate (& How to Improve it)

For eCommerce store owners, ‘conversion rate’ is the most talked about term.
Understanding the ins and outs of conversion rates helps eCommerce stores to measure return on investment (ROI).
In this article, you’ll learn:
1. How to calculate your eCommerce conversion rate
2. Is conversion rate a KPI or metric in eCommerce
3. What is a typical conversion rate in eCommerce
4. Which conversion rate metrics should you track
5. What factors actually affect eCommerce conversion rate measurements
6. What are the most common mistakes in measuring eCommerce conversion rate
7. What tools should I use to measure conversion rate effectively
8. How to see eCommerce conversion rate calculation in Google Analytics
9. How to see eCommerce conversion rate calculation in Shopify
10. What if your online store receives high traffic but still has no conversions
11. How to improve the conversion rate on your eCommerce store
Simply divide the number of purchases by the traffic received during a particular period, and then multiply that number by 100.
Here’s what the eCommerce conversion rate formula looks like:
(The number of conversions/The total number of visitors) X 100
For instance, if an eCommerce store receives 5000 visitors in a month and has 50 sales, the conversion rate would be:
(50 / 5000 visitors) X 100 = 1% conversion rate
✅ Key things to keep in mind when calculating eCommerce conversion rate:
Track conversion rate over meaningful time periods – like a month or a quarter – so you can actually spot trends and patterns (rather than getting thrown off by daily spikes or drops)
Only count placed orders when calculating conversion rate – not actions like email signups or quiz completions. And it’s okay to include repeat orders from the same customer.
Use total site traffic (sessions) as the divisor when calculating the overall store conversion rate – it helps you assess how your site performs when it gets traffic
Use unique visitors as the divisor when calculating conversion rates for specific customer segments – this gives you a clearer sense of how well your personalization efforts are working
Further reading: 24 Scientific Strategies to Increase your eCommerce Conversion Rate
A 'metric' and 'KPI' are terms often used interchangeably.
The key difference between a metric and a KPI is that a metric tracks the status of an eCommerce business process, and a KPI offers information about whether you hit a predefined business goal.
Conversion rate is considered the most important KPI in eCommerce.
The average conversion rate for eCommerce across sectors in 2025 hovers between 2% to 4% (but it depends on the industry, too).
However, a disclaimer – some industries might see better conversion rates depending on product demand, while some industries might be way too niche to see a good conversion rate.
While the statistics for eCommerce conversion rates by industry offer an overall idea, there is no universal fixed benchmark for eCommerce conversion rates.
How to set a conversion rate benchmark for your store?
Your conversion rate benchmark helps you figure out if there’s room to improve. Let’s say the average mobile conversion rate in your industry is around 2%, but, if your store is sitting at 0.5%—it's time to make some changes.
Here are the steps to set a realistic benchmark using the STAR methodology (specific, time-bound, attainable, and realistic):
Measure where you are with your CVR now. What’s your current conversion rate across devices and traffic types?
Compare it to your industry’s average conversion rate . Are you lagging behind or ahead?
Set a realistic conversion rate goal. For example, if you’re at 1%, aim for a 30% lift over the next quarter, across your store.
Once that’s in place, plan a few changes: optimize your highest-traffic pages, fix under-perform ones, A/B test offers, and track the correct metrics that actually move the needle (which we discuss in the next section).
Need ideas on what a good conversion rate benchmark is, for your niche? We’ve got you covered 👇
Further reading: eCommerce conversion rate by industry (2025 update)
While the eCommerce conversion rate formula only considers certain metrics, here are additional metrics that are necessary to accurately calculate conversion rates in eCommerce stores:
In eCommerce, page visits and conversion rates by funnel refer to the number of shoppers interacting with your store and how many shoppers turn into customers.
Also known as the funnel conversion rate, your goal here is to track the completion rate for various actions on your eCommerce website that lead to a purchase. Examples? Think: adding products to the cart, initiating checkout, and completing a purchase.
Here are the eCommerce conversion rate formulas by funnel stage:
Add to cart rate – page visits with add to cart/page visits to product page X 100
Cart to checkout conversion rate – page visits at checkout/page visits on the cart page X 100
Checkout completion rate – page visits at your “thank you” page/page visits at checkout X 100
Funnel completion rate – page visits at “thank you” page/page visits at entry point X 100
Calculate the completion rate for each step across the funnel – and keep a lookout for an unusually high number of drop-offs (for example, the average checkout completion rate is 42% for mobile shoppers)
If you notice a low completion rate between these actions, it simply means your store may have usability issues or there are barriers to conversion that need to be addressed.
eCommerce stores should monitor page visits and completion rates to identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to increase user engagement on each step along the funnel.
🚨 Heads-Up:
Remember: The way you calculate funnel conversion rate and completion rate is extremely similar (for example, if you have low quiz completions, check which step causes the most drop-offs).
The new visitor conversion rate in eCommerce is a metric that measures the percentage of first-time visitors who purchase from the store.
Here’s how the new visitor conversion rate is calculated:
The number of new visitors who make a purchase/the total number of new visitors to the website during a specific time X 100
A high new visitor conversion rate indicates that the online store is successfully engaging and converting first-time visitors into customers.
On the other hand, a low conversion rate may indicate that barriers are preventing new visitors from completing a purchase.
eCommerce stores can track and optimize the new visitor conversion rate to increase and retain customers.
The returning visitor conversion rate is a metric that measures the percentage of visitors who return to the store and make a purchase.
Here’s how the returning visitor conversion rate is calculated:
The number of returning visitors who make a purchase/the total number of returning visitors to the website during a specific time
A high returning visitor conversion rate indicates that your store successfully retains customers and encourages them to make repeat purchases.
A low conversion rate may indicate that there are issues with the online store's user experience or customer service.
eCommerce stores should track returning visitor conversion rates and improve customer loyalty and retention.
The average revenue per buyer, or ARPB, is a key metric that measures the average amount of revenue generated by each buyer over a specific time.
Here’s how ARPB is calculated:
The total revenue generated/the number of unique buyers during the time
A high ARPB indicates that your store effectively drives revenue from its customer base. On the other hand, a low ARPB indicates that it’s time to take a relook at your CRO strategies.
Keep reading: Increasing Average Revenue Per User: 18 Proven Strategies For eCommerce Stores
Average order value (AOV) tracks the average amount spent each time a customer places an order on a website or mobile app.
Here’s how to calculate the average order value:
Total revenue/the number of orders
The checkout abandonment rate is a metric that measures customers who go beyond the shopping cart and start the checkout process but do not complete a purchase.
Here’s how to calculate the checkout abandonment rate:
Completed purchases / Number of checkout processes started but abandoned X 100
Don't forget to read: 21 Clever Ways To Reduce Checkout Abandonment Rate
Customer acquisition cost is the total overall cost to acquire a new customer.
Here’s how to calculate the customer acquisition cost:
Total marketing and sales expenses / Number of customers acquired
According to a report, the average time on a page across all industries is 54 seconds.
Furthermore, a report shows that half of all online purchases occur within 28 minutes of the initial click. 75% occur within 24 hours, 90% by day 12, and the remainder occurs more than 4 weeks after the initial click.
The average time spent on a website changes due to certain factors that influence a shopper’s behavior, and factors on your web page will either have them scrolling through or clicking away.
Customer lifetime value measures the total amount of revenue your company receives from an average customer over the entire time they are a customer.
Here’s how to calculate customer lifetime value:
Average order value in a period X Purchase frequency per period for average customer X Number of periods average customer is retained
Refund and return rate metric tracks how often customers return products as a percentage of your total sales.
Here’s how to calculate refund and return rates:
Returns company accepted in a period / Total number of products sold in period X 100
Recommended reading: 10 Sure-Shot Ways to Boost Your eCommerce ROI
Bounce Rate is defined as the percentage of visitors that leave a webpage without taking an action, such as making a purchase, clicking on a link, or filling out a form.
Bounce rate is important for three main reasons:
You must also read: 27 Practical Ways To Reduce eCommerce Bounce Rate
Email conversion rate is the percentage of traffic from your emails that end up purchasing or taking some form of action (like filling in a quiz).
Here’s how you can calculate email conversion rate:
Purchases from Email Clicks/Total Email Clicks X 100
A low email conversion rate can indicate a number of things:
Keep in mind though: this is a very flat calculation, which is why it’s better to segment your email conversion rate by campaign type, customer intent, purchase history, and behavior.
Keep reading: 17 Proven Ideas to Improve Email Marketing Conversion Rate (+ Examples)
Your product category conversion rate is the number of sales a particular product category gets.
Here’s how you can calculate the product category conversion rate:
Conversions in Product Category/Visitors to that Category X 100
For example, if your “Sleepwear” category had 5,000 unique visitors last month and 225 orders, your category page conversion rate would be:
(225 ÷ 5,000) X 100 = 4.5%
You can use a product category’s conversion rate to see what products/categories are over/under-performing. Take it further to decide promotions, cross-sells, or bundling, and optimize your category page's UX (think copy, navigation, product listing layout, filter style, etc.).
If you're selling high-ticket or commitment-heavy products (like a $250 serum or a quarterly subscription box), expect lower conversion rates – and plan your funnel accordingly. Pay special attention to micro-conversions, like initiating a live chat, or expanding your product descriptions (indicates someone is trying to justify your pricing).
A user coming in via a blog post will behave differently from someone clicking on a Google Shopping ad. ‘Where’ someone enters your site has a direct impact on conversion rates – and needs to be tracked to the T.
100K sessions mean nothing if 90% bounce, right away. Better to have 10K targeted sessions from a Facebook retargeting ad or a repeat email flow – especially if they’ve seen your products before.
Returning visitors in eCommerce stores are anywhere between 2x to 5x more likely to convert. So if your conversion rate is slipping, check how your new vs returning shopper ratio has shifted.
Got featured in a newsletter or a big-name media outlet? Expect a temporary dip in conversion rates – because you’ve got all this ‘curious but not ready to buy yet’ traffic coming in. Plan your retargeting campaigns early.
Too many clicks. Slow load speed. Surprise shipping costs. Lack of social proof. A confusing discount code field. All of these elements are perfect conversion rate killers, especially when stacked on a single site.
Running a promo every week? Your conversion rate outside of those windows will tank. Shoppers get trained to wait (or worse, just leave). Instead: Experiment with gated offers, bundles, or loyalty-specific perks.
A 200-SKU store behaves very differently from a 2000-SKU store. The more options, the more cognitive load. Conversion rates drop unless filtered navigation, search relevance, and personalization are standard.
Conversion rates can swing dramatically by season – especially for categories like fashion, outdoor gear, or gifting. Don’t measure December with April expectations.
The average eCommerce conversion rate benchmark was 1.74% in Great Britain for Q2 of 2025. However, if you take a deep dive, you will notice the average conversion rate for eCommerce varies wildly. For example, food and beverage eComm brands hover between 3% to 5%, while automotive brands hover at 1.57%. What it means for you: set the correct (and realistically achievable) conversion rate benchmarks.
It’s not enough to know your overall store converts at 2.1%. What’s your category-wise CVR? Maybe skincare converts at 3.5%, while makeup is struggling at 1.2%. Once you know how to fix your underperformers, your conversion rate automatically gets a bump.
Not calculating your conversion rate by user segments across each funnel stage = Not checking if your personalization works
Here’s the formula to calculate the conversion rate by customer segment:
(Total number of purchases in a segment/Total number of users in that segment) X 100
As always, do pick a time period to calculate the conversion rate and compare over time.
Need ideas on what segments to target? Here are some ideas to calculate and compare conversion rates for segments for:
This way, you’ll immediately spot which funnel stage and audience segments actually convert better – and double down on what’s working (like sending a “10% off” to regular email openers).
Keep reading: 12 Critical eCommerce Segmentation Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
You ran a livestream, sent an SMS campaign, or hosted a flash sale – and then looked at total sales. That’s not enough. What was the conversion lift for that cohort of visitors? How long did the effect last? How many were repeat buyers? How many went on to become repeat buyers? That right there is the gold.
Day-to-day conversion rate calculation is just pure noise. The curve is just going to be too variable. Instead, just use week-over-week or month-over-month views – especially if your ad budgets fluctuate or if you run timed campaigns.
This simply means you can measure conversion rate for your eCommerce store in two ways:
→ Based on sessions (or what most call visitors): this metric helps you understand how well your site converts when it gets traffic – useful for calculating conversion rates by traffic type and source
→ Based on users (unique shoppers): helps you understand how well you target your shoppers individually – useful for calculating conversion rates for the average customer
Session-based conversion rate calculations can get inflated with returning traffic. However, user-based calculations can suffer from double reporting if a user switches devices (or worse, comes back after a long time).
The way out? Use both, because you should also understand how many sessions it takes on average for a shopper to convert.
Remember:
If GA4 isn’t properly configured, you’re missing critical behavior data. Extend the session durations to 7 hrs, instead of the usual 30 minutes – and make sure your CDP can map cross-device activity (think: hashed identifiers, like device ID).
Google Analytics 4: Still the most detailed free tracking tool – but configure it right (extend session durations, connect your CDP if you have one).
Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity: See where people drop off or get stuck with heatmaps.
Mixpanel / Amplitude: Great for product behavior tracking – especially if you're trying to measure conversions across logged-in users or app installs.
In Google Analytics, you can define any actions that are valuable to your online store as a conversion.
Google Analytics monitors eCommerce goals such as purchases, adds-to-cart, sign-ups, etc.
In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the ‘goals’ have been replaced by conversions based on events you send to your property (online store).
To configure a conversion in GA4, head to the ‘Events’ report and select which events you would like to mark as a conversion.
In GA4, conversions are based on event_name.
Every event has at least one parameter in common: event_name. The value of this parameter is the name of the event.
When you mark an event as a conversion, Google Analytics registers a conversion every time that event_name is sent.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to get started: GA4 for eCommerce Sites with a Shopify Example
Shopify's conversion summary offers an overview of a customer's previous visits and behavior leading up to purchase from your online store.
Here’s how to view an order's conversion summary:
Step 1: From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Step 2: Click an order number to view its information. On the order page, you'll see a section called Conversion Summary.
Step 3: To view conversion details, click View conversion details.
The conversion summary appears on the order details page and includes an overview of:
Furthermore, click on ‘view conversion details’ to see additional conversion details for that customer:
You also need to read: 27 Founders/Store Owners Share eCommerce CRO Best Practices
According to a report, the average conversion rate for Shopify was 1.4%.
Anything above 1.4% can be considered a good conversion rate.
Furthermore, a conversion rate above 3.2% will put you in the best 20% of Shopify stores, and more than 4.7% will put you in the best 10%.
A conversion rate (all devices) of less than 0.4% will put you in the worst 20% of Shopify stores, and less than 0.0% will put you in the worst-performing stores.
Many eCommerce store owners ask us:
Why am I getting clicks but no conversions?
Why is my website traffic not converting to sales?
Why is my conversion rate dropping?
Here are some of the most common reasons why your online store receives high traffic but still doesn’t get conversions:
Read more: Why is your conversion rate dropping: 24 possible causes
eCommerce stores can effectively implement conversion rate optimization strategies throughout a buyer’s journey.
CRO strategies can help to increase the eventual conversions by making certain tweaks on different web pages.
Do read: Seasoned eCommerce Leaders Predict CRO Trends for 2024
According to research, you have 10–30 seconds to convince your visitors to stay on your webpage.
First impressions matter. So think of your homepage as something that makes the first impact on a shopper's mind. If it’s engaging, has the right incentives, and looks visually appealing, then they’ll come back to shop or browse, even if they bounce off in the first session. - Luke Perry, CRO specialist, Convertcart
On the homepage, make sure the following elements are prominent:
We love Joy + Glee's homepage:
Further reading: 14 must-have elements for your eCommerce homepage
An eCommerce product page helps shoppers discover the specifics of a product.
The specifics include:
We love JC Penney’s product page keeps building as a shopper keeps scrolling:
Don’t know your product page conversion score? Take this test.
Elements all High-Performing Product Pages Have in Common (Updated for 2025)
Product page UX: 22 data-backed secrets for high conversions
7 Unconventional Product Page Metrics for eCommerce (& Insights)
45 Proven Ways to Increase Product Page Conversions
At checkout, only half the battle is won. Your shoppers have browsed, liked something, selected it, and added it to the cart. But if your checkout is complicated and there are obstacles (sign up or fill in details like contact number), then it’s all for nothing. - Mike Hale, UX Strategist, Convertcart
A staggering proportion of shoppers drop off from the checkout page — but what’s interesting is — the reasons are easily improvable. Stuff like:
We love Firebox's progress indicator on their checkout page:
How Do I Increase My Website’s Checkout Rate?
25 Amazing (& High Converting) Mobile Checkout Examples
35 Stunning Examples of Checkout Pages
i. Inclusive Marketing: 22 eCommerce brands that do it right
ii. 18 brilliant ways to use microcopy to boost eCommerce conversions
iii. Simplify online shopping for senior citizens: 11 UX ideas
iv. Multi-step vs single page checkout, which is better for your eCommerce store?
98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.
Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.
And this is the problem ConvertCart solves.
We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.
Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.
Technically, yes – but not immediately
Here’s what most folks get wrong: they think more traffic = more conversions. However, if your site isn’t converting well already, adding more traffic just pours water into a leaky bucket.
Moreover, more traffic doesn't always mean they will convert immediately (or even convert at all). So your goal here is to get a conversion lift (an increase in the number of conversions, but not conversion rate)
✅ When increasing traffic can increase conversion lift:
❌ When it won’t work:
Key Takeaway:
Conversion rate is the percentage of users who convert – but conversion lift is about an increase in the number of conversions over time. So, do get traffic.
This is called Earnings Per Visitor (EPV) or Revenue Per Visitor (RPV) – and it’s THE goldmine metric for understanding ROI.
Formula:
Revenue / Total Number of Visitors (or Sessions)
Example:
If you made $5,000 from 10,000 sessions in a week:
👉 5000 / 10000 = $0.50 per session
Here’s how you can use this metric:
If mobile sessions are worth $0.32 but desktop sessions are worth $0.95, where would you scale first?
If email traffic brings $2.10 per visit and Instagram brings $0.18, which one do you nurture?
You can also calculate EPV by segment:
Takeaway:
When you know what each session is worth, you can confidently set budgets for ads, influencer fees, content efforts – and know what kind of margin you’re playing with.
Keep Reading: 13 Guaranteed Ways To Boost Revenue per Visitor (eCommerce)
You can do both – but each serves a different purpose.
For example, if you have a lot of repeat visitors who don’t convert, your user-based conversion rate will look worse – which is useful to know if you’re doing remarketing.
While many eCommerce brands treat “sales conversion rate,” “purchase conversion rate,” or “order conversion rate” as THE conversion rate for their store, there are three distinct types of metrics you need to measure conversion rate:
👉 Sales metrics: This is your standard eCommerce conversion rate → (No. of purchases or orders or sales / No. of visitors) X 100. It’s a good top-level indicator, but on its own, it’s not enough – unless, of course, you actually calculate conversion rates by product, visitor, device, behavior, and campaign types (email, organic, retargeting, paid, referral).
👉 Completion metrics: These metrics track specific actions that lead to sales but aren’t sales themselves – like account signups, add to wishlist, or successful quiz completions. For example, if your newsletter sign-up rate is high, but the number of purchase conversions isn’t going anywhere, there’s a disconnect in your emails (or worse, your funnel).
👉 Funnel metrics: These tell you where conversions are breaking off (like cart-to-checkout rate or search-to-purchase rate). For example, if your cart-to-checkout rate is 60% but your checkout-to-purchase rate is just 20%, you don’t have a traffic problem – you have a friction problem.