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The Average Conversion Rate in 2019: Where Are You Positioned?

• The conversion rate is the ratio between users who visit a website and those who take a certain action (buying a product, clicking on a certain page, filling in a form, etc.)
• The higher the conversion rate, the higher your ROI (return on investment).
• In order to increase the conversion rate, you need to invest in CRO strategies (conversion rate optimization), such as optimizing the content and the website, creating quality content, and getting to know your clients using analytic tools.
• Globally, the average conversion rate in December 2019 was approx. 2.12%, an increase from December 2018 (1.70%)

What is a conversion rate, how is it calculated, and why should you be paying more attention to it? What are the global and European statistics regarding conversion rates, and what are the expectations for 2020? What do you need to do this year (and beyond) in order to increase your conversion rate?

Online merchants from all over the world are talking about conversion rates. This is an indicator of the online success of your business. However, it’s not wise to compare your business to those in other e-commerce areas, or from other countries, since the conversion rate differs wildly from one country to another, from one industry to another, and depends on market maturity and customer trust in a brand, and so on.

Even so, in order to get a clearer picture of how well you’re doing when it comes to sales, conversion rate analysis is essential.

What’s the conversion rate?

The conversion rate refers to the ratio between users who visit a website and those who take a certain pre-established action (conversion rate = visitors who take the action / total visitors x 100), but it can also be calculated based on visits (conversion rate = number of visits (sessions) that ended in an action / total visits x 100).

For example, if you have an online shop visited by 1000 visitors per week, 20 of which make a purchase, then your conversion rate for the week is 2%.
Most times an action is the purchase of a product, but other actions (goals) can be established, such as accessing the contact page or another special page (landing page), creating an account, or filling out a form, etc.

Conversion source

In order to secure as high a conversion rate as possible, you’ll need to invest in marketing strategies to attract visitors to your website.
Thus, depending on the channel they come from, conversions can be organic (originating from search engine traffic), from social media, from e-mail marketing campaigns or from pay-per-click campaigns.

Why is it important to have a high conversion rate?

Tracking your conversion rate is important because it indicates if you have an efficient marketing strategy, and how well your money is invested. So, the higher the conversion rate, the better your ROI (ratio between net profit and investment cost).

Average conversion rate for 2019: what are the stats?

According to data published by many digital marketing agencies, the conversion rate in Europe is around 1.51%, while in the US and UK the values are 1.37% and 1.78% respectively (source).
On the other hand, on a global level, the average conversion rate in December 2019 was around 2.12%, an increase from December 2018, when it was 1.70 (source).

Conversion rate by market – on a global scale

As stated before, the conversion rate can be very different from one industry to another. Therefore, according to available data, the highest conversion rate registered last year was for the health and wellbeing market (3.74%, compared to 2.50% in 2018), followed by arts and crafts (3.24%, a decrease of 0.59% from 2018), clothes and accessories (2.10%, compared to 1.33% in 2018), and appliances and commercial equipment (2%, compared to 2.49% in 2018), etc.

Conversion rate by market – in Romania

For Romania, the most recent data regarding the evolution of the conversion rate is that published by Omnicovert for 2018. The market with the most impressive conversion rate is food delivery (11.1%), followed at a great distance by the pet products market (5.7%), services (3.7%), online bookshops (2.7%), medical paraphernalia and accessories (1.7%), fashion (1.1%), electronics and IT&C (1.0%) and supermarket products (0.2%).

Conversion rate by device

Regarding the conversion rate registered globally in the first half of 2019 by the device used, the data is desktop (3.9%), tablet (3.49%), mobile phone (1.82%), other devices (0.06%). (source)

What to expect in 2020

As you can see, the numbers for conversion rates are not universal and vary greatly among industries, as well as between countries or regions. Furthermore, there are several other factors that can majorly influence these numbers, among which we’ll mention only the most important ones: branding, niche, target audience, marketing strategies, investments, etc.
It cannot be said with certainty if this year’s average conversion rate will increase or decrease (although it will probably increase, based on the trend in the last few years), nor which industry will face increases or decreases. It all depends on market saturation in a certain sector or high demand in another, and so on.

However, what you can do this year is to optimize the conversion rate for your own business.

Here’s how:

1. Get to know your customers

Understanding the desires and behavior of your customers is the best foundation for conversion rate optimization (CRO). Without knowing this you will only waste time and money optimizing pointless aspects.
How do you find out who your customers are and what they want from you? First of all, by using analytic tools such as Google Analytics. Second, you can run surveys, read reviews carefully, or track customers’ paths on the website.

Knowing your customers thoroughly, you’ll be able to address the right audiences, make customized recommendations and create a website that offers the best navigation experience. All of this will translate to a higher conversion rate.

2. Remove all doubts

When a customer needs clarification regarding a certain product and they cannot quickly find the answer, the chances of them leaving the website without making a purchase are extremely high. In order to make that less likely, make a list of questions and answers that are truly helpful to customers. Don’t just do it because it’s the thing to do, but to truly answer the questions. Place yourself in the customer’s shoes and try to figure out what questions and concerns they might have.

Furthermore, don’t forget to provide a live chat to your customers (either a chatbot or a real person) so as to answer questions in real time.

3. Optimize

First off, you should ensure that browsing the website is as easy as possible. If customers are getting lost in a sea of links and pages, they won’t be able to find the product they’re actually interested in, and consequently they will not buy it. Avoid adding unnecessary content so that you don’t clog up the page. Instead, make products easy to find, easy to add to the cart, and easy to pay for.

Secondly (but just as important), you have to focus on optimizing the content on your website, since many clients start by searching for a product on Google by a certain keyword or phrase. Identify the keywords that best match your business and add them to the content you post on the website. This way, people will find you more easily and you’ll have a better chance to make the sale.

4. Create quality content

Speaking about quality content can seem almost quaint. Everybody talks about it, but few actually do it. Even so, quality content will always be an essential aspect in increasing the conversion rate.

If you cannot do it yourself, don’t hesitate to hire a professional. Superficial content full of spelling errors will make customers think you don’t truly care about them or the quality of your products.

These are just some of the actions you can take in order to optimize your conversion rate. As vast as the topic is, the main point is that in order to sell you need to be authentic, to know how to market yourself, to offer quality products and services, and to be easy to find (this is where social media helps you).

The conversion rate is not just another term meant to give you a headache when you’re devising your marketing strategy. Rather, it’s an essential element of how you position your business.