Conversion rate
Conversion is the most quoted and least useful single figure in e-commerce, because everything that matters is hidden inside the average.
conversion = orders / sessions
Segment before concluding
- By device: mobile and desktop behave differently enough to be separate businesses
- By channel: search traffic converts differently from social traffic
- By new against returning visitors
- By product group, where basket size and consideration time differ
An overall rate that has not moved in a year often conceals mobile improving and desktop declining, or the reverse.
The funnel view
A single rate says something changed; a funnel says where. Sessions, product views, baskets, checkouts and orders, each as a share of the previous step, points directly at the stage that leaks.
What moves it
In practice: delivery information shown early, payment methods that match the market, product images that answer the obvious question, and a checkout that does not demand an account. Redesigns move it far less often than the changes that sound too small to matter.