What is a good conversion rate

[grub]

Guys, We are new to this. What is an appropriate conversion rate? We have been able to get good traffic to our new site and we have been generating good initial sales numbers but we really have no idea what a good conversion rate is. What kinda numbers does everyone else see? What is a reasonable goal to shoot for?

How do you compare conversion rates from one source to another (we see 10x difference from some sources versus others).

Looking forward to your insight.

- grub

[Jeff Petrosillo]

Hey Grub,

It's tough to tell, conversion rates vary wildly among industries. The standard is between 1%-3% with anything below that considered poor and anything above really good. It also varies from company to company and, as you stated, within each marketing channel.

Its good to compare to others in your industry to get a feel for the temperature, but overall you should focus on trends within your own data. If a marketing channels conversion rates are profitable then continue investing in that channel. If the conversion rate isn't high enough to sustain profitability then cut that channel or look for ways to optimize it so it can become profitable.

In the end it doesn't matter how others are performing if your business is profitable and realizing continuous growth.

Hope this helps.

-Jeff

[SeanEbusiness]

As Jeff states 1%-3 would be considered reasonable conversion rates for retail products.

Depending on how targeted your site traffic is and on your product offer it is possible to attain higher rates of conversion.

To give you an idea of what is possible see these published conversion rates for December 2008.

It is worth studying the layout and checkout process of these sites to see what you can apply to increase your web conversion rate.

[Cactus_Robyn]

Hello,

Conversion rates also depends upon channels. For example, are you referring to direct traffic? PPC? Organic? Email Marketing?

Email Marketing tends to have one of the highest conversion rates (approximately 7%) because you are re-marketing to people with whom you have already done business, or with those who have expressed an interest in your site.

Since you are new, be sure to check out our blog for tons of great e-commerce tips!

E-Commerce Blog by Solid Cactus

I wish you much success!