Human nature may remain constant across decades and technologies, but in 2024, consumers haven’t had as many options when deciding where to place their attention and how to make transactions. As a result, retailers must choose the channels and conversion techniques that work best for their shoppers in adaptive and personalized ways.
The latest Ecommerce Conversion Report from Digital Commerce 360 breaks down which types of merchants are seeing the best results in today’s digital environment. More importantly, however, the report showcases examples of the conversion strategies that shoppers seem to like, as well as the strategies that successful online retailers say are working for them.
What’s in the 2024 Ecommerce Conversion report?
In the report, Digital Commerce 360 highlights 2023 online conversion rate data among North America’s Top 2000 retailers, what retailers are doing in 2024 to boost conversion, what they can do to boost it going forward, as well as what works — and doesn’t — for online shoppers. It also features conversion rate data by merchant type and merchandise category.
The report highlights seven key factors that affect conversion rates in 2024:
- Price and shipping
- Trust
- Social media
- Customer service
- Mobile experience
- Personalization
- Omnichannel options
What kinds of retailers have the best online conversion rates?
In 2023, a year defined by inflation, uncertainty and industrywide shifts in favor of efficiency, conversions got more difficult for online retailers. After years of relative stability, the median conversion rate fell for retailers in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000. They dipped to 2.7% in 2023 from 2.8% in both 2022 and 2021. The full report also includes data for the next 1000 largest online retailers.
If the past few years are any indication of how online conversion rates are faring so far in 2024, the best are among what Digital Commerce 360 refers to as “direct marketers.” These are mostly retailers with roots in selling via catalogs, along with a handful that market their wares via TV shopping shows.
Although the group’s conversion rate dipped in 2023 — as was the case for all four merchant types — it still outperformed the other three groups as well as the Top 1000’s combined median rate across merchant types. Direct marketers’ median conversion rate fell to 3.7% in 2023. That’s down from 4.1% in 2021. Meanwhile, retail chains had the next-highest median conversion rate over the previous three years. Falling to 2.9% in 2023 from 3.2% in 2021, they still outperformed the Top 1000 as a whole.
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