ECommerce sales information and opinions from Rob Charlebois, selling online since 1998, driving over 20M in annual ECommerce sales.

ECommerce Conversion Rates and Conversion Rate Factors - Part 1

November 8th, 2007 Posted in ECommerce

A colleague of mine from a previous company asked me recently…
“How do I raise conversion rates on my ECommerce site by 10%?”
He went on to tell me that if he simply raised conversion rates by 10% it would result in massive revenue growth and how he was convinced that a redesign was the most effective thing he could do to raise conversion. While I agree that this could be a major opportunity we ended up discussing several other factors that should be considered when targeting your conversion rate for revenue growth.
The factors that should be considered are not simply the design and functionality of your shopping cart, they are much more and begin earlier than your checkout. Some conversion rate factors are listed below:

  • Targeted Marketing
  • Clarity of Marketing Message
  • Page Load Times
  • Presentation and Feel
  • Selection and Shopping Tools
  • Pricing and Competition
  • Reputation and Brand
  • Site Trust and Legitimacy
  • Return Policy
  • Delivery Times
  • Shipping Costs
  • Credit Card Processing and Card Validation


With all of these factors it is really hard to pick and prioritize where to spend your conversion rate improvement efforts. It was clear after this conversation that although an important factor, the shopping cart is only one factor affecting your conversion rate.
For more information on conversion rate basics have a look at this article from Bryan Eisenberg written on the ClickZ network.

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