What does conversion depend on? What is conversion in sales? Definition, formula and calculation example. Marketing strategy. What determines the conversion of an online store?

The concept of “conversion” is quite broad and is used in many fields of science: chemistry, microbiology, psychology, linguistics. Typically, conversion refers to the process of conversion or transformation. Also, the concept of “conversion” is widely used in Internet marketing, so it is important for every IT specialist to have a basic understanding of what it is.

What is conversion?

Conversion is the percentage of visitors to a website who performed some targeted action (placed an order, added an item to the cart, filled out a form, visited a specific page).

Why is conversion needed?

Conversion is an important indicator that helps us understand how we carry out our work, whether we are using the right strategy for the development of a project or website. A high indicator indicates that we are using our resources effectively and working in the right direction. If the indicator is low, we are likely either using our capabilities ineffectively or using the wrong strategy.

Since conversion is a relative indicator, it is extremely important to set the right goals and initial data. Only in this case will it reflect the real performance of a particular department or employee.

How is conversion calculated?

There is no single formula for calculating conversion, since the source data always varies. Conventionally, it can be displayed as follows:
conversion (K) - the ratio of the number of users who performed the target action (P. whole) to the total number of users (P. total).

K = P. whole/P. total*100%

The data for calculating conversion may be different, so it is extremely important to decide:

— with goals (those visitors who performed the target action we are interested in);
— with initial data (the number of visitors that we will take as the basis).

Conversion goals can be very different:

— number of purchases;
— the number of items sent to the cart;
— the number of times the form is filled out with data;
— time spent on the page;
— viewing depth.

The source data may also be different:

— visitors to a certain channel (search, advertising, social networks);
— visitors to certain pages;
— visitors with different parameters (age, geography, gender);
— new or returning visitors.

The right combination of goals and inputs will allow us to better determine where we are doing well and where we are doing poorly. Sounds complicated and unclear? Now let's use an example to explain how this works.

How should you calculate conversion?

Let's imagine that:
1. The landing page received 1,000 visitors in a month.
2. Of these, about 500 people added the product to their cart.
3. Of these, 5 people made a purchase.

Thus, the total conversion will be:

K = 5/1000*100% = 0.5%.

Can we say that the percentage is small? I think yes. But is it possible to understand how these results were achieved, to evaluate the contribution of this or that employee based on this one value? Hard enough.

To do this, let’s break the purchase process into stages:

1) The user's path from searching to adding a product to the cart.

To do this, let’s calculate the percentage of users who added an item to the cart (P. whole) out of the total number of visitors (P. total):

K = 500/1000*100% = 50%.

We get 50% - a very high conversion percentage.

2) The path for the user from adding an item to the cart to making a purchase.

To do this, let’s calculate the percentage of users who bought the product (P. whole) from the number of people who added the product to the cart (P. total):

We get the value 1%.

What can this data tell us?

We can determine that the people who are driving traffic from search are doing their job correctly, but after adding an item to the cart, problems begin (this may be caused by the inconvenience of filling out the order form or even the fact that we do not answer all calls).

The totality of all stages is analogous to a sales funnel.

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is the principle of distributing potential visitors across stages of the entire process: from the first contact to the completion of the most valuable target action (for example, selling a product or service). If we don’t delve into the nuances of sales, but transfer the funnel to the plane of attracting traffic, we can get the following picture:

For example, 1000 people saw our website, 600 of them clicked on it, 200 added an item to their cart, and only 20 made a purchase. By counting the conversion at each stage, you can understand where everything is going well, and where, on the contrary, it is worth putting in more effort.

To collect simple data at each stage, standard analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrica are sufficient.

If you have a low conversion rate and you cannot understand at what stage the problems arise -.

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The components of content visualization are:

a) Direct image of the product. High-quality images increase sales by up to 60%. Products in the photo and in reality should be as similar as possible. Buyers explain about a quarter of product returns by the fact that the product does not correspond to the product stated on the website. Therefore, be careful about the image you place on the pages of your online store. In case of any changes in appearance, update the photos in a timely manner.

b) Video content for online stores. The third part of purchases is made after watching video reviews of products. Therefore, it makes no sense to talk about the positive impact of video files on sales.

4. The price of delivery significantly affects the conversion of the store. For most users, delivery of goods on the day of order does not matter; they are more interested in the cost of delivery. The high cost of delivery of goods leads to users refusing to purchase.

5. Limited options for paying for purchases explain why people buy goods not from you, but from competitors. As a rule, the presence of a variety of payment methods increases the credibility of the site. In addition, more than half of buyers do not purchase goods if they have not found a suitable way to pay for the goods on the website. Indication of payment methods should be clear and accessible. Take care to place this information on your resource to increase conversion.

Why do visitors fill their carts but not buy?

According to various studies, purchase refusals are 67.4%. We bring to your attention statistical observations of categories of visitors to online stores who tend to place an item in the cart but not pay for it:

Most of these visitors are male;
The age category that most often does not complete a purchase belongs to the range of 25-45 years;
The constant search for a more economical option causes approximately 40% of customers to refuse to pay for the chosen product;
Approximately 15% of visitors browse products aimlessly, without planning to purchase them;
The need to register on the website to place an order has a negative impact on website conversion. This is confirmed by about 1/3 of users.
Approximately 10% of visitors refuse to purchase a product due to a lengthy purchase process;
The lack of seller contacts to clarify questions about the product and order forces another 10% of customers to refuse to purchase;
Unclear delivery conditions also lead to a reduction in conversion by about 10%.

Increasing online store conversion: 2 effective steps

You can increase the conversion of your online store and achieve a low percentage of purchase refusals by following the recommendations below:

1. Work on the design of the online store website:

Select the buttons “Buy”, “Next”, “Next”, “Continue”. Selection can be done by color, font, etc., the main thing is that the meaning of the keys is clear and visible;
set the “step indicator”. It must give the buyer a clear idea at what stage of processing his order is;
use a simple design that does not distract visitors from shopping;
Enter a “Back” button at each checkout stage. This will allow the visitor to make changes to their order without any problems.

2. Do not oblige visitors to receive a newsletter after registration.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of online store owners find their newsletter useful, users often refuse to complete registrations due to the lack of an opportunity to unsubscribe from this newsletter. According to statistics, refusals to register for this reason account for 40%.

In addition, many owners do not even notify their customers about automatic inclusion in the mailing list. An additional incentive to purchase the item in the cart will be the automatic selection of similar products, as well as sending notifications to the user that the purchase has not been completed.

One of the main indicators of an online store is its conversion. It is to this that special attention must be paid when carrying out business activities.

To do this, you need to understand all the nuances of its calculation and the factors that directly or indirectly influence it. Only in this case will it be possible to influence this indicator, improving profits and developing your business.

What is online store conversion and why is it needed?

Online store conversion is the ratio of the number of orders to the total number. That is, this indicator is calculated as a percentage of purchases made from the number of people who visited the site. In general, the following formula for calculation can be determined:

Number of purchases x 100% / Number of visitors

Often, for convenience, the conversion of an online store is calculated as a percentage, which is why the result is multiplied by 100%.

For medium-sized businesses, the low figure is 1-2%, while for retail outlets it is 3-4%.

This means that if the conversion exceeds these values, the profit is not minimal. At the same time, you need to try to increase this indicator as much as possible, since it directly affects the earnings of the company as a whole.

As an example of calculating conversion, you can take a certain Internet resource, the number of visitors over a period of time was 1000 people, and the number of orders was only 25. This means that the conversion rate in this case is 25 x 100% / 1000 = 2.5% . This value is not critical, but it is not very high, so the site owner should take care of increasing it.

The conversion rate is a fairly important parameter that evaluates the company’s performance. Therefore, it should always be taken into account, since it shows the real parameters of sales. Focusing only on the number of visitors is the wrong strategy.

What determines the conversion of an online store?

There are quite a lot of factors that, one way or another, affect the conversion rate of an online store. At the same time, correcting individual reasons does not lead to a significant increase in the number of sales, which is why work on the increase must be carried out comprehensively and comprehensively.

The most important factors are reviews on its pages, visualization of content, cost of delivery of goods, as well as the number of ways to pay for services.

Site speed

In addition to the fact that the slow operation of a web resource or its periodic unavailability interfere with its normal viewing, these factors also affect the level of user trust in it. In some cases, this can lead to a significant decrease in online store conversion.

Therefore, it is very important to choose the right one so that when traffic increases, there are no interruptions in the operation of the web resource. This often happens before the holidays or on the eve of a long weekend. Long loading times can make customers more irritable and encourage them to look for other purchasing methods. In addition to the hosting itself, attention should also be paid to caching and database optimization.

Reviews

The item regarding reviews is quite important for an online store. They can be directed both towards the company itself and towards the individual services or goods it provides.

Recently, more and more people have been paying attention to reviews, since they can provide more detailed information that the company selling the products does not indicate. If there are no reviews on the site, then the visitor will most likely go to another resource to get them, which may entail purchasing a product from competitors. This factor does not affect all categories of online stores, but for some of them it is quite significant.

Reviews about the company itself are always more significant, especially if it is represented in very popular price lists of companies such as Yandex. Market.

The more positive reviews about a site on such resources are, the higher its conversion rate will be.

Visualization

For stores that sell, visualization of their content is a very important factor. This is due to the fact that when giving their money for something, the client wants to get more information about it, as well as see what he can get in the end. Without appropriate good and high-quality products, a site visitor is unlikely to decide to order what he needs.

Cost of delivery

This is due to the fact that not all customers agree to pay a large amount for the products they have chosen to be delivered, since there are much more profitable offers for alternative purchasing methods.

That is why, if goods in a store have different prices, it is worth carrying out a certain gradation of the delivery price so as not to scare off potential customers, thereby reducing conversion. It is worth remembering that site visitors simply need to go to competitors’ resources and order products there if they have a lower delivery cost.

Number of payment methods

Very often, site visitors can make payments in one or two ways. If they are not on the resource, then there is almost a 100% guarantee that they will go to competitors to look for the necessary goods.

The more payment methods there are on a site, the greater the chance that a potential customer will use the most suitable one.

This in turn will affect the increase in store conversion.

Quite often, customers do not trust prepayment of the order, so the possibility of paying by cash on delivery upon receipt of the goods significantly increases the conversion rate. This is due to the large number of scammers on the Internet and the increased selectivity of people when making purchases.

is a search robot that transmits site indexing parameters to search engine robots.

To quickly get into the Dmoz directory, you need to undergo a paid registration in the Yandex system directory. Read what could be the reasons for an application being rejected.

The promotion of a web resource depends on TIC and PR. In ours you will learn how to increase these indicators.

Reasons for refusals

There are quite a lot of reasons for refusals to make a purchase, so it is worth understanding them in order to prevent them from operating an online store. Experience working on these web resources shows that quite often potential customers go to competitors due to lack of information, product price, poor managerial performance and poor-quality online store design.

Information

The more detailed information is on the website about a product or service, the more informed the buyer can make a decision. This is important because when you give your money for something,
a person wants to be thoroughly familiar with it so that he can compare all the functions and advantages with its cost. If a visitor to an online store has to go to other resources to find information about a product, there is a high probability that he will make a purchase on another site.

The price of the product

Market relations imply a certain competition in different areas. The rules of economics say that the client gives preference to a cheaper product that matches its quality. That is why too high a price can lead to a refusal to purchase.

In addition, it is also very annoying for site visitors to indicate incorrect information - the advertisement may say one thing, but in reality it turns out that the payment is slightly higher than expected at the beginning.

Manager's job

Poor and incorrect work of managers or sellers of an online store can jeopardize the entire business. This is due to the fact that customers will simply refuse to make purchases. That is why it is worth thinking about ensuring that the staff is qualified and professional.

Site design

It is very important to think through the design correctly so that it promotes sales and not refusals to make purchases.

It is important to pay attention to the location of important categories, menus, breadcrumbs, color combinations and correct display of all blocks.

How to improve online store conversion

If the site's conversion rate is low enough, you need to take care of raising it. This can be done using several basic methods. In this case, it is best to use all of them at once, and not just one. According to the experience of many online store owners, you can increase conversion by adding buttons, simplifying the design, adding a “step indicator,” the ability to unsubscribe from newsletters, and simplifying ordering.

Buttons “Buy”, “Next”, “Next”, “Continue”, “Back”

In order to make it easier for the client to place an order, you need to highlight the buttons with appropriate colors or size for better navigation around the site. Without this, users may become confused or simply refuse to make a purchase.

Simplify your design

Often, when placing an order for a long time, the client is distracted by many elements of the website design, which is why he may temporarily withdraw from the direct process of making a purchase.

Therefore, it is worth removing all irritating and distracting factors, focusing the visitor’s attention on the order.

Add a “step indicator”

The inability to find out information about how much more time will need to be devoted to completing an order, in some cases leads to the fact that a person refuses it. That is why, to avoid this, you need to install a “step indicator” on the website, showing at what stage of the purchase process the client is.

Possibility to unsubscribe from newsletters

Very often, when registering and ordering, a website client is offered a newsletter by email or phone.

This is very annoying for many people, which is why opting out of this feature may increase your inversion rate.

Many visitors, in order not to receive intrusive advertising later, may even refuse to purchase a product, forcing themselves to look twice as long for an alternative option.

Simplify ordering

Very often, when placing an order is a long procedure, the client may refuse to purchase in the middle, going to. This usually happens due to a large number of items that need to be filled out, a complex registration form, or reset of all entered items when a filling error is made. Therefore, it is best to simplify the ordering procedure as much as possible.

Conversion is one of the most important. Any retail outlet, hypermarket, or individual seller should count and analyze conversion data. Conversion can be called differently - CloseRate, number of contacts. But this does not change the essence; naturally, in a country where incoming clients are rarely encountered, they count the number of contacts.

What is conversion

Store conversion is the ratio of customers (number of receipts) to visitors (). Conversion is a universal indicator for any type of sales. The only difference is in the technologies for counting traffic and customers. Sales conversion is a qualitative indicator of the performance of a retail outlet or a specific seller. Conversion is usually measured as a percentage; the higher the percentage, the more visitors turn into buyers. Conversion formula:

Conversion = number of purchases/number of visitors*100%

Conversion varies greatly across different . So, almost 100% of customers who come to a store near their home leave with a purchase because... the client goes to buy purposefully. In a household appliances or furniture store, the conversion will be 20-40%. Customers come to such stores not only to buy goods, but also to ask the price of the goods. The lowest conversion is observed in active sales because the client is not in the mood to buy at all. Also low conversion in long and complex sales: real estate, cars,... A transaction for the registration of an apartment or a car can last more than a month; in b2b transactions can last for years.

It is worth mentioning separately the conversion in advertising in outdoor advertising, the Internet and the media. It is very difficult to calculate the conversion from advertising, and it is usually negligible. The public quickly gets used to any advertising medium and stops paying attention to it. Although advertising installed at the right time and in the right place can give good results. At the dawn of the Internet, the conversion rate of an advertising banner could reach 50%; it was a novelty and people clicked on them with pleasure. Nowadays, a conversion rate of 1% for online banner advertising is considered an excellent indicator. Nowadays advertising is used for additional touch points per client. There is one that says that the client must find out about the product 7 times before making a purchase.

How to increase in-store conversions

In retail stores, a counter is installed above the entrance that counts the customers who have entered; this is done in order to understand how much traffic the store has. It is important to note that traffic is a very valuable resource. It depends on the location of the outlet, the recognition of the retail chain, investment in advertising, etc. The company pays quite a lot of money for traffic, and if this resource is not used, it can quickly go bankrupt.

What tools does a store have to increase conversion? Let me make a reservation right away that points will be described that simply must be followed. If this does not happen, then the store loses profit every day. In addition, it is probably clear to everyone that there are things that will immediately repel customers: too loud music, unkempt appearance of the staff, outright dirt in a retail outlet, etc. The points described below can be regarded as a checklist for checking the store’s level of service.

Sellers are always in the client’s visibility zone and are ready to provide assistance at the first request; in departments with technically complex goods, sellers approach the buyer and offer to help with choosing a product;
All products have price tags and descriptions. It should be clear to the client what kind of product it is and how much it costs. The price tags are true;
All products have a barcode and it can be read correctly;
The store has created a transparent sales area and easy navigation. The arrangement of goods is clear and logical. The client does not have to search for the department he needs for a long time;
Salespeople own and always close the deal when communicating with a client.
There is no more than 5 people in line at the checkout;
All shelves and display cases are filled with goods;

All the rules described are of a hygienic nature. In order for them to be observed, it is necessary to ensure the operation of the outlet. To solve this problem, a checklist is created in which all the important points are written down. And once a month/week/day the entire store is checked against this checklist. The lower , the more often he checks the checklist.

Seller Conversion

Each seller has their own conversion, and it needs to be counted. High turnover does not mean that the seller has a high conversion rate. Perhaps the seller serves a large number of customers, thereby increasing . From a business point of view, such a salesperson is not ideal and the manager should work to improve the employee's performance.

At any retail outlet there is an indicator of the cost of attracting customers. If we divide the amount of costs for the period by the number of visitors, we get costs per visitor. By comparing this data with sales, you can understand how effective each specific seller is in terms of profitability.

The seller has a personal interest in increasing his conversion. It is much easier to communicate with fewer clients, but with high quality, than to grind through hundreds of clients. To increase conversion, the seller needs:

Know and apply. Especially important ;
Understand the product being sold, know it;
Understand the psychology of sales, be able to use;
Master, as well as;

In addition to all of the above, you need to be able to make changes to. In trading, something is constantly changing; the seller must be able to adapt to changes.

Website conversion

Very often the term conversion is used in relation to Internet sites. A distinctive feature of website conversion is that by selling we mean a targeted action. This could be an order in an online store, or a request for a call back, or user registration.

In order to calculate the website conversion, it is enough to install a visitor counter. This is not difficult to do, and most importantly, it can be configured so that it counts targeted actions. You can determine them yourself. The most common statistics services are Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics.

The site, just like a store, can be visited by visitors with different interests in a product or service. For example, a visitor who came from the search query “buy an air conditioner in Moscow” is more inclined to buy than a visitor who came from the query “types of air conditioners.” The first request is commercial, and the second is informational. The conversion in such cases differs significantly. Therefore, when it comes to increasing website conversion, you need to not only improve on-page optimization. But also bring a more targeted audience.

What should the conversion be?

Naturally, in order to understand how effectively a retail outlet operates, it is necessary to determine the standard conversion rate. I can immediately say that for non-food stores, a conversion of 30% is already very good. For food retail, this figure can reach 70-80% in some cases. For narrowly targeted stores and with a small assortment, the conversion is about 10-15%. When measuring conversion, it is important to evaluate the quality of traffic. It often happens that a store is located in such a way that people go through it to another store or just come in to warm up. Such untargeted traffic naturally greatly reduces conversion.

Increasing store conversion, like that, is a task that needs to be addressed constantly. Success in managing store operations depends on completing these tasks.