What conversion rate is
An ecommerce site's conversion rate is the percentage of sessions that end in an order. It is calculated like this: conversion rate = (orders / sessions) × 100. If the shop received 20,000 sessions and 400 orders in a month, the rate is 2%.
It is the metric that connects traffic with sales. With the same advertising spend, raising conversion from 2% to 2.5% means 25% more orders.
How to measure it properly
An average rate for the whole shop hides almost everything. To decide what to improve, you have to break it down.
- By device: mobile usually brings more visits and converts less than desktop.
- By channel: someone arriving via the brand doesn't convert like someone arriving from a discovery ad.
- By funnel step: listing, product page, cart, checkout and payment.
- New versus returning: repeat customers convert far more.
- By category or product: sometimes the problem lies in just a few product pages.
Where sales are usually lost
In the CRO analyses we do at Webimpacto, most losses are concentrated in a few places: product pages that don't answer questions (sizes, materials, shipping), shipping costs that appear late, a checkout with too many steps or fields, and a slow site on mobile.
That's why we always start with the data: the funnel in analytics, session recordings and heatmaps, and an expert review of the mobile experience. Hypotheses come from there, not from personal taste.
Pre-Black Friday checklist
With Black Friday four weeks away, the goal is for nothing to fail and for customers to decide quickly. These are the checks we run with our clients in October.
- Mobile speed: review Core Web Vitals on the best-selling pages.
- Checkout: test every payment method and remove fields you don't need.
- Shipping costs and times visible from the product page, plus the last delivery date before Christmas.
- Real stock and out-of-stock notices: avoid selling products you don't have.
- Tested promotions: codes, automatic discounts and how they combine with other offers.
- Capacity: confirm that the platform and apps can handle the traffic peak.
- Analytics: check that purchases are recorded properly before the traffic arrives.
After Black Friday: improve with tests
Black Friday isn't the time to launch big changes: there's too much at stake and traffic is atypical. Deeper improvements (a new product page, new listing, different checkout) come afterwards, with A/B tests when volume allows.
It's ongoing work. With Team Heretics, combining conversion improvements and shop maintenance, revenue has grown sixfold since 2023.
Frequently asked questions
How is an online shop's conversion rate calculated?
Divide orders by sessions for the same period and multiply by 100. With 400 orders and 20,000 sessions, the rate is 2%.
What is a good ecommerce conversion rate?
It depends a lot on the sector, the average order value and the type of traffic. Rather than comparing it with averages, it pays to improve your own rate by device, channel and funnel step.
What improvements can you make before Black Friday?
The quick, low-risk ones: mobile speed, a review of checkout and payments, clear shipping, real stock and tested promotions. Redesigns are better left for later.
We’ll tell you what we would do in your case, no strings attached. A real person from the team replies.
CMO at Webimpacto. She leads the Growth area: SEO, GEO, paid media, CRO and analytics for brands that sell online.