E-commerce Update: Conversion Rate Remains Strong

Here, the IndieCommerce team shares an important look at current trends in the world of e-commerce.

Over the past week (blue line), the number of users visiting IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites dropped between Wednesday and Saturday (red arrows) compared to the previous week (orange line). Of particular note is the drop in online weekend traffic. Stores that are open to customers on the weekends have reported an increase in in-store sales on Saturdays and Sundays, which is probably why we are seeing the online drop in traffic on those days.

The conversion rate is the percentage of users to IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites that end up completing an online purchase. That rate this past week (blue line) has dropped by a little over 9 percent compared to last week (orange line). A conversion rate of around 5.7 percent has been pretty consistent over the past 10 days.

The takeaway from this past week is that many open stores are seeing weekend in-store sales. Those in-store sales appear to be affecting online weekend traffic and sales for their website. Weekend website traffic may be decreasing, but the 5.7 percent of online customers that are completing online orders is still very high when compared to the 1.14 percent average conversion rate stores we were seeing at this time in 2019.