E-commerce Update: Customers Continue to Make Online Purchases

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

Both traffic and revenue dropped this past week (blue line) when compared to the previous week (orange line). We did see a slight uptick in the average order value, which increased by 1.02 percent. Overall, the number of online customers who complete a purchase online (the e-commerce conversion rate) is still holding pretty steady in the 5.5 percent area.

Where we are seeing the most fluctuation right now is in the number of customers who are visiting IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites and the quantity of merchandise in their shopping carts when they check out, both of which have dropped over the past week.

On average, bookstore customers spent about the same amount of money online over the past month, but there are fewer items in their shopping cart now when they complete their online order. The dropping online traffic numbers are probably indicative of increased in-store sales as more stores open their doors to the public. If we continue to see an increase in nationwide COVID-19 cases, this sales pattern may shift once again.

We’ll continue to update these numbers in the coming weeks.