I would like to know what is the average conversion rate (the ratio of
buyers to visitors) for online stores (selling products, as opposed to
services).  A recent metric would be preferable, but if not easily
locatable, an older one will do too.

A percentage as a whole (non-industry specific) would be great, but if
you stumble across conversion rates by industry, I'd be interested in
seeing those as well.

Many thanks in advance.

Hello Respree,

Thank you for your question.


According this recent 21 page presentation “Understanding Conversion
Behavior and Its Effect on Profitability” presented by: Ranga Bodla,
Hyperiont:

“The average industry-wide conversion rate — the ratio of
buyers to unique visitors— is only 1.8%”

They also mention that 53% of online revenue comes from repeat
purchasers and problems with checkout were the greatest cause of
purchase failure – Over 40 % of failed attempts were during the
checkout process.
 
Source: Hyperion Website
http://www.hyperion.com/downloads/uc/pdf/343RangaBodla_FINAL.pdf

Dr. Harris, founder of easy ask discussed conversion ratio of visitors
to buyers:

“On a typical e-commerce site, the conversion ratio of visitors to
buyers is less than 2%. This is an abysmal rate considering the
marketing investment being made in promoting the site or store. This
low conversion ratio is due, in large part, to the fact that as many
as 70% of the visitors to e-commerce sites leave without finding the
products they are searching for, even though the products are there.”

Source: Easy Ask Website
http://www.easyask.com/company/founder.cfm

Additional information that may interest you:

Buying, Searching, or Browsing:
Differentiating between Online Shoppers Using In-Store Navigational
Clickstream by Wendy W. Moe - Assistant Professor of Marketing

Source: University of Texas at Austin, June 2001
http://www.bus.utexas.edu/faculty/Wendy.Moe/Taxonomy.pdf

Search Criteria:

visitors-to-buyers conversion ratio
average ratio of visitors to buyers online stores

I hope this information meets your needs.

Best Regards,
Bobbie7-ga

Wonderful work, very thorough.  Thanks very much.