Where can I find Internet statistics on conversion rates of visitors to a website?
” — Sigrid Metson, CareThere, Inc. http://www.carethere.com Conversion rates, or the percentage of shoppers that actually make a purchase, varies quite a bit from one online e-commerce site to another. In August 1999, Nua Internet Surveys reported a study by Intermarket Online that the average online shopper-to-buyer conversion rate is 2.7%, and that 62% of merchants have a conversion rate of 2% or less, while 5% have in excess of a 6% conversion rate. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905355234&rel=true A Forrester Research study of 41 online merchants found that conversion rates typically vary from 1% to 4%, with under 2% for 70% of merchants. Amazon and CDNow get 6% to 8% rates. These are general statistics for online stores. Direct e-mail campaigns to very targeted lists, of course, can bring spikes of much higher conversion rates. There is a lot you can do, however, to increase conversion rates. Last winter and spring I ran a series in Web Commerce Today for paid su
