How To Deconstruct Your Analytics Data For Higher Conversions

How To Deconstruct Your Analytics Data For Higher Conversions

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The conversion rate is one of the most all important indicators an online retailer utilizes. The conversion rate, the number of purchasers divided by the number of visitors to the site, tells you how many people bought versus how many people just browsed.

The problem with using the conversion rate is that it is an outcome indicator but gives no explanation about how the rate came to be at the indicated level. For example, if your conversion rate is 2 percent and you would like it to be 4 percent, is your problem that too many people get to your site for the wrong reason, or people want to buy but they cannot find what they want or they get to the shopping cart then walk away because of shipping costs? Smart online retailers employ a series of deconstructions of the conversion rate to get at the moving parts within that rate.

Decision Page Rate

A decision page is a page where you make an offer and the viewer needs to make the decision to buy or at least to add to the cart. It is useful to know how many people make it as far as your decision page before choosing not to buy. For example, here is data from Site A and Site B.

Site A Site B
Total Visitors 5000 5000
Decision Page Rate 75% 35%
Conversion rate 2% 5%

This data seems to suggest that three out of four visitors got to the product offer but then something went wrong and they did not buy. Site A needs to look at the buying part of the process. Site B cannot deliver people to the decision page with only one out of three getting that far. But, once there, Site B makes the sale. Site B needs to look at landing pages, navigation and site search to see where visitors are getting lost.

Industry insiders suggest that your decision page rate should be no lower than 60 percent.

Buy v Look Rate

The next useful rate to look at is the number of people who move from the decision page to placing an item in the cart, an action that suggests that the visitor is ready to purchase. This rate is created by dividing the # of visitors with items in the cart by the number of visitors who arrive at a decision page.

This is a very telling number because it is a real window into how the visitor evaluates their experience of your product. If this rate is under 50 percent, you need to look at pricing, page design and content and product presentation.

‘Eleventh Hour’ Rate

Finally, look at the number of visitors who actually buy divided by the number of visitors who have items in their shopping cart. This is an extremely painful rate, even if your rate is 80 percent, it means that two out of every ten potential customers walked away at the last minute, after all of your hard work to get them to that point.

You should certainly expect a 75 percent rate here. If you do not get it, look at your payment options, shipping costs, usability of your order form, ability to make changes without losing information and so on.

These process rates will help you better understand your conversion process and improve your site’s conversion rates.

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