What is a good conversion rate for e-commerce?
Updated February 5, 2025 5 min read
A good e-commerce conversion rate is typically 2-3% for most industries, with top performers achieving 4-5%. However, these numbers only tell part of the story.
Understanding conversion rate benchmarks
Conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of purchases by total visitors, then multiplying by 100. For example, if 50 people buy from 2,000 visitors, your conversion rate is 2.5%.
While 2-3% is often cited as “good,” this benchmark varies significantly based on:
- Industry vertical – Fashion converts differently than electronics
- Traffic source – Branded search converts 3-5x higher than social media
- Price point – Higher prices typically mean lower conversion rates
- Product type – Impulse purchases convert higher than considered purchases
- Device – Desktop converts 2-3x higher than mobile
Conversion rates by industry
Here’s how different e-commerce verticals typically perform:
| Industry | Average Rate | Top Performers |
|---|---|---|
| Food & Beverage | 3.0-4.0% | 5-6% |
| Health & Beauty | 2.5-3.5% | 4-5% |
| Fashion & Apparel | 1.5-2.5% | 3-4% |
| Home & Garden | 1.5-2.5% | 3-4% |
| Electronics | 1.0-2.0% | 2.5-3% |
| B2B E-commerce | 1.0-2.0% | 2-3% |
Why benchmarks can be misleading
Chasing industry benchmarks often leads businesses astray. Here’s why:
Traffic quality matters more than quantity. A store with 1% conversion from high-intent branded traffic might be performing better than one with 3% conversion from low-quality paid traffic, when you factor in customer lifetime value and acquisition costs.
Your baseline is what matters. If you’re at 1.2% and improve to 1.8%, that’s a 50% increase in revenue from the same traffic. That improvement matters more than hitting an arbitrary benchmark.
How to evaluate your conversion rate
Instead of comparing to industry averages, focus on:
- Track your own baseline – Measure consistently over time
- Segment by traffic source – Email, organic, paid, and social should be evaluated separately
- Monitor revenue per visitor – This accounts for average order value, giving a more complete picture
- Compare mobile vs desktop – A large gap indicates mobile UX problems
- Track micro-conversions – Add-to-cart rate, checkout initiation rate reveal where you’re losing customers
When to focus on conversion vs traffic
Improving conversion rate usually provides better ROI than increasing traffic. Doubling your conversion rate from 1% to 2% has the same revenue impact as doubling your traffic—but costs far less.
Fix major UX issues first, then scale traffic to a proven funnel. There’s no point driving more visitors to a broken checkout process.
Next steps
If you’re unsure whether your conversion rate is where it should be, start with benchmarks. The E-commerce Conversion Benchmarks Europe 2025 covers real data from 200+ million visitors across 12 European industries — so you can compare your numbers against your actual category, not generic averages. Then read the full industry breakdown by sector to understand why rates vary and what that means for your specific store. If you want someone to identify the specific friction points, a UX audit is the faster path to an answer.