Check out our Google Analytics benchmark data from October - December 2020 for B2B eCommerce websites.

Due to the ongoing global effects of COVID-19 on retail and eCommerce, the statistics for Q4 2020 reflect the changes our clients have experienced over the past year.

The businesses indexed are limited to B2B retailers whose online sales range up to £5m per annum with average order values ranging from £96 to £366. Their websites are all built on the eCommerce platform Magento (an Adobe Company). In aggregate, this latest report tracks the behaviour of over 266,000 website visitors. The data includes statistics regarding traffic sources and mobile usage, website engagement & conversion rates.

This quarter, AOV and total traffic decreased compared to Q3 but £ per visit, conversion and bounce rates all improved. The best converting sources of traffic were paid and referral. Desktop is still the preferred search device for B2B customers in eCommerce. Read on for the full analysis.

KPIs and traffic sources

Standout figures

• Average order value dropped by almost a half since last quarter (£402) and by about £100 since Q4 2019 (£305). This falls in line with over all reduced visits and sales, indicating a more cautious customer base.
• Interestingly, £ per visit increased from £4 last quarter and £3.4 last year, while conversion and bounce rates also improved significantly compared to both previous quarters.
• For the first time, direct overtook organic as the largest source of traffic, doubling since Q4 2019.
• Organic brought in the largest amount of traffic, with 43% although that is down from Q3's 58%.
• In close second place, direct traffic brought in 41% of visitors up from 21% in Q4 2019.
• Paid search traffic decreased from a steady 27% in Q4 2019 and last quarter to just 14%. However, bounce rates was significantly reduced to 31% from 56% last quarter. This could indicate that paid advertising is reaching the right audience but perhaps not as effectively as it could.
• Referral traffic rose to just 7% but also converted the best out of all sources, at 12.4% with a bounce rate of 35%.
• Overall conversion improved compared to Q3 for all sources except paid.

Device breakdown

Standout figures

• Desktop brought in more than half of all traffic (58.6%) but that's a decrease in the % of total visitors from desktop of about 7% since Q4 2019 (65.7%).
• In contrast, mobile brought in 36.6% of all traffic which is an increase of about 7.5% since the same period in 2019 (29%). This indicates that B2B websites need to be optimised for mobile devices as there is a significant, and ever-growing, amount of visitors from mobiles.
• Conversions across all devices increased from Q3 2020 and Q4 2019. Desktop conversion more than doubled, while on tablet and mobile they more than tripled.
• Bounce rates improved across all devices, in the case of desktop dropping to just 31%, below the industry average of 45%. This is a great improvement, which may be indicative of good UX (user experience) on mobile and tablet.

Site search statistics

Standout figures

• Search usage decreased on both desktop and mobile.
• Reflecting the overall increased conversions, conversion without search increased across all devices. In the case of tablets, it increased from 0.4% in Q3 to 2.4%.
• Conversion with site search continued to get increased conversions compared to Q3. It is crucial to invest in good search functionality in order to maximise its potential in increasing sales.

Disclaimer: Google Analytics data is not always 100% accurate.

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