Screen Pages has released e-commerce benchmark data regarding visitor sources and behaviour, conversions for retail e-commerce websites, for the period Jan-Sept 2013.
The businesses indexed are limited to niche brands, generally selling online, via catalogues and stores, with online sales range up to £10m per annum and average order values average £90. The websites all use the e-commerce platform Magento.
Online retailers whose data was benchmarked include Atterley Road, Bella di Notte, Christopher Ward, Finisterre, Historic Royal Palaces, Loake, Micro-Scooters, Van Dal, Real Flowers, Rio Beauty, the RSPB and This Works.
The data includes statistics regarding traffic sources and mobile usage, website engagement, conversion rates and onsite search usage.
| Traffic sources | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| Average Order Value | £49 | £104 | £91 |
| £ per visit | £1.43 | £3.41 | £2.64 |
| Conversion rates | 1.46% | 5.12% | 3.88% |
| Engagement | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| Pages per visit | 5.1 | 7.4 | 6.5 |
| Time on site | 3:09 | 4:39 | 4:07 |
| Bounce rate | 32.32% | 38.74% | 37.49% |
| % visitors landing on home page | 19.05% | 44.03% | 31.78% |
| Home page bounce rate | 18.5% | 25.5% | 22.8% |
| Traffic sources = organic search | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| % of visits | 22% | 33% | 28% |
| £ per visit | £1.49 | £3.36 | £2.83 |
| Bounce rate | 26.08% | 38.86% | 34.40% |
| Conversion rate | 2.18% | 4.90% | 3.98% |
| Traffic from brand-related searches | 8.58% | 19.85% | 14.45% |
| Conversion rate (brand searches) | 3.12% | 8.58% | 6.31% |
| £ per visit (brand searches) | £2.59 | £6.27 | £4.45 |
| Traffic from generic searches (SEO) | 8.29% | 12.74% | 14.01% |
| Conversion rate (generic searches) | 0.82% | 1.56% | 1.53% |
| £ per visit (generic searches) | £0.26 | £0.75 | £0.55 |
| Traffic sources = paid search (CPC) | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| % of visits | 11.06% | 26.43% | 19.75% |
| £ per visit | £0.97 | £4.28 | £2.74 |
| Bounce rate | 25.89% | 39.25% | 34.47% |
| Conversion rate | 1.31% | 5.69% | 3.41% |
| Email marketing | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| % of visits | 9.43% | 29.37% | 19.02% |
| £ per visit | £1.43 | £3.60 | £2.73 |
| Bounce rate | 29.56% | 41.96% | 36.54% |
| Conversion rate | 1.48% | 7.16% | 4.17% |
| Onsite search usage | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| Visits using search | 2.49% | 7.68% | 5.44% |
| Conversion rate using search | 5.16% | 16.89% | 10.74% |
| Mobile usage | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| Viewed on desktop % | 60.74% | 67.71% | 64.00% |
| Viewed on tablet % | 19.92% | 24.60% | 21.31% |
| Viewed on mobile% | 10.31% | 20.65% | 15.75% |
| Conversion on desktop % | 1.81% | 6.79% | 4.69% |
| Conversion on tablet % | 1.68% | 3.92% | 2.85% |
| Conversion on mobile % | 0.44% | 1.47% | 1.27% |
| Basket & checkout statistics | 1st Quartile | 3rd Quartile | Average |
| Basket views% | 0.92% | 3.48% | 2.43% |
| Exits at basket page % | 7.93% | 11.83% | 9.84% |
| Basket to checkout success % | 39.7% | 49.4% | 43.2% |
Standout out figures
* Overall conversions average at 3.88%, but with a marked divergence when analysed by source of traffic. Brand-related searches for example (at 6.31%) convert over 4 times better than generic searches (at 1.53%) and nearly twice as well as paid search (at 3.41%).
* Basket to checkout completions average 43.2%, with 9.84% exiting at the basket page. 2.4% of browsers go to the basket page.
* Email (when executed well) produces extremely well, converting at 5.69%.
* Engagement (as measured by bounce rates) shows a large gap between home pages (which get a lot of marketing attention) and all other pages: 22.8% versus 37.5%).
* 1 in 5 visits are from a tablet, mostly iPads. 16% come from mobiles. Conversion rates from iPads are 60% of desktops and from mobiles, only 27%.
* Onsite search is used by 5.4% of all visitors, but converts at close to 11%.
