E-Commerce Conversion Rates Improve In Q2 After Several Declining Quarters [Report]

In a reversal of what was looking like a year-long trend, ecommerce conversion rates improved year-over-year in Q2, according to the quarterly report from Monetate.

The gains were fairly modest, but notable after several quarters of declines among Monetate’s ecommerce customers. Conversion rates rose from 2.93 percent in 2014 to 3.00 percent in Q2 of 2015. The lift occurred across all devices, with tablet conversion rate improvements continuing to outpace those of smartphones and desktop. Conversion rates on tablets increased 12 percent, while smartphone and desktop conversion rates rose 7 percent.

Other metrics also improved. Average order value (AOV) ticked up from $116.57 in Q2 of 2014 to $118.26 in Q2 2015. Revenue per session also improved year-over-year, increasing from $3.69 to $3.93.

A weaker spot in performance was in bounce rates. Overall, bounce rates were 31.32 percent in Q2, on par with Q1’s 31.34 percent bounce rate, which was higher than any time in the 15-month period Monetate analyzed.

The report found that while bounce rates on smartphones continue to be much higher than on tablets and desktops, desktop users are actually bouncing with 10 percent greater frequency than a year ago. Smartphone bounce rates, on the other hand, dropped slightly.

Referral traffic from social networks rose nearly 50 percent year-over-year. With that, AOV from social referrers has continued to trend up, reaching $108.72 in Q2.

This data comes from Monetate customers selling in the US and UK; the report also features several case studies and is available for download here.