E-commerce Conversion Rate

E-commerce conversion rate is the share of sessions or users that reached a successful purchase; a conversion rate, but with purchase as the target outcome.

This metric is the touchstone of a store's health, but for exactly that reason it is misread more than any other. The first trap is the denominator: session-based and user-based rates give two completely different numbers for a store, because one user may take several sessions to buy; the two must never be placed side by side. The second trap is context: mobile and desktop conversion rates differ structurally, and averaging over both produces a misleading number that describes neither. The third trap is comparison against foreign thresholds; conversion rate follows category, price, season and traffic quality, and a number that is "good" for a foreign store is meaningless for a rial-denominated one. The sound basis is the store's own period-over-period trend, not a global figure.