Ecommerce Conversion Rate by Industry
One of the most important metrics all online brands need to monitor is their ecommerce conversion rate. It provides valuable insights into the performance of your digital sales and your target audience’s online shopping habits.
Even though there’s a standard figure across all online businesses, it helps to have a breakdown of the average ecommerce conversion rate by industry. This way, you’re able to better gauge your store’s performance against potential competitors and set more realistic business benchmarks and goals.
Here’s a look at the average ecommerce conversion rates sorted by industry.
Average ecommerce conversion rate by industry
According to a recent report analyzing ecommerce conversion rate by industry, multi-brand retail currently has the highest rate across all sectors, at 4.97%. This is a 0.78 percentage point increase from the previous month and the industry’s highest conversion rate so far in 2023. The multi-brand retail sector’s best-performing month over the past year came in November 2022, when its conversion rate surged to as high as 8.44%.
After multi-brand retail, consumer goods is in second place. Online businesses in this sector have an average ecommerce conversion rate of 4.21%. This is followed by the pet care and veterinary services and beauty and personal care sectors, with 4.17% and 3.46%, respectively. As of October 2023, these above-mentioned industries are the only ones with ecommerce conversion rates above the overall average of 3.39%.
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Online businesses in the food and beverage industry have the fifth-highest ecommerce conversion rate, at 3.27%. Ecommerce conversion rates for stores in the food and beverage sector have fluctuated greatly over the past 12 months. In November 2022, the average ecommerce conversion rate for these stores was 9.46%. It plunged to around 3.55% in December 2022 and January 2023. The following two months saw the sector’s average conversion rate fall to under 3%, before rising to 3.49% in April and then to 4.43% in May. The industry’s highest rate from the past 12 months came in June 2023, when conversion rates for the sector peaked at 10.13%.
Food and beverage is followed by ecommerce stores in the fashion, accessories, and apparel sector, with 3.04%. Home and furniture and luxury and jewelry round out the list ranking ecommerce conversion rate by industry, with 1.3% each.