Improving conversion rate

[misala]

I was reading up on this month's Etsy School module on SEO. First week's activity is analyzing the shop's statistics and defining a goal. There they have mentioned "Conversion rate" being "Sales/Views x 100" and the average value should be 3%.

It doesn't matter how I am calculating it, my numbers seem to be much much lower than the norm.

Using all-time numbers, my conversion rate stood at 0.21%
Between 2011 and 2013 the conversion rate never went above 0.21% but I had a small improvement this year, upping it slightly to 0.24%

In any case, it is far, far away from 3%, the reference number. According to the formula, I should have at least 10 times more sales than I currently do so I must be doing something seriously wrong.

What are your conversion rates? Are you experiencing the same? What am I doing wrong in this? What is keeping people from buying from me?

[Former_Member]

i think using views to calculate a conversion rate is a terrible idea.

they are many ways to get fake views here,like from teams, treasuries

Also, the more you have to look at, the more views you should get. So, a buyer may click on more items before buying.

The longer you are here, or if you sell supplies, the more repeat customers you have.

A better measure is traffic to orders.

[misala]

I see your point. But the formula is in official Etsy School worksheet:
https://blog.etsy.com/fr/files/2014/04/ES-may2014-SEO_stat-worksheet.pdf?geo=international&utm_mediu...

And their tutorial says we should aim for 3%...

[Former_Member]

i saw it, and I think the reason they use that method is because those are the stats they provide, and its easier to do than the traffic/order conversion rate.

neither is perfect, but the views/sales is less so. Especially if you belong to a treasury team and or a promo team and get a lot of those fake views and hearts.

i have 16 other reasons why.

[Former_Member]

to answer your question....

for last year

125 views to make 1 order, so .008% orders/view, and 1,5 items per order, so .016% on a sales/view

not sure why you should aim for 3%
depends on your price point.

[Former_Member]

Hi! I'm new to Etsy and this team and found your question interesting. I was wondering what was the Etsy School module on SEO and where I could find it. I'm interested in learning more about conversion rates as I am getting some view and favorites but no sales yet. Thank you in advance!

[misala]

@alex your conversion is 0.8%, which is still 4 times my number.

Here is the paragraph about conversion rates in the Etsy School SEO module:

"The conversion rate is often used in e-commerce. It allows you to find out how
many visitors become customers. Please note that this rate can be different from one shop to the next based on the types of products and that this doesn’t mean that one shop is better than the other. The conversion rate, as a general rule, is around 3% and is not necessarily significant for a shop that has just opened and doesn’t have many sales yet."

I guess 3% applies to my shop as I have be on Etsy for a while...

@Joanne: Here's the Etsy blog post about Etsy School:
https://blog.etsy.com/uk/2014/04/16/etsy-school-seo/?campaign_label=etsy_success_uk&utm_source=newsl...

[Former_Member]

a ha!!

the view per sale is not the same thing. It doesnt calculate how many visitors become buyers. One visitor can click on 50 things, then buy one. Which gives you a 2% conversion rate. Another visitor may come, look at 50 things, but only click on 1, then buy it, giving you a conversion rate of 100% according to their formula

so, they are conflating conversion rate with order/view ratio.

[misala]

Okay.. so if I use visit numbers (sessions) from Google Analytics, divided by the number of orders, shouldn't it be comparable to the 3% number as suggested by Etsy School?

By this calculation, last month my conversion rate was 0.79%. If I exclude my return sales (accounting for 1/5 of orders this month) then it becomes 0.63%, which is still only 1/5 to 1/4 of what it should be...

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the link Michelle! Appreciate it!

[Former_Member]

michelle, I think its a huge mistake to compare the conversion rate of an etsy shop to an ecommerce site.

etsy stores get a lot of traffic from other store owners who have no intention of buying. We also get traffic from google, pinterest, other search engines and social media on SOLD items which are no longer available. Large ecommerce sites do not.
Our shops have tons of links to other competing shops built in.
an etsy store will rarely have more than a few hundred items,
63% of ecommerce buyers began their search at an ecommerce site, rather than by using search engines to get to it. Of course their conversion rate will be higher than a store within a store.

By telling its shop owners to compare conversion rates(using bad math, no less) Etsy is doing a huge disservice to its shop owners, many of whom are new.
What will be their reaction???

my prices are too high.
my product is no good.
I am doing it all wrong.
I should give up.

a very poorly thought out idea. They should remove it post haste.

[misala]

Agreed. I took the same question to Reddit and the comments are pointing towards my price. Makes me want to do a price critique..

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much for this Michelle.

My conversion rate for April, based on the formula, is 0.6%. Guess I need to work a lot harder on converting views to sales?

By the way, I LOVE your shop!

[Former_Member]

Should be sales/unique views. That's why it's so low for you. Always aim to just improve your own conversion rate, even very very small percentage points make a big difference!

[heartsabustin]

Danielle!!! *smooches*

I imagine my conversion rate would be crazy low, especially lately. O.o

[Former_Member]

Thanks Danielle. :)

[MyElesi]

What is a unique view and how you can see it in the statistics ?

[LeedsRadio]

This is a ridiculous idea.

If your conversion rate is 10 percent and your profit is zero your shop is a failure and you'd be better off financially if you didn't operate it.
If your conversion rate is 0.1 percent and you have a $2000 profit at the end of the month you might be doing OK.

The goal in business is dollars. Not hits. Not sales.

[sherischart]

Thanks for everyone's participation on this ongoing topic of improving conversion rates.
Has anyone utilized the Marmalead Etsy Shop Fitness Calculator and what was your experience in performance?
Forever Confused!

[FullofFaithGiftShop]

Sheri- I use Marmalead Etsy Shop Fitness Calculator and I do not like it when it comes to analyzing my conversion rates. It uses the same numbers that etsy suggest, orders/viewsx100 to get 3% and it is just not a good way for me to do it. The other stuff on Marmalead is fantastic, I really enjoy it.

[Former_Member]

My conversion rate is 14% when I calculate it #of views divided by #of items sold and multiply by 100!

[KonisaStudio]

Thanks for the info, and awesome work from all of you! My year's conversion rate has been only about 1%, not great but not a bad start either.

[Former_Member]

And how you improve your conversion rate?

I feel like my shop is selling a decent amount every month of course we sellers want to get better and sell more. But I think I work on all the points (pictures, descriptions, tags, titles, promote, starting to get better at social media)
What else I can do to get a better conversion rate?
I think that is not much that you can do.

Thanks Everyone!

[LeedsRadio]

You shouldn't care about your conversion rate. You want to improve your sales and profit. If you set a financial goal and meet it, it doesn't matter if the conversion rate is 1% or 10%. And if you meet a conversion rate goal but either take a loss or don't make as much as you had planned/hoped you're not doing yourself any favors. Views don't cost you anything.

When you look at views you're confusing the forest from the trees.