Ecommerce Charts: Conversion rate, mobile email and payment method data

This week, we’re taking a look back at three data-driven interviews from last year’s Media Center. Learn the upside of low conversion rates, which devices are getting the most email opens and conversions, and the preferred online payment methods for consumers in the fifth-largest ecommerce market in the world.

by Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content

According to The Wall Street Journal, internet and catalog sales have grown more than three times as fast as overall retail sales, up 10.2%, in the past year. And ecommerce behemoth Amazon saw its sales jump 28% last quarter.

Internet retail is a ripe and growing opportunity. Here are three data-driven discoveries to help you get the most out of your company’s ecommerce efforts.

Don’t fear a low conversion rate

For five quarters in 2014 and 2015, Monetate collected conversion and add-to-cart rates in ecommerce stores across many industries, ranging from 7,000,000,000 to 8,473,310,803 shopping sessions per quarter.

Click here to see a printable version of this chart

We sat down with David Brussin, Executive Chairman and Founder, Monetate, at the MarketingSherpa Media Center at IRCE 2015 to discuss the data.



"Low conversion rates [for some businesses] are actually a sign of something that's working really well," Brussin said.

"Low conversion rates in retail can be a sign of content consumption behavior. And it's absolutely the best thing that I ever see in our customers ... when their customers come in every day to read the latest, see the latest, see what products have been added and see what's new," Brussin said.

He explained, "They're not converting every day but they're coming every day. That relationship with the brand is so strong that they're coming every day to interact with the content and the product for that brand. And they're converting on an absolute basis a lot more often. So conversion rate may be shockingly low for a brand with content consumption behavior, but revenue is off-the-charts high."

Mobile opens have surpassed desktop opens

From January 2015 through March 2015, Movable Ink collected data on how customers engage with email while using their preferred devices. The below chart shows the devices customers used for opening their emails and making purchases, based on more than 1.2 billion email opens and 57,000 conversions.

Click here to see a printable version of this chart

We discussed this data with Jessica Jacobs, Director of Product Marketing, Movable Ink.



"People have been calling [each year] ‘the year of the mobile’ probably since 2012. We do this research every single quarter [since 2013] and this is ... the first time that we've see conversions actually climbing — you’re not just opening and looking on your phone but you're driven to action and engagement by content that you see," Jacobs said.

Don’t assume international consumers act like American consumers

In January 2015, BEVH, the German Ecommerce and Distance Selling Trade Association, conducted an online survey with Creditreform Boniversum asking a representative sample of 1,054 German shoppers, 18 to 69 years old, about their online payment habits.

Click here to see a printable version of this chart

Nadine Späth, Manager of Consumer Markets and Ecommerce, Germany Trade & Invest, provided some insights on German consumers.



Successful marketing is about truly understanding not just how your company can provide value to customers, but how customers want to receive that value, and what customer experience they expect.

That is especially true when expanding to other countries. And you must even go a step further and look at such rudimentary elements of the customer experience as payment choice.

So when exploring an international expansion, make sure to do your homework.

"Talk to partners. Talk to people who know the market," Späth advised.

Recent Resources

MarketingSherpa Media Center at IRCE 2016

Ecommerce Research Chart: What makes customers more likely to buy online?

The MarketingSherpa Ecommerce Benchmark Study

Retail Sales Gain Is Fueled by Web (via The Wall Street Journal)