eCommerce: Optimizing Conversion Funnels

Conversion Funnel Optimization: Increase Your Sales Rate with Simple Tricks

What is a conversion (or sales) funnel? How does conversion funnel optimization work? How can it help transform interested visitors into committed buyers? ECDB shows data, that helps to optimize your conversion rate.

Article by Patrick Nowak | September 25, 2024

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Conversion Funnel Optimization: Key Insights

  • Significant Drop-Offs: Only about 2.3% of website visitors make a purchase, with a high drop-off rate of 77.8% from cart to check out, highlighting major inefficiencies in the eCommerce funnel.

  • Small Changes, Big Impact: Minor adjustments, like increasing checkout discounts by 10%, can slightly enhance the add-to-cart rate, significantly influencing the overall conversion rate due to the funnel's narrow success rate.

  • Effective Enhancement Strategies: Simplifying checkout processes and optimizing discount strategies are key actions that can reduce cart abandonment and improve conversion rates in eCommerce.


Every eCommerce business aims to transform visitors into buyers, but the journey from first click to final purchase is fraught with drop-offs. A typical online shopper's path includes several stages: clicking on a product, adding it to the cart, proceeding to checkout, and making the purchase. Despite the straightforwardness of this path, ECDB statistics reveal inefficiencies: Only about 2.3% of all website visitors end up purchasing.

What Is a Conversion Funnel, and How Can You Optimize It?

A conversion funnel in eCommerce is the process that potential customers go through from initially discovering a product to completing a purchase. This funnel typically consists of several stages, such as viewing a product, adding it to the cart, proceeding to checkout, and finalizing the purchase. However, many potential buyers drop off at each stage, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of users who complete the purchase.

Buyers Lost In Conversion Funnel

As mentioned above, the conversion funnel in eCommerce describes the sequence of steps a customer takes from discovering a product to completing a purchase. In other words: There is a progressive reduction in user numbers at each stage.

Globally, the add-to-cart rate (ATCR) stands at 10.8%, but the journey from cart to purchase completion plummets drastically, with an average cart abandonment rate of about 77.8%. In regions like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Portugal, these rates reach 84%, reflecting cultural and market-specific challenges. Factors contributing to these drop-offs vary.

Some of them are unexpected costs, complex checkout processes, and better price finds elsewhere. It is not easy to get these numbers up, but even a few percent can make a significant difference.

Improve The Conversion Funnel: Impact of Minor Changes

Even seemingly negligible adjustments in the eCommerce process have an impact. For instance, a ten percentage point increase in the discount at checkout improves the ATCR by approximately 0.831 percentage points. Although minor, this change is crucial in a funnel where only a tiny fraction of initial browsers convert into buyers.

INCREASING YOUR DISCOUNT RATE BY 1% INCREASES YOUR ADD-TO-CART RATE BY 0.083%

Discounts Grow ATCR, ATCR Grows Conversion Rate

And the ATCR Data shows that increasing the ATCR by one percentage point can potentially increase the overall conversion rate by 0.02 percentage points, so increasing discounts at checkout has a positive impact on the ATCR, which in turn increases the overall conversion rate. In essence, higher discounts lead to higher ATCR, which leads to higher conversion rates.

INCREASING YOUR ADD-TO-CART RATE BY 1% INCREASES YOUR CONVERSION RATE BY 0.02%

How to Increase Your Conversion Rate: Simple Guidelines

A strategic approach to leveraging this insight would be to initially increase product prices to allow for larger discounts without incurring losses. By doing so, companies increase their chances of success by making discounts more attractive to customers while maintaining profitability. Not enough input to chew on yet? Check our tips on increasing the conversion rate.

1. Optimize Checkout Discounts

Offering more substantial discounts during the checkout phase can incentivize customers to complete their purchases. For instance, a one percentage point increase in the discount at checkout can slightly boost the add-to-cart rate (ATCR), which in turn can improve the overall conversion rate.

2. Simplify the Checkout Process

Reducing the number of steps required to complete a purchase, providing multiple payment options, and offering clear pricing information can decrease cart abandonment rates.

3. Leverage Retargeting Strategies

Implementing retargeting campaigns can bring back customers who have abandoned their carts by reminding them of their pending purchases and possibly offering them timely discounts.

4. Focus on User Experience

Enhancing the overall user experience with faster website performance, mobile optimization, and user-friendly navigation can keep potential buyers engaged and reduce drop-offs.

5. Regularly Analyze Funnel Performance

Continuously track and analyze how changes impact different stages of the funnel to identify areas for improvement.

6. Implement A/B Testing

Test different strategies to determine which approaches work best for your audience, helping to refine the shopping experience.

7. Engage with Customer Feedback

Listen to customer needs and preferences to make necessary adjustments and improvements to the shopping experience.

8. Stay Updated on Technology and Trends

Incorporate the latest technological advances and shopping trends into your platform to remain competitive and appealing to modern consumers.

For your information: We regularly update our rankings with the latest data from our models, providing valuable insights to help improve your company. Which stores and companies are leading eCommerce? Which categories are driving bestsellers and high sales? Find out for yourself on our rankings for companies, stores, and marketplaces. Stay a step ahead of the market with ECDB.

By following these guidelines, eCommerce sites can turn more window shoppers into happy customers, significantly boosting their bottom line.


Sources: ECDB, secondary sources in the referenced articles.


Conversion Funnel Optimization: FAQs

How does the conversion funnel work?

A conversion funnel tracks the journey a customer takes from discovering a product to completing a purchase. It typically includes stages such as browsing, adding products to cart, and checking out. At each stage, some customers drop off, resulting in fewer completed purchases. Optimizing each step, such as simplifying the checkout process or offering discounts, can help reduce drop-offs and increase conversions.

What is a conversion rate?

Conversion Rate, or CVR for short, is a key metric used to measure the ratio of people who visit a website and take a desired action.

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing, or split testing, compares two content versions – a version A and a version B – to determine performance, optimizes websites/marketing using data-driven choices, testing elements like headlines, images, and layouts for higher response rates. It is used to optimize online activities such as conversion rates, app development, product design, SEO, and more. This testing process enables businesses to make data-driven decisions and achieve better results.

How many online visitors buy online?

As per ECDB statistics, only about 2.3% of all website visitors end up purchasing.