Re: Conversion rates for ecommerce

From: Vanessa Newkirk <vanessa_at_imaginethat.com>
Date: Fri 18 Jun 2004 08:06:22 -0500

This is in response to the question about conversion rates for ecommerce-
 In a recent study reported by eMarketer, CyberSource finds that North
American e-commerce Web sites offering four or more payment methods get,
on average, sales conversion rates of 72%. Bottom line...more options,
more sales.

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Thursday, June 17, 2004
More Payment Choices, More Sales
Sales Conversion Rate For Ecommerce Sites By Number of Payment Methods
Offered

  a.. 4+ methods 72%
  b.. 3 methods 71%
  c.. 2 methods 66%
  d.. 1 method 60%
Source: CyberSource, May 2004
The report finds that nearly all sites offer general purpose card
payments (payments made with Visa, American Express, Master Card or
Discover cards.) 46% offer gift certificate payments and 41% allow
consumers recurring billing options. Over 20% offer choices like PayPal
or electronic checks.

Types of Payment Methods Offered (% of respondents)

  a.. General purpose cards 99%
  b.. Gift certificates 46%
  c.. Recurring billing 41%
  d.. Electronic checks 27%
  e.. PayPal/other non-card 25%
  f.. Instant credit 19%
  g.. Private label card 14%
Source: CyberSource, May 2004
The survey also found that shopping cart abandonment rates decline with
increases in the number of payment methods. Cart abandonment for survey
respondents offering only one payment method was 40%. The rate dropped
to 34% for retailers offering two payment methods, 29% for those with
three and 28% for those with four or more.

"To get dramatic steps of improvement, retailers need to move to whole
new payment categories beyond cards," said Doug Schwegman, director of
market intelligence for CyberSource.

###

Vanessa Newkirk
Senior Media Specialist
Client Strategy Group
ImagineThat

vnewkirk_at_imaginethat.com






Received on Fri Jun 18 2004 - 08:06:22 CDT