Ecommerce Conversion Rate Report Card

Just got this in my email from the Center for Media Research about conversion rates for non-brick and morter online retailers.

Nielsen//NetRatings released the first Internet retail report card today from the MegaView Online Retail service that highlights the top 10 online retailers ranked by sales conversion rates, and top 15 product categories ranked by average order size during February 2005.

The report found that among the top 10 online retailers ranked by conversion rates in February 2005, only Coldwater Creek has a significant brick-and-mortar presence. The remaining nine retailers are comprised of a television shopping network, catalogs and online-only retailers.

QVC marked the highest conversion rates out of approximately 117 online retailers. The average conversion rate is 4.9 percent among the top 100 retailers, as reported in the MegaView Online Retail service.

Here's the PDF from Neilsen//Netratings

I'm not surprised to see QVC at the top of the list (16%) since they're preselling a lot of customers on TV, but even proflowers.com, Amazon, and eBay have 11-13% conversion rates! They suggest that non-brick and mortar sites perform better because consumers already have all the information they need and just go to purchase. I'm not sure about that, but one thing they don't mention is that sites that have a brick and mortar counterpart probably get a sizeable percentage of customers who research prices online and then go buy the item at their local store--to save on shipping and get it quicker. Interesting data, nonetheless.