Is Bigger Always Better? An Inside Look at Large eCommerce Retailers

Conversions – a critical piece of the puzzle for any online merchant. But, larger retailers usually have more dollars and manpower to work towards converting more shoppers to buyers, right? Wrong. Our recently released Checkout Conversion Index shows that larger retailers do no better than their smaller counterparts when it comes to conversions (particularly on mobile). The Checkout Conversion Index provides a quarter-by-quarter look at what is hurting conversion rates and causing friction at checkout – comparing small and large merchants alike.

This new release of our Checkout Conversion Index also revealed the four blind spots that get in the way of a stronger performance by these larger retailers. These blind spots include:

• The lack of relevant data (the data blind spot);
• A lack of a having a checkout conversion strategy (the strategic blind spot);
• The reliance on in store POS partners to deliver an eCommerce and mobile checkout experience (the hardware blind spot); and
• An unrealistic expectation of omnichannel at the expense of perfecting a multichannel experience first (the omnichannel blind spot).

The Checkout Conversion Index examines the performance of 650 websites that account for 70 percent of eCommerce volume nationwide each quarter – and over the last 3 quarters has compiled more than 10,000 data points that support these insights.

The latest data from the Checkout Conversion Index also shows:

• The overall index improved three points to 56.4 from Q1 2016 to Q2 this year. Only 10 websites scored an “A” (75 plus), 162 earned B’s (65 75), and nearly 40 percent tallied either a D or an F.
• Average checkout times were 22 seconds faster for all merchants than the previous quarter.
• The top 30 retailers had an average online checkout time of 146 seconds, which is nearly 30 percent faster than average.
• The average online checkout time for the biggest retailers was 197 seconds, which is 41 seconds slower than the smallest merchants.

Merchants could be leaving up to $162 billion on the table from lack of focusing on conversions (out of a $2.05 trillion estimated eCommerce spend in 2016). Don’t let that be you – download a copy of the Checkout Conversion Index today and learn how you can convert more shoppers to buyers: