Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
So you're staring at your analytics dashboard again, right? Looking at that conversion rate percentage and wondering if you're failing at business. I get it. I've had this exact conversation with dozens of clients over the years.
Here's the thing that's going to sound controversial: asking "what's a good conversion rate" is like asking "what's a good height for a person." The answer is... it depends on literally everything about your situation.
Most e-commerce owners get obsessed with hitting some magical industry benchmark they read in a blog post. Meanwhile, they're missing the actual levers that drive revenue. I learned this the hard way working with a client who had a "terrible" 0.8% conversion rate but was making more money than competitors with "good" 3% rates.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why industry benchmarks are misleading (and what to focus on instead)
The real factors that determine if your conversion rate is actually good
My framework for improving what actually matters: revenue per visitor
Specific experiments that moved the needle on stores I've worked with
When to ignore conversion rate completely and focus elsewhere
Trust me, by the end of this, you'll stop obsessing over percentages and start building a business that actually converts browsers into buyers. Let's dive into why everything you've heard about conversion optimization might be backwards.
Industry Reality
What the gurus keep telling you
Walk into any e-commerce conference or scroll through any marketing blog, and you'll hear the same tired advice: "Industry average conversion rate is 2-3%, so you should aim for at least 2.5% to be competitive."
Here's what every "expert" will tell you about good conversion rates:
Fashion and apparel: 1-2% - Because it's supposedly harder to sell clothing online
Electronics: 2-3% - Higher ticket items convert better
Beauty and cosmetics: 3-4% - Impulse purchases drive higher rates
Home and garden: 1-2% - Considered purchases take longer
Food and beverage: 3-5% - Repeat purchases boost averages
The conventional wisdom says you should benchmark against your industry, optimize your funnel, reduce friction, and watch those percentages climb. A/B test your buttons, improve your product pages, add social proof, and you'll hit those magical numbers.
This advice exists because it's easy to package and sell. Agencies love it because they can point to percentage improvements. Consultants love it because it gives them something concrete to promise. Software companies love it because they can build tools around it.
But here's where it falls apart: conversion rate optimization without context is just vanity metric optimization. I've seen stores with 4% conversion rates that were barely profitable, and stores with 1% rates that were printing money. The percentage tells you almost nothing about the health of your business.
The real problem? This approach assumes all traffic is created equal, all products have the same margins, and all customers have the same lifetime value. None of that is true in the real world.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
Let me tell you about a wake-up call I had working with an e-commerce client who was completely obsessed with their conversion rate. When they first reached out, they were frustrated because their Shopify store was only converting at 0.8%. Every marketing guru they followed was telling them this was terrible.
This was a specialty electronics store selling high-end audio equipment. Their average order value was around €800, and they were getting about 5,000 visitors per month. On paper, their conversion rate looked awful compared to the "industry standard" of 2-3%.
The client had spent months trying to fix their "conversion problem." They'd hired a CRO agency that A/B tested button colors, added countdown timers, implemented exit-intent popups, and optimized product page layouts. After three months and several thousand euros, they'd managed to bump their rate from 0.7% to 0.8%. The agency called it a success. The client felt like a failure.
Here's what changed my perspective completely: I started looking at their revenue per visitor instead of conversion rate. At 0.8% conversion with an €800 average order value, they were generating €32 in revenue per 100 visitors. That's €0.32 per visitor.
Out of curiosity, I compared this to one of my fashion e-commerce clients who had a "healthy" 3.2% conversion rate. Their average order value was €65, so they were generating €2.08 per 100 visitors, or €0.021 per visitor. The "terrible" audio store was generating 15x more revenue per visitor than the "successful" fashion store.
This is when I realized we'd been optimizing for the wrong metric entirely. The audio equipment store didn't have a conversion problem - they had a traffic quality problem and a positioning problem, but their actual business model was incredibly healthy.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Once I stopped obsessing over conversion percentages, I developed what I call the Revenue Context Framework. Instead of asking "what's my conversion rate," I started asking "what's my revenue per visitor, and how can I improve it?"
Here's the exact process I now use with every e-commerce client:
Step 1: Calculate Your Real Performance Metrics
First, I calculate three numbers that actually matter:
Revenue per visitor (RPV) = Total revenue ÷ Total visitors
Profit per visitor (PPV) = Total profit ÷ Total visitors
Customer lifetime value per visitor = (LTV × Conversion rate) ÷ 100
For that audio equipment client, we discovered their RPV was actually exceptional for their industry. The problem wasn't conversion - it was that they needed better qualified traffic.
Step 2: Segment Performance by Traffic Source
I break down conversion rates and RPV by channel:
Organic search (usually highest converting, lowest volume)
Direct traffic (brand loyalty indicator)
Paid search (intent-driven but expensive)
Social media (awareness but often low-intent)
Email (highest LTV customers)
What we found was fascinating: the audio client's organic search traffic converted at 4.2%, but their social media traffic (which was 60% of total traffic) converted at 0.2%. The overall 0.8% rate was being dragged down by low-intent social visitors.
Step 3: The Optimization Priority Matrix
Instead of generic CRO tactics, I prioritize improvements based on potential revenue impact:
High-intent, low-converting traffic - These are your best opportunities
High-converting, low-volume traffic - Scale what's working
High-volume, low-intent traffic - Either improve qualification or reduce acquisition cost
Low-volume, low-converting traffic - Usually not worth optimizing
Step 4: The Revenue-First Experiments
For the audio client, instead of testing button colors, we focused on experiments that would actually move revenue:
We implemented a shipping calculator directly on product pages. Since their products were heavy and shipping was expensive, cart abandonment was happening at checkout when people saw the €50 shipping fee. By showing this upfront, we reduced surprises and improved trust.
We added Klarna payment options prominently. For €800 purchases, the option to pay in 3 installments reduced purchase anxiety. Interestingly, conversion increased even among customers who ultimately paid in full - just having the option available was psychologically powerful.
We optimized our H1 tags across all product pages to include our main store keywords before each product name. This single technical change, deployed across their entire catalog, became one of our biggest SEO wins and drove more qualified organic traffic.
The result? Their overall conversion rate barely moved (0.8% to 0.9%), but their revenue per visitor increased by 40% because we were attracting better-qualified traffic and removing specific friction points for high-intent customers.
Context Matters
Your conversion rate means nothing without understanding your traffic quality and average order value.
Revenue Per Visitor
Focus on revenue per visitor instead of conversion rate - this tells you if your business model actually works.
Traffic Segmentation
Different traffic sources have wildly different conversion rates - analyze performance by channel to find real opportunities.
Friction vs Intent
Remove friction for high-intent visitors while improving qualification for low-intent ones to maximize overall revenue.
The transformation was remarkable, but not in the way most people measure success. The audio equipment store's conversion rate went from 0.8% to 0.9% - barely a blip that any traditional CRO agency would call a failure.
But here's what actually happened: Their revenue per visitor increased by 40%, from €0.32 to €0.45. Monthly revenue jumped from €16,000 to €22,500 with the same amount of traffic. More importantly, their profit margins improved because we were attracting customers who were less price-sensitive and more committed to their purchases.
The shipping calculator reduced cart abandonment by 23%, not because it improved conversion rate, but because it qualified out visitors who weren't serious buyers earlier in the process. The Klarna integration increased average order value by 15% as customers felt more comfortable making larger purchases.
Most surprising was the H1 optimization impact. This technical SEO change gradually shifted their organic traffic profile toward more qualified visitors actively searching for their specific products rather than general electronics shoppers.
Six months later, they had doubled their monthly revenue to €32,000, but their conversion rate had only increased to 1.1%. By traditional metrics, they were still "underperforming." By revenue metrics, they were absolutely crushing it.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Working on this project completely changed how I approach e-commerce optimization. Here are the key lessons that now guide every project:
Context beats benchmarks every time. A 0.8% conversion rate selling €800 products is infinitely better than 3% selling €20 products. Revenue per visitor is the only metric that matters.
Traffic quality trumps traffic quantity. 1,000 visitors who actually want your product will always outperform 10,000 random visitors who stumbled onto your site.
Segment everything. Your overall conversion rate is meaningless. What matters is how different traffic sources perform and why.
Remove friction for buyers, add friction for browsers. Not all visitors should convert. Better qualification often means lower conversion rates but higher profits.
Psychology beats tactics. Payment options and transparency improvements often outperform button color tests because they address real customer concerns.
Technical SEO is underrated CRO. Sometimes the best conversion optimization is attracting better traffic in the first place.
Profit per visitor matters more than conversion rate. A lower converting customer who costs less to acquire and has higher lifetime value is infinitely more valuable.
The biggest mindset shift? Stop trying to convert everyone. Start trying to convert the right people efficiently. Your conversion rate might be "bad" by industry standards while your business prints money, and that's perfectly fine.
This approach works best for businesses with higher average order values, complex products, or longer consideration cycles. It's less relevant for impulse purchase items where volume conversion optimization might actually make sense.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, apply this framework by focusing on trial-to-paid conversion rate by user segment rather than overall signup rates. Track revenue per trial user and optimize for qualified signups from users who actually match your ideal customer profile.
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores, calculate revenue per visitor by traffic source and prioritize optimizing high-intent, low-converting segments. Focus on reducing friction for qualified buyers rather than increasing overall conversion rates.