Your ecommerce conversion rate is the percentage of visits to your online shop that end in an order. If 1,000 sessions bring in 20 orders, your conversion rate is 2%. Most UK online shops sit somewhere between 1% and 4%, and recent UK figures put the overall average a little over 2%.

That said, “average” hides huge differences between sectors, devices, price points and traffic sources. A good ecommerce conversion rate is one that beats your own last quarter, not a number from someone else’s shop. Below we cover how to calculate it, what is typical and ten practical ways to improve it.

Conversion rate is the number that multiplies everything else

Conversion rate sits between your marketing spend and your sales. Double your traffic and you might double your sales, but you will also pay roughly twice as much for ads. Lift your conversion rate from 1.5% to 2% and every visitor you already pay for is worth a third more.

It is also one of the clearest signs of how well your shop works. A low rate often points to something specific: slow pages, surprise delivery costs, poor product photos or a clunky checkout. Fix those and the benefit carries across every channel, from Google Shopping to social ads.

How to calculate your ecommerce conversion rate

The formula is simple:

Conversion rate = (number of orders ÷ number of sessions) × 100

So 45 orders from 3,000 sessions gives 1.5%. A few things to get right:

• Use sessions, not users, for the standard figure. Most benchmarks compare orders with visits. A user conversion rate (orders divided by unique visitors) will look higher and is not directly comparable.
• Use the same date range for both numbers. Mixing a month of orders with a week of traffic gives a meaningless figure.
• Check your tracking. If purchases are not firing properly in Google Analytics 4, your rate will look lower than it really is. Compare GA4 orders with your shop platform’s order count.
• Break it down. Look at conversion rate by device, traffic source, landing page and product category. One overall number rarely tells you what to fix.

It is also worth tracking the micro steps along the way: add to basket rate, checkout start rate and checkout completion rate. These show exactly where people drop out.

What is a good ecommerce conversion rate?

Benchmarks vary depending on who collects them, which shops are included and how they measure. Treat the figures below as rough guides, not targets.

UK averages by sector

IRP Commerce publishes UK ecommerce market data each month from a sample of UK retailers. Its August 2026 figures put the overall UK ecommerce conversion rate at 2.23%, with a wide spread between categories:

Category (UK, August 2026)	Conversion rate
Arts and crafts	5.81%
Health and wellbeing	3.31%
Kitchen and home appliances	2.98%
Pet care	2.56%
Sports and recreation	2.11%
Fashion, clothing and accessories	1.86%
Toys, games and collectables	1.64%
Food and drink	1.58%
Baby and child	0.57%

Source: IRP Commerce UK ecommerce market data. Figures move from month to month, and the same category can rise or fall by a percentage point or more year on year.

Global studies tell a similar story. Dynamic Yield’s benchmark data, as reported by Shopify, shows categories like beauty and pet care converting at around 5%, fashion at under 3%, home and furniture at around 1.3% and luxury and jewellery at under 1%. The pattern is consistent: lower-priced, repeat purchases convert better than expensive, considered ones.

Desktop versus mobile

Phones now carry most UK online shopping (IRP Commerce’s August 2026 data shows mobile bringing in around 64% of revenue), but desktop visits still tend to convert better. Contentsquare’s retail data, reported by Shopify, puts desktop at around 3.7% and mobile at around 2%. People often browse on a phone and come back on a laptop to buy, so a lower mobile rate is normal. A very large gap, though, usually means the mobile experience needs work.

What this means for your shop

• Under 1%: worth investigating, unless you sell high-value or luxury products.
• 1% to 2%: typical for many UK shops, with room to improve.
• 2% to 4%: healthy for most sectors.
• Over 4%: strong, though often helped by loyal repeat customers or lots of branded search traffic.

Traffic source matters too. Email and branded search visitors already know you and convert well. Cold traffic from social ads usually converts lower, which is fine if the cost per sale works.

Ten practical ways to improve your conversion rate

1. Show delivery costs early. Baymard Institute’s research puts average documented basket abandonment at around 70%, and the top reason (cited by 40% of shoppers who abandoned for reasons other than browsing) is extra costs that were too high. Show delivery prices and free delivery thresholds on product pages, not just at checkout.
2. Allow guest checkout. In the same research, 18% abandoned because the site wanted them to create an account. Offer account creation after the order instead.
3. Shorten the checkout. Baymard found the average checkout shows far more form fields than needed. Remove anything optional, use address lookup and autofill, and keep it on as few steps as possible.
4. Offer express payment options. Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal let mobile shoppers pay in a couple of taps without typing card details.
5. Speed up your pages. Compress images, cut unnecessary apps and plugins, and use good hosting. Test with Google’s PageSpeed Insights and focus on mobile scores.
6. Improve product photos. Several angles, close-ups, scale shots and lifestyle images do the job a shop assistant would do in person. Short videos help for products where movement or fit matters.
7. Write proper product descriptions. Lead with benefits, then cover sizes, materials, dimensions, care and what is in the box. Answer the questions customers email you about.
8. Show reviews and trust signals. Star ratings on product and category pages, recognisable payment logos, a clear returns policy and real contact details all reduce doubt. Baymard’s research found 19% abandoned because they did not trust the site with their card details.
9. Make search and filters work. Shoppers who use site search often know what they want. Make sure it handles typos and synonyms, and give category pages useful filters like size, colour and price.
10. Recover abandoned baskets. A short series of abandoned basket emails, sent with permission, brings back a share of lost sales. Pair it with remarketing ads for people who viewed products but did not buy.

Make one change at a time where you can, and give it long enough to judge. Small shops will not have the traffic for formal A/B testing on every change, so compare like-for-like periods and watch the micro steps as well as the headline rate.

Better traffic converts better

Not every conversion problem is on the website. If ads are sending the wrong people, no amount of checkout tweaking will fix it. Google Shopping campaigns, for example, put your product image, price and shop name in front of people actively searching for that product, which is usually high-intent traffic. Keeping your product feed accurate (correct prices, stock levels and descriptive titles) means people arrive expecting exactly what they find. Our Google Shopping management focuses on this kind of qualified traffic.

Related reading: How Much Does an UK Ecommerce Website Cost? and How to Use Google Analytics 4 for Your Small Business.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average ecommerce conversion rate in the UK?

Recent IRP Commerce data puts the overall UK average at around 2.2% (August 2026), but it varies widely by sector, from under 1% to over 5%. Compare yourself with your own category and your own past performance.

Why is my mobile conversion rate lower than desktop?

Partly because people browse on phones and buy later on a computer, which is normal. But a big gap often points to slow mobile pages, fiddly forms or missing express payment options.

Is a 1% conversion rate bad?

Not necessarily. For high-value items like furniture or jewellery, around 1% can be normal. For low-cost, everyday products, it usually suggests there is room to improve.

How long does it take to improve conversion rate?

Quick wins such as showing delivery costs or adding express payments can make a difference within weeks. Bigger changes like a redesign take longer to plan and measure, so judge them over at least one to two months of steady traffic.

Turn more of your visitors into customers

If your online shop gets visitors but not enough orders, we can help find out why and fix it. We design and build ecommerce sites for businesses across Surrey, Hampshire and beyond, and run Google Shopping campaigns that bring in buyers, not just browsers. Take a look at our ecommerce web design and Google Shopping agency services, or get in touch for a chat about your shop.