Do you know your average add to cart conversion rate?

When working in e-commerce there are so many different metrics that can be recorded, analysed and used to help make decisions going forward. One of the biggies for Rockar Tech, that isn’t always looked at by other platforms is add to cart conversion rate. 

We believe that measuring the number of people who add to their cart is a really important one to track. Not only can it help to determine what people are looking at but it helps to highlight intent to purchase and at what time frame this is happening in a customer’s journey. 

So, let’s go back to basics first. What exactly is an add to cart conversion rate. 

We calculate it as: 

The percentage of visitor sessions that involve a click on the add-to-basket button.

The next thing we really want to see is this metric by device and by industry to see just where we sit. Sadly, Google doesn’t monitor and publish this metric, however Monetate is a really helpful source that is regularly updated with these figures. 

The latest update shows that: 

  • Add-to-cart rates are between 9%-18% globally. 
  • Great Britain’s add-to-cart held even after peaking in Q3 2020

According to Salesforce, what you sell could have an influence on your add-to-cart rates. Unsurprisingly, it has been recorded that luxury brands see lower add-to-cart rates, while health & beauty sites tend to have higher rates.

(Source: https://kibocommerce.com/blog/what-are-add-to-cart-rates/ )

As you can see from the breakdown by device, all devices in GB have seen an increase YOY, but desktop has seen the biggest increase with 44% higher. 

You can see the add to cart averages broken down by industry here

But what does it all mean and what can we do?

The aim of this metric is to score as high as you can because this means that your website visitors are finding your products and adding them to their cart. 

Depending where you sit when comparing your add to cart rate to the recorded average (between 9-18%) will determine how much you need to do to improve your rates. 

If you sit lower there are a few areas that you can focus on to help increase your score, we have broken these down into the following areas. 

Products

According to Dan Ariely’s book, Predictably Irrational, people are anchored to prices based on prior experiences. So when looking at the pricing of your product, remember that people will often bring their biases with them about how much a product should cost. The only way to circumvent this is to offer something different than those in your industry.

User Experience

To be as basic as we can a better website will drive better conversions. User experience plays a very big part in a customer’s decision to proceed and add a product to their basket, so it is vital to provide a simple and organised journey from landing on your site. 

Since 79% of mobile users have made a purchase on their mobile phones in the past month, improving your mobile site is also imperative.

Personalisation

Using personalisation on your website can help to show your customers that you know who they are and that you understand their needs. Using their previous purchases and location data to personalise their experience can help to drive more conversions. 

Product Recommendations

When implemented correctly, product recommendations are an excellent tool to improve engagement rates and add to basket numbers. It has been recorded that customers who add recommended products to their carts and/or purchase in the initial session tend to purchase significantly more items and have 33% higher average order values.


The Rockar Tech platform and team can help you to get customers adding to cart and checking out rather than filling out poorly converting enquiry forms. To  take control of your lower funnel, improve your add to cart conversion rate and take orders online, get in touch to find out how.

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