Conversion metrics are data points that indicate how effectively a store turns visitors into customers. They show whether shoppers are browsing, adding products to their cart, starting the checkout process, completing purchases, or leaving before buying.
Without conversion data, it’s difficult to tell whether low sales are a traffic problem, a product page issue, a cart problem, or something else entirely. Conversion rates also vary by category and traffic source. Dynamic Yield’s ecommerce benchmarks show conversion rates ranging from less than 1% in the luxury and jewelry sectors to more than 5% in the food and beverage sector. Your own metrics will tell a more useful story than industry averages.
Learn what conversion metrics are, which metrics to track in Shopify, and how to use them to improve sales.
What are conversion metrics?
Conversion metrics track the actions shoppers take when interacting with your online business, including completing a purchase, adding a product to their cart, and subscribing to an email list. The most common ecommerce conversion metric is conversion rate (CVR), which measures the percentage of visitors who complete a purchase. For example, if 1,000 people visit your store and 25 make a purchase, your purchase conversion rate is 2.5%.
Conversion metrics can help store owners spot opportunities across the shopping journey, also known as micro-conversions. For example, a product page with lots of traffic but few add to carts may need clearer photos, reviews, sizing details, or usage ideas. These small improvements at different points in the buying process can add up. A stronger product page may increase the add to cart rate, while a simple checkout may improve the checkout completion rate.
For example, spice brand Diaspora used to have only a few images on its product pages. After adding more dynamic images, similar to those on their social media accounts, “We saw our conversion rate go up immediately,” founder Sana Javeri Kadri says on Shopify Masters. “We now have reviews, size guides, recipe inspiration … we had that information buried elsewhere on the product page, but now it’s in the carousel, and it’s been a game changer.”
6 conversion metrics to track
- Conversion rate
- Average order value
- Cart abandonment rate
- Checkout abandonment rate
- Click-through rate
- Customer acquisition cost
The right metrics act as key performance indicators (KPIs) within your digital marketing strategy. The following metrics are a useful starting point.
1. Conversion rate
Online store conversion rate = (Purchases / Total sessions) x 100
Conversion rate (CVR) is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, like making a purchase. A high CVR usually means that your offer, messaging, and customer experience are aligned, while a low CVR is a signal to look for where shoppers are dropping off and why. Effective teams separate primary conversions tied to business goals from secondary signals such as email sign-ups and add to carts, because conversions carry different weights depending on value.
In Shopify Analytics, conversion rate is based on sessions, or visits to your online store. One shopper can have multiple sessions if they leave a website and return later to complete a purchase, so sessions are not the same as unique website visitors. Put another way, your website’s tracked sessions may exceed how many users visited the site. You can find this data in the Conversion Rate Over Time report.
Shopify also filters known bot traffic from its reports. This prevents automated visits from inflating session counts and distorting conversion rates.
2. Average order value
Average order value = Total revenue / Total number of orders
Average order value (AOV) is the median amount that customers spend per order, which shows how much revenue each order generates on average. It’s useful for judging whether merchandising or upsell changes, such as product bundles, free shipping thresholds, or subscriptions, improve sales outcomes.
3. Cart abandonment rate
Cart abandonment rate = [(Sessions with cart additions − Sessions that started checkout) / Sessions with cart additions] x 100
Cart abandonment rate is the percentage of shoppers who add products to their cart but don’t proceed to start the checkout process. A high cart abandonment rate may mean shoppers are using the cart to compare products or save items for later. It can also indicate friction points in the sales funnel, such as an unexpected order total, unclear delivery information, or a forced account-creation step before checkout.
You can find sessions that reached checkout and sessions with cart additions in the Conversion Rate Breakdown report in Shopify Analytics.
4. Checkout abandonment rate
Checkout abandonment rate = [(Sessions that started checkout − Sessions with order completions) / Sessions that started checkout] x 100
Checkout abandonment rate is the percentage of shoppers who begin checkout but don’t complete their order.
This can happen at the last minute when friction, like an unexpected shipping fee, is introduced, which is what happened with coffee concentrate brand Kloo during its soft launch. After seeing a high checkout abandonment rate, Kloo lowered its per-bottle price from $35 to $32 and removed the shipping fee, resulting in improved checkout completions and conversion rates.
“We upped our minimum quantity to two bottles per order, so we were able to really satisfy our customers’ needs by reducing the price and eliminating the shipping fee, but it also actually made us more profitable on the unit economic side,” cofounder Claudia Snoh says on Shopify Masters.
5. Click-through rate
Click-through rate = (Clicks / Impressions) x 100
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of impressions (each time someone sees your business in search engine results or an ad) that are clicked, either via organic search results or a paid ad. Tracking CTR across channels helps you evaluate which ads or target keywords in a digital marketing campaign bring people to your store, while conversion rate shows whether those visits lead to purchases.
6. Customer acquisition cost
Customer acquisition cost = Sales and marketing costs / New customers acquired
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the amount you spend to acquire one new customer. CAC is especially useful when analyzed alongside CVR and AOV. If acquisition costs rise while conversion rates or AOV remain flat, you may need to review which campaigns drive clicks but not purchases, update your landing pages, or invest in retention efforts such as subscription offers.
To calculate CAC, first add up your sales and marketing costs for a set period. Pull ad spend from platforms such as Google or Meta, then add other acquisition costs, including agency fees, marketing software, and sales or marketing salaries. Next, in Shopify Analytics, check new versus returning customers to find the number of first-time customers acquired during the same period. Divide your total costs by that number.
Why sales attribution is important
Sales attribution, while not a standalone conversion metric, helps you see which channels, campaigns, or links drive sales, giving you a clear understanding of which marketing efforts drive paying customers, not just clicks.
In Shopify, attribution reports can show whether sales came from places like Google, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, or a specific campaign link. Kyle Risley, senior SEO lead at Shopify, says to measure sales attribution starting with organic revenue. “That’s where everything leads. Then, organic traffic, conversion rates from that traffic, and keyword rankings for your key product queries,” he says.
Use this information to compare which channels drive actual orders, allocate more budget to campaigns that generate sales, and reduce spending on traffic that rarely converts.
Tools to track conversion metrics
- Shopify Analytics
- Google Analytics
- MIDA Heatmap & Replay Checkout
- Intelligems: A/B testing
- Superspeed Web Vitals
These tools are designed to help you track conversion metrics, understand where shoppers drop off, and test changes to improve the buying experience for your brand.
Shopify Analytics
If you want one view of how your store is converting across sessions, average order value, and marketing performance, start with Shopify Analytics. Its conversion reports show how many sessions add products to their cart, reach checkout, and complete a purchase, helping you identify the stage with the biggest drop-off to investigate first.
Pricing: Shopify Analytics is included with all Shopify plans, so you can track core metrics like sessions, orders, conversion rate, and average order value without paying for a separate analytics tool.
Google Analytics
Shopify Analytics shows that shoppers are dropping out of the purchase funnel, but Google Analytics can add more context. It shows where those visitors came from and which landing pages they entered through. This helps you find channels that bring traffic but few sales, as well as landing pages that may be losing shoppers.
Pricing: Standard Google Analytics is free; Google Analytics 360 is the paid enterprise version.
MIDA Heatmap & Replay Checkout
If you want to see how shoppers actually behave in your store, MIDA lets you watch session and checkout recordings and see where customers click, scroll, or hesitate. This can help you spot issues, such as ignored buttons or confusing page elements, and decide which changes to test.
Pricing: MIDA has a free plan for stores with up to 300 sessions per month; paid plans start at $9.90 per month.
Intelligems: A/B Testing
Intelligems lets you test conversion-improvement ideas against each other, such as pricing, shipping offers, discounts, and product page content. It shows how each version affects conversion, revenue, and profit, so you can roll out the option that performs best rather than relying on assumptions.
Pricing: Intelligems starts at $49 per month and scales based on order volume.
Superspeed Web Vitals
If your analytics show that certain pages have high exit rates or low conversion rates, page performance may be part of the problem. Superspeed Web Vitals shows performance issues such as slow loading, delayed responses after a click, and page elements that move while loading. You can use the report to identify the pages and technical issues that need attention before testing other conversion changes.
Pricing: Superspeed Web Vitals costs $99 per month.
Conversion metrics FAQ
What is the most important conversion metric?
Purchase conversion rate is the main conversion metric for ecommerce stores. It shows the percentage of website sessions that result in completed orders.
What tools track conversion metrics?
Shopify Analytics tracks store-level conversion metrics, including sales, conversion rate, and average order value. You can also use Google Analytics for traffic and event tracking, as well as Shopify App Store tools like MIDA and Intelligems for session replays and test data.
How can ecommerce businesses improve conversion rates?
Ecommerce businesses can improve conversion rates by analyzing behavioral reports to identify drop-off points. For example, a product page with a low add-to-cart rate may need improved photos and reviews, while a high checkout abandonment rate may signal a need for clearer shipping costs or more payment options.
