Dive Brief:
- Product recommendations are the key to increasing e-commerce conversion rates and shopping-cart size, according to Monetate’s Ecommerce Quarterly report.
- Conversion rates have been slowly slipping, going from 2.51% in the first quarter of 2014 to 2.32% in the first quarter of 2015.
- “Bounce” rates increased substantially during the same period, led by desktop users who were quick to navigate away from e-tailer home pages.
Dive Insight:
Monetate’s latest report says that personalized product recommendations can help boost conversion and average order value (AOV). By adding recommendations, brands such as Brownells, Kipling, and Microsoft were able to slow shopper “bounce” rates, increase conversion rates, and boost add-to-cart activity.
Shoppers are increasingly impatient with e-commerce sites, the report indicates. Average bounce rates jumped almost six percentage points to reach 35.25% from 2014 to 2015, and the increase was driven by desktop shoppers. Overall conversion rates and average order value also slipped year-over-year for all devices except for tablets.