In the eighties film 10, Dudley Moore, a middle-aged musician lusts after Bo Derek, a young and beautiful woman. I don’t think her career was ever made obvious. In an iconic scene, Bo Derek runs down the beach in slow motion her body glistening with the sea and coconut oil. She is in Dudley Moore’s eyes a perfect 10.
This scene and the idea of the perfect 10 reminds me of the lust for the perfect conversion rate. Some people say that 3% is a good conversion rate. That is 3 out of 100 visitors to a website buying or doing something significant. Doesn’t sound like much does it? A quick search using your favourite search engine will tell you that the top ecommerce sites in the world achieve conversion rates in the double figures.
So how do they do this? And why is 3% thought of as a good rate?
The truth is that there is no perfect conversion rate. The conversion rate is a result of the type of audience, the product or service being sold, the price, the brand and lastly the experience offered by a website.
A website selling a commodity product at a higher price will need to work harder than a website selling a niche product at a price perceived to be good value.
Amazon.com can get a very high conversion rate because they typically sell commodity products at a fair price and have a lot of brand equity. They are seen as a reliable and trustworthy merchant.
Plus, the website is easy to use.
This obviously didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of many millions of dollars invested in product and online experience.
You can achieve your perfect conversion rate if you focus on meeting the needs of your customers. and testing different approaches. Test different price points, provide incentives, test different headlines. Your perfect number will emerge.