Online conversion rates of e-commerce sites were the highest in the food & beverage sector, at 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. Beauty & skincare followed, with a three percent conversion rate. For comparison, the average conversion rate of e-commerce sites across all selected sectors stood at just over two percent. How does conversion vary by region and device? The conversion rate, which indicates the proportion of visits to e-commerce websites that result in purchases, varies by country and region. For instance, since at least 2023, e-commerce sites have consistently recorded higher conversion rates among shoppers in Great Britain compared to those in the United States and other global regions. Furthermore, despite the increasing prevalence of mobile shopping worldwide, conversions remain more pronounced on larger screens such as tablets and desktops. Online shopping cart abandonment on the rise Recently, the rate at which consumers abandon their online shopping carts has been gradually rising to more than 70 percent in 2024, showing a higher difficulty for e-commerce sites to convert website traffic into purchases. By the end of that year, food and beverage was one of the product categories with the lowest online cart abandonment rate, confirming the sector’s relatively high conversion rate. In the United States, the primary reason why customers abandoned their shopping carts is that extra costs such as shipping, tax, and service fees were too high at checkout.

Mobile phones dominate global digital commerce website visits and contribute to the largest share of online orders. As of the fourth quarter of 2024, smartphones constituted around 78 percent of retail site traffic globally, responsible for generating 68 percent of online shopping orders. Marketplace momentum Retail e-commerce has significantly increased globally over the past few years. Currently, the leading countries in retail e-commerce growth, such as the Philippines, have seen an increase of up to 24 percent. In 2024, the majority of online purchases worldwide were made on online marketplaces, incurring around a 30 percent share of consumer purchases. The top four retail websites for consumers to visit globally were all marketplaces, with the leading website being Amazon.com. Converting clicks When shopping online, website visits often do not end in purchases. This can be due to having second thoughts when online shopping, or simply due to consumers using the platforms to search for products. In 2024, the conversion rate of online shoppers globally was just over two percent, with food and beverages incurring the highest conversion rate from online purchases. Across the globe, almost 20 percent of all retail sales were conducted online. This figure is forecast to increase to at least 21 percent by 2027.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, online shoppers spent an average of about 2.98 U.S. dollars per visit across all verticals. Electronics is the category in which consumers spent the most money per visit on average, at 3.32 U.S. dollars, followed by luxury apparel at 3.10 dollars. Nickels and dimes Over the past few years, the average order value for e-commerce purchases has increased globally, from around 118 U.S. dollars in September 2022 to around 126 U.S. dollars in the same month of 2023. The average order value also depends heavily on the online traffic source consumers use. In 2023, the value per order value was the highest when navigating directly, averaging around 167 dollars. Direct navigation means searching for a website directly in the browser's address bar, bypassing the use of search engines. Orders placed from social media stores were the lowest in value, with an average of less than 110 dollars. Mobile shopping on the rise Online shoppers have clear preferences when it comes to device type. When comparing gadgets, the average purchase amount has always been the highest for desktops, with an order value of 160 U.S. dollars. This indicates that bigger purchases are made via desktop computers. However, consumers are more likely to complete orders when shopping on mobile devices. Mobile devices were also clearly preferred when browsing retail websites, with around three-fourths of consumers using smartphones instead of desktops or tablets.