Fetchify study: Online retailers fail checkout conversion rates test

42% of online retailers are failing to measure checkout conversion rates, according to new research from Fetchify.

The company’s study of 115 UK e-commerce retailers and store builders found that this even affects large retailers with 10% failing to measure.

The issue was particularly acute for ‘small and ‘micro’ businesses with some 35% and 42% respectively failing to do so.

The two main reasons for not conducting this analysis were “not enough time/resource” (stated by 42%) and “don’t know how” (stated by 31%).

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The research did find that retailers are adapting their checkouts to boost conversion.

Some 70% of the retailers have invested in new tools to help, with address lookup the most popular (used by 60%), followed by upsell tools (30%), delivery options, reengagement messages and discounts (all used by 20%).

When asked how ‘effective’ these tools are, address lookup scored the highest and rated “very effective” or “effective” by 71%. This was closely followed by abandoned cart discounts by 67%.

Alternative payments and buy now pay later options also scored highly with 63% and 63% respectively. Urgency tools (such as limited offers and countdowns) only rated 38% effective, upselling related products and remarketing ads both scored 44%.

The report also looked at the challenging issues related to mobile commerce where 86% of baskets are abandoned. Some 57% of those surveyed claimed to be performing better than this figure (compiled in 2020).

However, of the 29% of those currently measuring overall rates, are not breaking it down by device, meaning a potential gap in understanding across different platforms.

Russell Jones, CEO at Fetchify, says: “The study is something of a mixed picture. On one hand retailers are investing in the tools they need to boost their checkout conversion rates but on the other, a large proportion aren’t measuring the key metric they need to track their effectiveness.”

“Dropped baskets are a huge problem across retail and even a tiny increase in conversion rate can mean big increases in revenue to a business. The tools they have purchased have to be fine-tuned to increase their effectiveness and you can only do that when you have the key data.”

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