What Is Conversion Rate? Formula and Shopify Example

Quick Definition

Conversion rate is the percentage of store visits that end in a purchase. It's also called sales conversion rate, and each purchase counts as one conversion. The formula is orders ÷ sessions × 100. A conversion can also be a smaller goal, like an email sign-up, but for most stores it means an order.

How to Calculate Conversion Rate

The formula is conversion rate = orders ÷ sessions × 100. Each visit to your store counts as one session. Just make sure both numbers cover the same dates.

Example: a sock shop's September

Sessions: 18,000
Orders: 306

306 ÷ 18,000 = 0.017. Multiply that by 100 and you've got a 1.7% conversion rate. That's about 17 sales for every 1,000 visits.

Sessions vs. Visitors: Why One Shop Can Show Two Rates

Some tools divide by visitors (people) instead of sessions (visits). If a shopper comes back three times, that's one visitor but three sessions. So the visitor count is usually smaller, and the rate looks higher.

Say the sock shop had 12,000 visitors behind those 18,000 sessions. Divide by visitors and you get 306 ÷ 12,000 = 2.55%, or about 2.6%. Same month, same orders. Neither number is wrong. Just don't hold a visitor-based rate up against a session-based one.

Where Shopify Shows Your Conversion Rate

Open the Analytics page in your Shopify admin and you'll find a conversion rate card. Shopify counts sessions, so its rate is the share of sessions that ended in an order. It also shows the steps before the sale: sessions that added to cart, reached checkout and completed checkout. That's where you can spot people dropping off, which one number on its own can't show you.

How does 2.2% sound? That was the average conversion rate in our data from 958 Shopify stores and 24M visitors. Only about 8 in 100 sessions even made it to the cart. Rates swing a lot by niche, though, so check conversion rate benchmarks by industry before you judge yours.

When a Higher Conversion Rate Earns You Less

Plenty of owners assume a higher conversion rate always means a healthier store. It doesn't. The rate counts orders, not profit.

Say the sock shop's average order is $40, and the socks cost it $20. That leaves $20 per order after product costs. Now run a 30% off sale. The rate climbs to 2.4%, which is 432 orders from the same 18,000 sessions. But each order now brings in $28, so you're left with just $8.

Before the sale: 306 orders × $20 = $6,120
During the sale: 432 orders × $8 = $3,456

So the rate went up 0.7 points, while the money left after product costs fell by $2,664.

It can trick you the other way, too. Say a video sends a wave of casual browsers your way, and sessions jump to 36,000, twice the usual. Orders go up to 396, but the rate falls to 1.1%. You sold more, and the metric still looks worse. That's why you should read conversion rate next to average order value and revenue per visitor, and check where the traffic came from.

Our app, Growth Suite, lets you judge an A/B test by conversion rate, average order value or total revenue. That way you pick the goal you care about most.

Raising Your Rate

This page is about what the number means. For what drives it and how to raise it, see our complete guide to Shopify conversion rates. If you're getting plenty of visits but few orders, start with why stores get traffic but no sales. And if you're shopping for a tool, we compared the best Shopify conversion rate apps.

Related Terms

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): the ongoing work of raising this rate.
Checkout Conversion Rate: the share of started checkouts that end in an order, so it only covers the last step.
Add to Cart Rate: the share of sessions in which a shopper puts something in the cart.
Average Order Value (AOV): what an order is worth on average.
Revenue per Visitor (RPV): conversion rate and order size rolled into one number.
Sales Funnel: the steps a shopper takes from first visit to purchase.