E-commerce Update: More Online Customers Are Buying Books

Here, the IndieCommerce team shares an important look at current trends in the world of e-commerce.

We’re seeing more customers who are buying books online from independent booksellers than ever before. The ecommerce conversion rate represents the number of visitors to a website that complete an e-commerce transaction. As an example, if one out of every 100 people visiting a website makes a purchase, the e-commerce conversion rate for that website would be 1 percent.

The orange graph below shows the average hourly conversion rates for all IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020. The lowest hourly conversion rate occurred at 5:00 a.m. and was 0.85 percent. That number jumped to 9.77 percent at 2:00 p.m. The average for the entire day was 7.63 percent.

The blue graph indicates the conversion rates for Monday, April 13, 2020. The average for the day was 7.54 percent.

Those ridiculously high conversion rates are 484 percent higher than they were last year at this time. If you can drive customers to your website, they will be more likely to make an online purchase than ever before.

• Now is the time to market your website via social media, email, affiliate programs, and online events.
• Don’t be afraid to increase the frequency of marketing emails and newsletters.
• Keep your customers informed and up to date on what is happening at your store. They want to know.

Another interesting tidbit that we are seeing in Google Analytics data is that there has been a 102 percent increase in new online customers to IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites over the past 30 days. 

Normal shopping patterns have drastically changed, and we have some evidence that supports the idea that some of these new customers are actually first-time online shoppers.

Incentivize new customers to sign up for your email newsletter with coupons and other special offers. There is a unique opportunity for your store to engage with customers that are visiting your website for the first time. Make that experience a great one.