Conversion benchmarks
Conversion rates for ecommerce founders
Ecommerce lives on AOV (average order value) and repeat rate, not first-purchase conversion. Healthy visitor-to-cart is 5 to 10%, cart-to-checkout 50 to 70%, AOV-to-CAC ratio 2:1 or better, and repeat purchase rate 20 to 40% within 90 days. Most ecommerce is profitable only after the second purchase.
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TL;DR
As of , the short version is: Ecommerce lives on AOV (average order value) and repeat rate, not first-purchase conversion. Healthy visitor-to-cart is 5 to 10%, cart-to-checkout 50 to 70%, AOV-to-CAC ratio 2:1 or better, and repeat purchase rate 20 to 40% within 90 days. Most ecommerce is profitable only after the second purchase.
Conversion rate for ecommerce founders TL;DR
- Cohort
- ecommerce founders
- TL;DR
- Ecommerce lives on AOV (average order value) and repeat rate, not first-purchase conversion. Healthy visitor-to-cart is 5 to 10%, cart-to-checkout 50 to 70%, AOV-to-CAC ratio 2:1 or better, and repeat purchase rate 20 to 40% within 90 days. Most ecommerce is profitable only after the second purchase.
- Good looks like
- AOV $50+, AOV-to-CAC 3:1+, repeat rate 30%+, cart abandonment under 50%. First purchase covers ad spend; second purchase is profit.
- Broken looks like
- AOV under $30, AOV-to-CAC under 2:1, repeat rate under 10%, cart abandonment over 70%. First purchase loses money; no repeat to recover.
- Most common diagnosis
- Weak Offer
- Last verified
- May 20, 2026
Funnel-stage directional ranges
All ranges are directional. They depend on traffic source, price point, audience warmth, and cohort tightness. Use them to position your own numbers honestly, not as universal targets.
Stage 1
Visitor → add to cart
5% to 10%
Healthy ecommerce add-to-cart rate. Below 5% means product page doesn't sell; above 10% usually means cart is being used as a wishlist (low cart-to-checkout follows).
Stage 2
Cart → checkout completed
50% to 70%
Below 50% means cart friction (high shipping, surprise costs, account-required). Above 70% on cold traffic is rare and usually means very tight buyer-product fit.
Stage 3
First purchase → repeat within 90 days
20% to 40%
Healthy repeat rate. Below 20% means post-purchase follow-up is missing. Above 40% usually means strong product + email sequence combination.
Stage 4
AOV to CAC ratio
2:1 minimum, 4:1 healthy
Below 2:1 means ad spend isn't earning back on first purchase. Above 4:1 usually means strong organic or very-tight cohort.
What good vs. broken looks like
Good looks like
AOV $50+, AOV-to-CAC 3:1+, repeat rate 30%+, cart abandonment under 50%. First purchase covers ad spend; second purchase is profit.
Broken looks like
AOV under $30, AOV-to-CAC under 2:1, repeat rate under 10%, cart abandonment over 70%. First purchase loses money; no repeat to recover.
Most common Brunson diagnosis for ecommerce founders
When ecommerce founders hit the diagnostic with flat numbers, the most-common label that comes back is Weak Offer. That doesn’t mean every flat-rate cohort lands there – it’s a directional priors signal worth checking first.
Questions ecommerce founders ask about conversion rates
Why is my AOV too low for paid ads to work?
Almost always missing post-purchase upsell or bundle. The product page sells one item; ecommerce that scales sells bundles or has 30 to 50% take-rate on a one-click upsell at checkout success.
Should I do free shipping or charge for it?
Free shipping with a threshold ('free over $50') lifts AOV 20 to 40%. Always-free shipping underprices; always-charged kills cart conversion. Threshold-based is the sweet spot.
How do I increase repeat purchase rate?
Email post-purchase sequence with specific cross-sell. First-purchase customers are 5 to 10x more likely to buy than cold traffic; the post-purchase Soap Opera Sequence captures that without paid acquisition.
More for ecommerce founders
The full diagnostic for ecommerce founders →
Built for ecommerce founders whose store is live but whose conversion rate is stuck under 1%. The diagnostic labels what's broken (Wrong Person, Weak Offer, or Weak Belief) and the Playbook walks you from that label to one repeat customer.
Related Brunson terms
How does your funnel actually compare?
Knowing the range doesn’t fix the funnel – running the read does. The free 90-second Launch Diagnostic checks your live page against the ecommerce founders pattern and labels what specifically is flat.