PYMNTS Daily Data Dive: eCommerce Cuts Clicks, Increases Sales

Online shoppers may have noticed a quicker, more seamless experience recently. Savvy merchants are striving to make the online shopping experience, from discovery to final payment, easy for the consumer, and their efforts are paying off, according to the latest data from the most recent PYMNTS Checkout Conversion Index™.

Friction at checkout on eCommerce sites is blamed for missed sales, which has merchants focusing on making sure the consumer can select an item and pay for it in as short a time as possible, with the least amount of clicks. Some of the findings in the most recent study are that checkout conversion rates are showing consistent improvement, average checkout times are faster and the number of clicks required to complete a transaction is falling. The top merchants in eCommerce checkout conversion are from the apparel and accessories category, while mass merchants were in third position in the third quarter of 2016.

Here are the numbers:

300% | The percentage improvement in checkout conversion rates of 16 merchants since Q1 2016, a 60 percent improvement over Q2.

161 | The average checkout time in seconds for merchants in Q3. This is 21 seconds faster than in Q2.

$159.6 Billion | The amount that missed sales from website checkout friction are expected to cost merchants, according to the Checkout Conversion Index™.

17 | The number of clicks required to complete a transaction on a top-performing merchant’s website; 22 clicks are required on an average-performing merchant’s website.

5 | The number of clicks occurring during a 50-second shopping experience.