When evaluating the performance of an e-commerce site, one of the key metrics is the conversion rate, also known as CVR. The higher it is, the greater the chance that visitors are to make actual purchases.

When actually moving forward with changes, however, some people might find themselves wondering, “How do I interpret the CVR numbers?” or “What do we need to do to increase the CVR?”

In this article, we explain CVR in straightforward terms, covering a basic definition, how to calculate it, average benchmark values, and strategies for improvement that Japanese e-commerce sites need to consider.

Key takeaways

• In general, the average CVR for e-commerce sites is considered to be around 1%–3%. This figure varies depending on factors such as the products sold, price range, traffic sources, devices used, and the percentage of returning customers.
  
• The causes of low CVR include a confusing checkout process, the lack of preferred payment methods, shipping costs and fees that aren’t clear until just before an order is placed, and difficulty buying on a smartphone.
  
• Effective steps to improve CVR include enhancing the information on your product pages, strengthening the quality of your web ads and search traffic, and sending email newsletters, remarketing, and offering membership programmes.
  
• In the Japanese e-commerce market, it is important to offer convenient ways to pay for users, from credit cards to convenience store (Konbini) payments, bank transfers, buy now pay later (BNPL), and QR code payments.
  
• To improve results, begin by applying web analytics tools to assess your current CVR and identify drop-off points, then implement the measures that provide the greatest impact, and continue to monitor their effectiveness.
  

What is CVR on an e-commerce site?

CVR is a metric that indicates the percentage of visitors who reached an e-commerce site and completed a conversion.

The definition of a conversion on an online store varies depending on what constitutes a successful outcome. For business-to-consumer (B2C) sites that sell products, a successful sale is often considered a conversion. For business-to-business (B2B) sites, the definition depends on objective and industry. In some situations, requesting information might be considered a conversion.

In either case, a higher CVR indicates that the page is being operated effectively and efficiently, and it is widely used as a key metric for objectively evaluating a company’s e-commerce presence or specific pages.

How CVR is calculated

CVR can be calculated using the following formula:

CVR = Number of CV ÷ Number of Sessions or Number of Unique Users x 100

For example, if 10,000 people visit an e-commerce site and 300 of them purchase a product, the CVR can be calculated as follows:

CVR = 300 ÷ 10,000 x 100 = 3%

“Number of sessions” refers to the volume of visits to a website, while “number of unique users” refers to the volume of people who visited the website. If the same person visits the page five times, the session count would be five. By contrast, multiple visits from that person are counted as a single unique visitor.

When calculating CVR, decide in advance whether to use sessions or unique visitors as the denominator.

Average CVR for e-commerce sites

The CVR for e-commerce sites is generally around 1%–3%. The figure varies by industry, product, price range, and whether the user is a new or current customer.

On e-commerce sites, items such as daily necessities, commodity goods, and food, which are relatively inexpensive and purchased frequently, tend to have higher conversion rates. On the other hand, high-priced goods and those that require careful comparison tend to have lower CVRs. Purchasing intent also differs between new users who arrive through advertising and those who subscribe to email newsletters or place additional orders.

Therefore, the average benchmark needs to be treated merely as a reference point. It is necessary to identify areas for improvement by analysing your company’s business model, products, target audience, and traffic sources based on historical data.

Reasons for low e-commerce site CVRs

There are various reasons why an e-commerce site’s CVR could be weak. Let’s take a look at some specific examples:

Complicated and confusing purchasing process

A lengthy checkout process makes visitors more prone to abandoning their carts once they add an item.

Too many input fields, page transitions, or mandatory account registration could prompt cart abandonment among customers who intend to complete a purchase. Clear error handling is equally valuable. Errors caused by formatting differences, such as hyphens in postal codes or full-width versus half-width characters in phone numbers, must come with specific instructions. A vague message such as “Please enter the information correctly” leaves users unsure what to fix, potentially leading to repeated failed attempts and eventual abandonment.

Payment methods commonly used in Japan are not available

If a shopper’s preferred option isn’t supported, they’re more likely to abandon their order right before checkout.

According to the “Communications Usage Trends Survey (Household Edition)” report conducted in 2025 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, among people aged 15 and older who purchased goods or services online, credit cards were the most common method at 79.9%, followed by e-money payments at 45.8% and convenience store payments at 35.2%.

While credit cards are the primary way to pay on Japanese e-commerce sites, QR codes, e-money, convenience store payments, bank transfers, and mobile carrier billing are widely accepted as well. Because the most convenient methods for users vary greatly, offer options tailored to your products and target audience.

Shipping costs are unclear until just before purchase

A product that appears inexpensive on its page can seem “more expensive than expected” once shipping costs are added at checkout, potentially causing shoppers to abandon the purchase. Displaying the item price, shipping costs, and estimated delivery date early in the buying journey helps prevent this outcome.

Difficulty purchasing on a smartphone or tablet

Smartphone ownership in Japan is quite high, at over 90%, and many users browse products on e-commerce sites via their mobile devices and make purchases there. If a screen is difficult to navigate on a mobile device, it can lead to a lower CVR.

Online stores need to be responsive so that customers can easily complete orders on a variety of devices, namely PCs, smartphones, and tablets.

Concern about the payment page and site security

Because users enter card and personal details during checkout, a screen that appears suspicious or lacks sufficient security information could cause concern and lead them to abandon the transaction.

People visiting an e-commerce site for the first time will carefully assess whether it is safe to make a purchase. Creating an environment where shoppers can shop with confidence is central for improving the CVR.

Specific measures to improve CVR on e-commerce sites

Improving an e-commerce site’s CVR requires a combination of strategies, starting with a review of the checkout and payment screens. Other measures involve attracting new customers, addressing pre-purchase concerns, and encouraging repeat purchases.

Especially for e-commerce sites, lowering the barrier to an initial order and establishing systems to encourage repeat business after that initial purchase are both effective ways to generate more completed orders.

Provide information necessary for reviews and purchasing decisions

New customers often feel anxious before making a purchase because they don’t yet trust the product or brand. Make sure the relevant pages contain the necessary information, covering the product’s features, size, materials, usage instructions, and shipping terms.

Moreover, posting reviews, ratings, and user-submitted comments with photos from real buyers helps shoppers visualise the item once it arrives.

E-commerce sites are required to display a statement based on the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions. To alleviate user concerns as much as possible, it’s worthwhile to list frequently asked questions and publish a return policy. Place exchange terms on product pages or another location that’s straightforward to find before ordering.

Improve online ad and search flow quality

To improve your CVR, it’s also important to improve the quality of the users visiting your site. When running online advertising, such as search, display, and social media ads, focus not just on increasing traffic but on reaching the right kind of users—those who are more likely to make a purchase.

One approach is to refine keywords, ad copy, and landing pages tailored to product categories, price ranges, and target audience. Doing so helps attract visitors with stronger intent to buy.

It is equally valuable to ensure that the ad’s content matches the material on the product page it links to. If the advertised item is no longer available or the promotional information is outdated, users will immediately leave the store. Whether it’s the ads and product pages or the shopping cart and checkout screen, keep all the content up to date to maintain a consistent shopping experience.

Encourage repeat visits through email newsletters and remarketing

Users who visit a site once might not necessarily make a purchase right then and there. For those who are still comparing options or who leave after placing items in their basket, email newsletters and remarketing ads can draw them back.

For instance, by sending notifications about new products, limited-time promotions, abandoned cart emails, and product recommendations based on browsing history, you can more easily encourage users to become customers and make purchases.

Still, sending messages too frequently or distributing content that doesn’t match users’ interests could lead them to unsubscribe or block future communications. It is best to deliver information at the right time in response to users’ behaviour and purchase history.

Incorporate member programmes and reward systems

To improve the CVR, it is central to acquire new customers and create systems that promote additional orders. Introducing membership programmes and loyalty point systems will enable you to offer rewards tied to spending and frequency, helping generate ongoing business.

Referral programmes for existing customers and affiliate marketing are beneficial as well. You can raise brand awareness among audiences who are not yet familiar with it and secure reliable traffic channels through current shoppers and partners, rather than relying solely on advertising.

Improve the payment process and checkout page

Simplify and clarify the process from the basket to checkout to prevent ready-to-buy visitors from leaving before purchase.

It is best to minimise the number of input fields and page transitions and to prepare automated error messages in advance that offer clear guidance so users don’t get confused.

If registration is normally required, allowing guest checkout can be helpful as well. If users are asked to create an account or log in before making a purchase, they might find it a hassle, and the process could be interrupted if they forget their password. Guest checkout lets them proceed with an order despite login problems.

For payment methods, make sure to check whether options are available that are convenient for users.

In Japan, companies must support 3D Secure 2 to prevent credit card fraud. Alongside this, complying with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) helps ensure the secure handling of card information, while a system that does not store card info on your own webpage minimises the security burden and supports a trustworthy shopping environment.

If it is difficult to build a payment screen from scratch in-house, consider using a checkout page provided by a payment processing service that supports various ways to pay and offers identity verification.

Steps for improving CVR

By identifying where users drop off and tackling the issues with the greatest impact first, you can effectively improve the CVR of your e-commerce site:

Measure your current CVR and drop-off points

To improve the CVR, begin by understanding the current rate. Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics can help pinpoint the stage at which users are abandoning the purchasing process—whether that is on product pages, the shopping cart screen, the shipping information form, or the checkout page.

Cart abandonment rate and identifying causes

If you experience a high level of cart abandonment, rather than simply looking at the drop-off rate, dig deeper into why shoppers didn’t complete their orders to improve results.

For instance, if the CVR for users from an ad is lower than usual, it becomes easier to pinpoint certain issues, such as “the ad doesn’t match the landing page content” or “the advertised product is out of stock.”

It is also worthwhile to review the details of customer support inquiries and identify trends in transaction errors. You can gain a more specific understanding of the causes of cart abandonment, such as a lack of payment options, dissatisfaction with shipping costs and fees, difficulty logging in, and frequent data entry errors.

Once the causes are clear, categorise them into issues such as “problems with the input form,” “lack of payment options,” “communication of shipping costs and fees,” and “burden of logging in or registering,” and then develop strategies focused on increasing the CVR.

Determine priorities

Once the problems are listed, begin with the changes that will have the greatest impact. If all measures are introduced at once, it will be harder to determine which measures worked, so making these improvements in stages is a good idea.

For instance, if there are many cart abandonments at checkout, start by reducing required fields or adding new ways to pay.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the measures before and after implementation

After implementing the improvement measures, check to see how the CVR and cart abandonment rate have changed. A/B testing can compare screen variations involving button text, form fields, and the placement of shipping costs.

Compare metrics before and after implementing measures such as adding payment methods, implementing identity verification, and strengthening the security of the order screen.

However, the CVR can also fluctuate due to temporary campaigns, seasonal factors, and changes in advertising budgets. For that reason, rather than making decisions from short-term numbers, it is best to assess effectiveness by examining results over a set period.

A single round of improvements won’t necessarily yield significant results. Refine the process leading up to purchase completion by continuously measuring, analysing, adjusting, and verifying.

How Stripe Checkout can help

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FAQs about CVRs and how to improve them