In 2023, ecommerce conversion rates dropped year over year for North America’s top online retailers, but as they grappled with how to cushion that fall — and in some cases increase rates once again, some strategies began to work.
Conversion rates across merchandise categories — and even the largest retailers, such as Amazon, Walmart and Costco — vary. Importantly, so do conversion rates among retail chains offering omnichannel options, compared with those that do not.
Digital Commerce 360’s 2025 Ecommerce Conversion Report delves into all of these differences and more, including what top online merchants are doing to boost rates and make their shoppers more likely to complete transactions. In addition, it features survey data about what online shoppers said mattered most to them when deciding whether or not to make final purchases.
The overall findings are accompanied by an updated guide, which contains insights directly from online retailers who shared what had made a difference in each of their unique cases. Here are three highlights.
How online retailers are increasing ecommerce conversion rates
The median conversion rate for retailers in the Top 2000 Database remained steady year over year at 2.4% — down from 2.6% two years earlier. Among merchants seeing improvements, one common thread has been not only working to understand what works best for customers, but also adapting as customer preferences change.
One example of this could be seen at Carbone Fine Food. Emily Fleming, senior marketing manager of shopper and digital commerce at the consumer goods brand, recently told Digital Commerce 360 about Carbone Fine Food’s online orders.
“We’ve learned to adapt quickly and focus on what works best for both the ecommerce customer and the broader market environment,” Fleming said. “However, what works today may not necessarily work six months from now.”
In Carbone’s case, adaptations have involved optimizing assortments for its products, as well as adding fulfillment options from Amazon’s Buy with Prime.
Leveraging omnichannel options to be relevant and accessible
Speaking with Digital Commerce 360, Kelly Cook, the CEO at David’s Bridal, took an expansive view of what omnichannel retail strategy means when she discussed the retailer’s 2025 Shopify-powered ecommerce site relaunch and new agentic wedding planner.
“An anywhere channel strategy is where we’re going now,” Cook stated. “When it comes specifically to our DTC channels — our direct-to-consumer channels, typically site and store — there is a certain amount of tactical plans that are consistent between channel, but we have a very different environment than most retail.”
Cook noted in April that one of the features David’s Bridal added was real-time inventory visibility. By doing so, David’s Bridal joined 65.5% of retail chains in the Top 1000 that offered in-store stock statuses in 2024.
Communicate clear expectations, and meet them
While shoppers’ responses changed significantly in some areas from 2024 to 2025 in this year’s survey, it remained clear that one easy way for an online retailer to lose a sale is by failing to meet a customer’s expectations. That failure can take different forms. Specifically, examples shoppers cited included surprise shipping costs, coming up short to qualify for free shipping and items in carts showing up as out of stock.
Amid all of the year-over-year changes seen in 2025 survey results, failing to meet expectations remains a persistent issue with cart abandonment. That can be seen in shoppers’ most commonly cited reasons for leaving carts behind. Notably, those reasons include surprise shipping costs (cited by 30.1% of shoppers taking the survey), coming up short to qualify for free shipping (26.6%) and items in carts showing up as out of stock (19.1%).
In each of these cases, there are ways retailers can address problems through technology or standards that are transparent and easy to understand.
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