Planet13 - 8:28 pm on Nov 8, 2011 (gmt 0)

I really don't know what is going on...

On our ecommerce site, traffic is up BIG TIME (over 25% over last year), but our conversion rate is about to fall through the floor.

From September to October 2011, our ecommerce conversion rate was only .26%, but from October to November 2011, it dropped to a horrific .17% Conversion rate (that's the ratio of buyers to visitors - not the funnel conversion rate).

If I compare this year to the same time last year, the conversion rate is even more of a drop: It is down 59%, from a conversion rate of .43% (which is still pretty dismal) to a conversion rate of .17%

Our traffic is overwhelmingly organic from google (almost 90%), which I understand is not the most qualified traffic, but still, as we approach the holiday season, isn't the conversion rate supposed to be going up?

If I look at the number of transactions, we are down ONLY 11% in the NUMBER of orders.

And it's even worse if I look at the MOST qualified traffic - that from the USA. Down 64% in conversions and down 23% in number of transactions.

Once the customers have started the Checkout Process, the Funnel Conversion Rate is 60%. Is that a normal funnel conversion rate?

Bounce rate is up less than 1% and while time on site is down, it is only down about 15%.

We didn't make any major changes to our shopping cart software, and all our security certs are up to date. I haven't received any emails or calls from customers saying that they were having problems placing an order.

Any suggestions on what to look at? I'm turning blue looking through google analytics and not being able to figure out what is causing the problem.