Google Analytics funnel feature

Great feature but needs statistics

[lgn1]

I have switched to Google Analytics and I find it the greatest thing since slice bread, and you cant argue with the price.

Once feature we are using are the Funnels and Goals

Our goal is obviously completing the sale, and our various funnels are the checkout processes.

For our case:

making it to the checkout page.
making it to the review order page.
making it to the credit card payment page.
making it to order receipt (goal)

In our case, of the people that make it to the checkout page
only 30% completes the information, and we lose more than half of those again on the order review and payment page.

So for every 10 people that start the checkout process, we get one order.

I have no idea if this is good or bad, as I have nothing to compare this to.

So in summary my funnel stats are such for every 100 customers.

Market (Online sales of retail goods ($30 - $100 range) in a niche market)

start checkout(for every 100 customer)
successfully fill in shipping address and method (30)
sucessfully review order details and total (16)
sucessfully pays for order (10)

Im not sure if this is good or bad, and I will be interested, on how everybody else is doing.

[Frequent]

I would not be happy with the conversion rate you are seeing. You have a 70% drop off at the first check-out page and there must be a reason.

What information are they faced with on that page that they didn't already know? Are they finding out they have to check out through Paypal? Are they being given a very high estimated delivery time? Are they being given a very high estimated shipping quote?

Something on that page is killing your sales.

One other question that may change my answer, is your first check-out page linked to via a "View Cart" button? If this is the case, then ignore the above. A lot of people go back and forth checking what they currently have in cart. If so, I'd drop that page from your funnel.

Freq---

[lgn1]

I do not track the cart page as part of the checkout.

For the US (most of our customers) shipping is $9.95 for ground (3-8 days delivery from order date), which I believe is reasonable. We have free shipping on orders over $199.00.

Customers already know about the flat rate shipping (but not the delivery time) in advance, as it is displayed all over our website.

Shipping selection is done on checkout page. We only ask for the customers mailing address and shipping address (if different) and the customers email address for order tracking.

What could be a problem, is we have a large FedEx ground map at the bottom of the page, and the form button is stuck in the middle of the page.

I may get rid of the FedEx map and just say 3 day west coast, 8 days east coast, and let the customer extrapolate.

[Frequent]

Sounds like you are on the right track.

Good luck with the testing and tuning!

Freq---

[spiral]

Conversion rate average is about 2%, but it's like the average temperature in the hospital, part of the them have a fever and another are dead, so average is ok... :)
The numbers very a lot, depending on many factors, but this is not the important thing. What if you was told your rate is 10% higher or 10% lower then average? Is it actionable? What can you do with this information?
What you may want to trace is trend. After you did such and such, do you see an improvement? Why? Compare yourself with your own results and try to analyse effect of your modifications (one thing a time).
There are many very good books available about the issue. I strongly recommend to read something, trust me it just saves time and money.
Hope it helps.