Any chance to predict sales?

[mnemonik23]

From your experience, are there any chances to predict the % of visitors that actually will buy your product?

I know it sounds weird and depends on the product, but lets say this is something that people need time after time and I hope will be willing to pay for it.

Is it fair to say that 5 or 10% of your monthly unique visitors may buy the product or it's not predictable at all? (The thing is my ecommerce site is not up yet).

Thanks!

[LifeinAsia]

The best you can do is compare to similar sites (although it's highly unlikely that other sites will have valid data available).

Percentage of repeat customers depend on too many variables:
- industry % of repeat customers
- your site's demographics
- your site's traffic patterns
- the perceived quality of your products
- the perceived value of your products (compared to other sources)

An estimate of 5% may be too low for one industry, while being completely unobtainable in another.

[Essex_boy]

Broadly speaking I find a conversion of around 1% of uniques providing they are coming to your store via keyword products.

I.e widgetb is the keyword and yo go to a key word rich page selling widgetb = 1% conversion.

[edited by: minnapple at 11:05 pm (utc) on Feb. 6, 2007]
[edit reason] widgetized search term [/edit]

[ItsAllBallBearings]

i agree with lifeinasia, its virtually impossible to predict unless you know the industry specifics. Knowing those, you could make an educated guess.

[StuWhite]

As mentioned by others, it is pretty hard to predict.

Assuming that you don't have a monopoly on the product and that you aren't the cheapest supplier, I wouldn't be hoping for much more than 1-2% conversion rate for organic search engine traffic.

If the look or functionality of your site is below par, your conversion rate will probably be a lot lower...

Conversion rates for traffic from other sources may be higher. For example, visitors from shopping comparison sites who already know something about your product before they click through to your site, should have a higher conversion rate.

[badass101]

You would think so, but it obviously depends on the product and the market. Our conversion rates from Shopping.com and Shopzilla were so bad that I thought something was up. Checked and checked again, but nope - conversion sucked from both. However, conversions from Froogle, AdWords and Organic traffic were much better.
YMMV!

[p5gal5]

I think that the most important thing is to have as high-tech (or professional-looking) site as possible. This seems to be one area where b&m sites lack; they've had the same look/feel for the past 5 years and don't realize that a web-based culture is creating a more savvy consumers. Buyers, especially people who are working professionals or buying for work purposes, are coming to expect more and more from websites. A good, professional-looking site can really increase conversion and buyer confidence.

Other than that, playing with a site's meta description and title can be interesting. If you are found organically, you have a great opportunity to influence the attitude of a prospective buyer by changing your meta title/description. Check out who the big bidders are in your niche and do what they do, but better. With your title/desc tags, you can get much more information out there than the Adwords bidders. Test and see what works out best for your niche (once again, competition is a good place to start, and they have probably tested somewhat already). The sites I work with have a conversion rate of 6%-10% (varies with season), and we're still pushing for higher.