Conversion rate is the percentage of website visits that result in a purchase or another action you track, such as a newsletter sign-up.
In a 2025 Shopify survey,* 77% of store owners said they track total revenue, but fewer than half track conversion rate.
This guide explains how to calculate conversion rate, read Shopify and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) reports, and assess your results.
What is a conversion rate?
Conversion rate is the percentage of sessions or users that complete an action on your website. Ecommerce stores track purchase conversions, which represent completed sales. Other actions, such as newsletter sign-ups and wishlist additions, indicate interest, and you can track them as separate conversion goals.
Shopify’s online store conversion rate is the percentage of sessions that result in a purchase. Shopify divides sessions that completed checkout by total sessions, then multiplies by 100. Shopify’s marketing reports also let you compare conversion rate and sales across marketing channels.
GA4 reports session and user key event rates. A key event is an action designated as important to your business, which could be a purchase or a sign-up:
- Session key event rate. The percentage of sessions in which a key event occurred.
- User key event rate. The percentage of users who triggered a key event.
Select the purchase event when comparing sales conversion rates. An overall key event rate may also count actions such as newsletter sign-ups, depending on your setup.
Revenue depends on several ecommerce key performance indicators, including conversion rate and average order value (AOV). With 10,000 monthly sessions and one order per purchasing session, increasing conversion rate from 1% to 2% raises orders from 100 to 200.
At a steady $50 AOV, revenue doubles from $5,000 to $10,000. If AOV falls to $40, those 200 orders generate $8,000.
Conversion rate formula
To calculate a session-based conversion rate, divide total conversions by total sessions for the same period, then multiply by 100:
Conversion rate = (Total conversions / Total sessions) x 100
Follow these three steps to calculate your online store’s purchase conversion rate.
1. Count total conversions
In Shopify Analytics, use Sessions that completed checkout. This counts sessions in which a customer made a purchase. A customer who places two orders during one session contributes one converted session, so order totals and converted sessions can differ.
For a GA4 purchase session key event rate, count sessions containing at least one purchase event. Keep newsletter sign-ups and wish list additions separate from this calculation.
2. Count total visits to your website
Use Sessions for the same date range and traffic filters as your converted sessions. A session covers a period of activity on your store and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity. One visitor can generate several sessions, so sessions and unique visitors are different totals.
Take both figures from the same web analytics platform. Dividing Shopify’s converted sessions by GA4’s session count mixes data collected through separate tracking systems.
3. Divide and multiply by 100
Suppose your store recorded 10,000 sessions last month, and 200 of those sessions resulted in a purchase:
| Step | Figure or calculation |
|---|---|
| Count conversions (sessions that completed checkout) | 200 |
| Count total sessions for the same month | 10,000 |
| Divide and multiply by 100 | (200 / 10,000) x 100 = 2% |
When comparing your result with a benchmark, check that both rates track purchases and use sessions as the denominator.
What factors can affect my conversion rate?
Conversion rates can change as your audience shifts, even if you don’t change your website. Consider these four factors when comparing results.
Channel mix
Conversion rates can differ by traffic source, and Shopify’s marketing reports show each channel’s rate. Someone searching for “buy a cheese grater” may be closer to purchasing than someone discovering your brand while browsing a social feed.
Contentsquare’s 2026 benchmarks, drawn from 99 billion sessions across more than 6,500 sites in nine industries, found that desktop conversion rates were 74% higher than mobile, although mobile accounted for 69.9% of traffic.
If mobile visitors convert less often, increasing mobile traffic can lower your overall rate even when each device’s conversion rate stays steady.
Funnel mix
Email campaigns and remarketing ads often reach people who already know your products. Awareness campaigns introduce your brand to new audiences, who may need more time before purchasing. A store focused on reaching new shoppers may therefore record a lower conversion rate.
Shopify’s Conversion rate breakdown report tracks sessions with cart additions, sessions that reached checkout, and sessions that completed checkout. Its closed-funnel view follows these steps in order, helping you identify where shoppers leave the buying process.
Cart additions suggest interest, but many shoppers leave before purchasing. Baymard Institute’s benchmark average for cart abandonment is 70.22%.
Product price
Higher-priced products can take longer to evaluate. A shopper may visit several times before buying a $2,000 product, adding multiple sessions before purchasing.
Review ecommerce metrics, including conversion rate, average order value, and acquisition costs, to judge the return from those sales.
Returning customer mix
Returning customers have already experienced your products and service.
Someone restocking their usual coffee may need less research than a first-time buyer. A larger share of these repeat buyers can lift your overall conversion rate.
How to improve your conversion rate
Follow these three tips to improve conversion rates in your store:
- Communicate your value proposition. Explain the benefit customers are buying. For a vacuum designed for pet hair, show it removing fur from upholstery in product photos or video. Give shoppers specific evidence for your product claims.
- Reduce friction. Make delivery costs clear and remove unnecessary checkout fields. Baymard’s checkout usability research suggests better checkout design could lift conversion rates by 35.26% for the average large ecommerce site. Shop Pay speeds checkout by saving email, payment, shipping, and billing details, so shoppers enter less.
- Increase urgency. Give shoppers accurate deadlines, such as the last order date for holiday delivery. The Federal Trade Commission’s dark patterns report flags resetting countdown timers and false low-stock messages as manipulative tactics. Keep stock alerts tied to actual inventory.
Tools for tracking your Shopify conversion rate
Shopify Analytics and Google Analytics both report conversion rate, each from its own tracking data.
1. Shopify Analytics
Shopify Analytics’ main features are available on any Shopify subscription plan.
The Conversion rate over time report tracks purchase conversion trends. The Conversion rate breakdown report shows sessions with cart additions, checkout activity, and completed purchases. Sidekick can generate custom ShopifyQL queries from plain-language requests to create or customize ecommerce reports.
Individual orders also have conversion details, when available:
Session referral
Shows the referring source, landing page, visit date and time, and any referral code.
App details
Identifies a marketing app campaign that referred the order.
UTM parameters
These URL tags identify campaign traffic. Google recommends using utm_source for the source, utm_medium for the marketing medium, and utm_campaign for the campaign name. Keep spelling and capitalization consistent.
2. Google Analytics
GA4 records shopping actions as ecommerce events, such as add_to_cart and purchase, once ecommerce tracking is configured.
Its Traffic acquisition report displays campaign information collected through UTM tags. Compare results by session source, medium, or campaign. Select purchase for the session key event rate to assess how often visits from each campaign lead to sales.
*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.
Calculate conversion rate FAQ
What is a good conversion rate for a Shopify store?
A good conversion rate for a Shopify store is above 2.7%, the top 20% in Littledata’s October 2026 benchmark of 438 Shopify stores using GA4. The median was 1.3%. Compare your results with stores selling similar products at similar prices, and account for differences in device and traffic sources.
How do you calculate the conversion rate?
To calculate the conversion rate, divide converting sessions by total sessions for the same period, then multiply by 100. For example, 45 purchasing sessions out of 1,500 total sessions gives (45 / 1,500) x 100 = 3%. Take both numbers from the same analytics tool, and count each converting session once.
How does Shopify calculate conversion rate?
Shopify calculates online store conversion rate as sessions that completed checkout divided by total sessions, multiplied by 100. Multiple purchases during one session count as one converted session. Newsletter sign-ups and wish list additions are excluded from this purchase conversion rate.
How can I improve my conversion rate?
To improve your conversion rate, find where shoppers leave your conversion funnel and investigate that stage. If many abandon checkout, review delivery charges, payment options, and form errors. Shop Pay speeds up checkout with saved customer details. Test changes and compare their effect on purchase conversion rate and average order value.
How do you calculate conversion rate in a spreadsheet?
To calculate conversion rate in a spreadsheet, enter converted sessions in cell A2 and total sessions for the same period in B2. In C2, enter =A2/B2 and format the cell as a percentage. With 200 converted sessions and 10,000 total sessions, C2 displays 2%. Percentage formatting handles the conversion, so omit x100 from the formula.
