ClickZ: Benchmarking an Average Conversion Rate

Bryan Eisenberg, in a column complaining about companies that don't know their own site's conversion rate, revealed benchmark rates seen in various industries. The numbers, from web analytics firm Fireclick - recently purchased by Digital River - show catalogers winning with a 6.1 percent rate, followed by specialty stores (3.9), apparel (2.2), travel, (2.1), home and furnishing (2.0), sports (1.4), electronics (1.1) and all verticals (2.3).