Marketplace sales funnel conversion rate: how to calculate and improve it

The sales funnel conversion rate on marketplaces shows what share of buyers moves from viewing a product to placing an order. To increase conversion on Wildberries, Ozon or Yandex Market, you need to analyze each stage: impressions, clicks to the product listing, add-to-carts and orders. Such an analysis helps identify where potential buyers are lost and what prevents sales growth.

What the sales funnel conversion rate on marketplaces is

The sales funnel is the sequence of a buyer's actions from first encountering a product to the purchase. At each stage, some users drop off: some don't open the product listing, others study the specifications but don't add the product to the cart, and others abandon checkout.

The standard sales funnel on marketplaces consists of five stages:

Impressions. How many times the product appeared to users in search, the catalog, recommendations or ads.

Clicks to the product listing. How many times buyers opened the product to learn more about it.

Add-to-carts. How many times users added the product to the cart.

Orders. How many products were ordered.

Redemptions. How many ordered products buyers actually redeemed.

You need to analyze not only the number of actions but also the percentage of transition between stages. For example, if the product listing is often opened but the product is rarely added to the cart, the reason may be the price, specifications or insufficiently informative photos.

Key conversion metrics on marketplaces

Several metrics are used to analyze the funnel. Each of them helps evaluate the effectiveness of a particular sales stage.

Metric	Calculation formula
CTR — product listing click-through rate	Clicks / Impressions × 100%
Add-to-cart conversion rate	Add-to-carts / Clicks to the product listing × 100%
Order conversion rate	Orders / Clicks to the product listing × 100%
Cart-to-order conversion rate	Orders / Add-to-carts × 100%
Redemption rate	Redeemed products / Ordered products × 100%

It is important to keep in mind that marketplaces may use different calculation methods. For example, one report counts all visits to the product listing, while another counts unique visitors. Therefore, before comparing metrics, you need to check exactly which data is used.

Example of funnel conversion calculation

Suppose that over a week a product on Ozon received the following results:

20,000 impressions;

600 clicks to the product listing;

90 add-to-carts;

45 orders;

36 redemptions.

Let's calculate the conversion rates:

CTR: 600 / 20,000 × 100% = 3%.

Add-to-cart conversion rate: 90 / 600 × 100% = 15%.

Cart-to-order conversion rate: 45 / 90 × 100% = 50%.

Redemption rate: 36 / 45 × 100% = 80%.

Thus, out of 600 clicks to the product listing, buyers placed 45 orders. The overall click-to-order conversion rate was 7.5%.

Now the seller can compare these results with previous periods and determine at which stage there are opportunities for growth.

Why the sales funnel conversion rate declines

Low conversion doesn't always mean the product is not in demand. Sometimes buyers are interested in purchasing but encounter obstacles at a certain stage.

Many impressions but few clicks

If the product often appears in search results but users don't open the product listing, the problem may be its attractiveness compared to competitors.

Main reasons:

Poor-quality or uninformative main photo.

Price higher than competitors' offers.

Low rating and insufficient number of reviews.

Unsuccessful product title.

Impressions for irrelevant search queries.

First of all, you should check the main image, the price and the product's positions for key queries.

Many clicks but few add-to-carts

The user became interested in the product, opened the product listing, but decided not to buy.

Possible reasons:

Insufficient information about specifications.

Photos don't reveal the product's advantages.

Unclear package contents or size chart.

Negative reviews.

Missing required sizes or colors.

More favorable offers from competitors.

In such a situation, increasing the ad budget is unlikely to solve the problem. First, you need to improve the product listing and the offer itself.

Many add-to-carts but few orders

If buyers add the product to the cart but don't complete the purchase, you should pay attention to the purchase conditions.

Buyers may be put off by a high final price, long delivery or a price change. In addition, users often add products to the cart for comparison and postpone the purchase.

Many orders but a low redemption rate

A high order conversion rate doesn't yet guarantee high gross revenue.

If buyers often refuse products, you need to study the reasons for returns and cancellations. Most often they are related to a mismatch with expectations, product quality, wrong size or damage during delivery.

How to increase funnel conversion on marketplaces

Increasing conversion starts with analyzing current metrics. You don't have to change the entire product listing at once — it's more effective to identify the problematic stage and consistently check possible causes.

1. Improve the main product photo

The main image directly affects CTR. It is most often by the photo that a buyer decides whether to open the product listing.

The product should be clearly visible, and its purpose should be clear without additional explanation. For some categories, it's useful to show dimensions, package contents or the result of use.

Try testing several versions of the main photo and compare the change in CTR.

2. Optimize the description and specifications

A detailed product listing helps the buyer make a decision.

Check whether dimensions, materials, package contents, usage features and other important specifications are specified. Supplement the photos with images of the product from different angles.

Pay special attention to buyers' questions and negative reviews: they help determine what information is missing in the product listing.

3. Analyze competitors' prices

Even a well-designed product listing can lose to competitors because of price.

Compare the cost of similar products, delivery conditions, discounts and package contents. At the same time, lowering the price to increase conversion is not always profitable.

For example, a discount may increase the number of orders but at the same time reduce the profit from each sale. Therefore, any price changes must be evaluated taking margin into account.

4. Work with reviews and rating

Reviews affect buyers' trust and can significantly change conversion.

Answer questions, analyze the causes of negative ratings and eliminate recurring problems with quality or package contents.

If buyers regularly complain about size mismatch, it's not enough to simply change the description — you need to check the product itself.

5. Monitor remaining stock and delivery times

The absence of a product in nearby warehouses can increase delivery time and reduce the likelihood of purchase.

Analyze sales by region and replenish remaining stock in a timely manner. This is especially important for products with high demand and stable conversion.

6. Check ad effectiveness

Ads help increase the number of clicks but don't guarantee order growth.

If an ad campaign brings many clicks but conversion remains low, check how well the ad queries match the product.

Evaluate not only CTR and conversion but also ACoS, promotion costs and profit. Sometimes cutting ineffective traffic brings more benefit to the business than increasing the number of impressions.

How to analyze the sales funnel in Torgstat

You can analyze the sales funnel on Wildberries, Ozon and Yandex Market using the Torgstat service. It helps track the buyer's journey from viewing a product to placing an order and find the stages where conversion declines.

Depending on the marketplace data available, the reports allow you to analyze:

Impressions and opens of product listings.

Add-to-carts.

Conversion from product listing view to cart.

Number of placed orders.

Order conversion rate.

Metrics can be studied for individual products and compared across different periods to track changes in conversion.

For example, if the number of product listing views remains stable but add-to-carts decrease, this is a reason to check the price, photos and product description. If there are many add-to-carts but few orders, you should pay attention to delivery conditions and competitors' offers.

Torgstat helps find weak spots in the sales funnel and determine which products and stages require attention, so you can increase the number of orders without necessarily increasing ad spend.

What conversion rate is considered good

There is no single conversion norm for all marketplaces. Metrics depend on the product category, price, competition, seasonality and traffic source.

For example, inexpensive everyday goods and expensive electronics may have completely different conversion rates due to differences in buying behavior.

Therefore, focusing only on market averages is wrong.

For an objective assessment, you should:

Compare the metrics of one product across different periods.

Take into account changes in price, promotions and ad traffic.

Analyze products within the same category.

Check how a change in conversion affects the number of orders and profit.

High conversion doesn't always mean high effectiveness. If a seller significantly lowered the price or increased ad spend for the sake of additional orders, the final profit may decrease.

Frequently asked questions

How to calculate the overall sales conversion rate on a marketplace?

One common way is to divide the number of orders by the number of clicks to the product listing and multiply by 100%. However, when analyzing, you need to clarify how a particular marketplace calculates visits and orders.

What is the difference between CTR and order conversion rate?

CTR shows what share of impressions led to clicks to the product listing. The order conversion rate shows what share of clicks ended with a purchase.

Why are there many views but few sales on a marketplace?

The reason may be an unfavorable price, an insufficiently informative product listing, negative reviews, long delivery or untargeted traffic. To determine the cause, you need to consistently check the funnel metrics.

Can conversion be increased without increasing the ad budget?

Yes. Improving photos, specifications, reviews and delivery conditions can increase the number of orders with the same volume of traffic.

How often should the sales funnel be analyzed?

It's useful to track the key metrics daily, especially during ad campaigns. To assess changes in conversion, it's better to compare longer periods, such as weeks, to avoid conclusions based on random fluctuations.