eCommerce Digital Marketing Benchmarks in 2026

As online shopping keeps growing, competition in eCommerce is getting tougher. With more than 23% of retail sales already happening online and this share set to grow even further, it’s no longer enough to just run ads and hope for results. You need to know whether your marketing is actually performing well and how it compares to others in your market.

‍

‍

eCommerce SEO Benchmarks 

Multiple marketing channels like organic search, direct, sponsored, referral, and social all contribute to website traffic. Therefore, exploring eCommerce industry benchmarks is crucial. Organic traffic helps eComs connect with their target audience at the right funnel stage on search engine results pages. Measuring organic traffic is pivotal as it generates consistent and steady traffic. Unlike paid ads, the lifecycle of a piece of content is infinite. 

Organic Promotion in eCommerce

Our eCommerce digital marketing benchmarks analysis starts with organic traffic that tops searches among major digital marketing channels. 1 in 3 eCommerce visitors come from organic search. 
‍

Whenever long-term ROI and cost-effectiveness are at stake, organic search beats out sponsored, social, and email, among other traffic-generation channels. There’s more to gain from organic traffic owing to AI overviews.

Average Engagement Time

Longer engagement on your eCommerce website signals positive interaction with your site. However, low engagement time isn’t always a red flag. For example, quick exits might mean users found what they needed efficiently, which is ideal for sites focused on fast conversions.

Low engagement points to potential issues like poor content quality or a subpar user experience. 

Anything between 44 seconds and 1 minute and 22 seconds is considered a sound engagement time for eCommerce pages.

‍Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is among key eCommerce metrics benchmarks to consider. In Google Analytics (GA4), the bounce rate metric is the inverse of the engagement rate. 

Simply put, the bounce rate marks the number of sessions that aren't engaged. In other words, a bounce effect occurs every time a user visits your eCommerce page and does not take any action on it or your site overall.

‍According to the CXL Benchmarks Report, the bounce rate for eCommerce and retail websites ranges between 20-45%. 

‍‍Click-Through Rate (CTR) in eCommerce

For eCommerce, organic click-through rate (CTR) indicates how well the site’s content attracts clicks and potential customers. eCommerce CTRs range from 0.51% to 2.69% depending on product type, target audience, and marketing effectiveness.

Organic Conversion Rate

While organic search is among the core channels that bring conversions, every competitive eCommerce business keeps up with eCommerce conversion rate benchmarks. CR ranges from 0.4% to 2.7% depending on the industry. For example, according to Statista, the skincare segment has the highest conversion rate (2.7%) compared to luxury apparel with 0.4% of conversion rate. 

‍

‍SEO Return on Investment (ROI)

SEO ROI for eCommerce measures the return on investment from SEO efforts based on GA4 data and other analytics sources and tools.
 

A sound SEO ROI benchmark for eCommerce equals a 5:1 return, meaning $5 profit for every $1 spent on marketing.

438% More Traffic and 9X More Bookings

for a Los Angeles
Luxury Rental Brand

Read More

ROI in SEO for eCommerce businesses depends on

• Business stage you are now 
• Business size 
• Returned purchases.

‍

‍

‍

Paid Ads Benchmarks for eCommerce Store

eCommerce PPC benchmarks are essential for understanding the effectiveness of inline store’s campaigns and maximizing paid ads ROI. For eCommerce stores, paid ads—including search ads, display ads, and social media ads, — help drive targeted traffic and conversions. 

Let’s take a look at the all-industry PPC benchmarks:

‍

‍

PPC Click-through Rate eCommerce Benchmarks 

An average click-through rate (CTR) for eCommerce is 2.69% for Google Search and 0.51% for Display compared with the all-industry CTR averages of 3.17 for search and 0.46% for display ads respectively: 

‍

‍

Cost per Click Paid Ads eCommerce Benchmarks

The cost-per-click (CPC) shifts indicate slight YoY growth compared to the previous year averages of $2.32 for Google Search and $0.58 for Google Display Network: 

‍

Cost per PPC Lead in eCommerce

Recent cost per lead (CPL) trends show significant shifts across industries, up to 25%: 

‍

‍

eCommerce Email Marketing Benchmarks

Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for attracting and retaining customers for eCommerce stores. This powerful digital marketing channel boasts an impressive average conversion rate of 9.6% due to a highly segmented and personalized approach. 

‍

‍

This unparalleled figure also explains why email marketing yields such a high ROI, with returns of $36 to $40 for every dollar invested. Back-in-stock emails stand out among various email campaign strategies, delivering as, back-in-stock emails stand out, delivering a notable 7.28% conversion rate.

Klaviyo reports that quarter-over-quarter engagement rates in email remain stable across most industries, with minimal changes in open, click, and placed order rates.

‍

Source: Klaviyo

‍

‍

Email marketing Conversion Rates for eCommerce

📩 The Welcome Flow ranks second-highest converting flow, with an average placed order rate of 2.32%. This impressive rate is only surpassed by abandoned cart flows. 

📩 Abandoned Cart Flows deliver the highest revenue per recipient (RPR) and average placed order rate among all marketing flows. This makes them a critical tool for maximizing conversions and driving revenue. 

📩 Abandoned Browsing Flow excels at driving traffic back to your site rather than generating immediate purchases. While it may seem less essential than other flows, it boasts a notable click rate of 5.48%, indicating strong subscriber engagement. 

📩 Post-purchase Flows boast the highest open rate at 61.68%, indicating strong engagement. However, they have the lowest placed order rate at just 0.54%.

‍

Key Takeaway: Unlike campaigns, which often receive more attention, flows maintain higher engagement throughout the customer journey, ensuring that your campaign efforts are not wasted when customers exit the site. Implementing well-segmented, relevant flows will maximize your marketing effectiveness and drive conversions. By contrast to one-time campaigns worth $0.11, automated marketing flows like abandoned carts and post-purchase messages yield significantly higher revenue per recipient (RPR) up to $3.65. 

‍

How Gamification Works in the Jewelry Industry

The Pandora case study!

Read

‍

Elevate your eCommerce Store Benchmarks with Promodo 

With over 20 years of hands-on digital marketing experience, Promodo is here to boost your eCommerce success. We render customized services to online stores and services ranging from SEO optimization to targeted email campaigns. As a result, Promodo has been awarded by Clutch as a leading digital marketing agency for eCommerce.

‍

‍

Want to Outperform Average eCommerce Benchmarks?

Contact Promodo and turn your marketing data into real growth.

Contact