According to the 4th Annual Merchant Survey, conducted by The E-tailing Group Inc., Conversion rates are rising among online retailers ? with 21% of retailers, nearly twice as many as last year, reporting rates of 2-3%.

However, 90% of retailers have cart abandonment rates higher than 10%!

The survey highlights that 24% of respondents reported cart abandonment rates from 11% to 30%; 33% had cart abandonment rates from 31% to 40%; 24% had cart abandonment rates from51% to 70%; 9% had cart abandonment rates of 71% or above.

Other Highlights of the report are -

• 40% of respondents say they sell through a 3-channel strategy.

• Online sales account for 1-10% of overall sales for 36% of respondents, but 41% of overall sales for another 34% of respondents.

• 5% of respondents said they expect 2005 sales to remain static with last year?s sales, but 8% said they expect 2005 sales to rise more than 75% over 2004 sales.

• 76% of marketing budgets are online this year, up from 71% last year.

• 19% of respondents reported average marketing costs per order of less than $1; 39% reported average marketing costs per order of $1-$5.

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