E-commerce Update: Online Sales and Traffic Recovering Post-Election

Here, the IndieCommerce team shares an important look at current trends in the world of e-commerce.

Over the seven days following the November 3 U.S. election, the number of online customers completing a purchase at IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites (the e-commerce conversion rate) has increased, going from 4.42 percent on Wednesday, November 4, to 5.43 percent on Tuesday, November 10 (see below graph). 

After a 33.81 percent drop in online customers to IndieCommerce and IndieLite websites last Wednesday, November 4, we are now seeing traffic recovering over the past three days. As of Tuesday, November 10, traffic is up 31.47 percent (blue line below) over the previous Tuesday (orange line below).

Online customers were definitely distracted by election results last Tuesday through Thursday and were not as interested in buying online. We are now seeing traffic coming back, and sales are recovering as traffic increases. The recent increase in the conversion rate is also indicative of traffic that is becoming more motivated to complete online purchases.