So, let's not beat around the bush: how many visitors does a healthy webshop need? A webshop that provides you with a good income or... more. How much traffic is needed for that? Monthly, weekly… and daily? And what does it actually cost to get more visitors to your shop? You will find that answer in this article.
Step 1 - What do you want to earn?
To know how many visitors your webshop needs, you have to go all the way back to the beginning and ask yourself this question: “What do you want to earn?”. I almost always ask this question at the beginning of a coaching process. It strikes me that many entrepreneurs find it difficult to determine what they want to make in profit per month. Often people say 'as much as possible' and I understand that, but this doesn't make it clear what you have to do for that. And if you don't have that goal clearly in mind, then you end up doing something and that often leads to nothing.
Let's take average income as an example. That is currently around €3,100 gross per month.
Step 2 - What is the average order value in your shop?
The easiest way to calculate the average order value is to add up the amounts of all orders from the past 90 days and divide by the number of orders. That is the average order value, which depends on various factors per webshop, such as the industry you operate in, the time of year, etc. If you have a stationery shop, your order value will be a lot lower than for a webshop that sells SMEG. sell refrigerators. I'm just name something. Let's assume an average order value of $65 for the calculation example and if we divide that by two for convenience, you have the average gross profit per sale (all costs removed): $33.
Step 3 - How many orders do you need?
Now that we know what we want to earn and what the average order value is, we can calculate how many orders you need per month to generate your income. To do this, you divide the gross profit by the order value.
- Desired gross profit p/m €3,100 (gross profit, so turnover minus purchase price)
- Average order value €33 (also gross profit)
- €3,100 : €33 = number of average orders needed per month 94
- Number of average orders needed per week 24
- Number of average orders needed per day 3 to 4
You can of course now adjust the figures yourself to your desired income and average order value and then you will have the number of orders you need each week. But… how do you get those orders?
💡 Handy: save this article + the (fill in) formulas as a PDF
What is Conversion?
Conversion really simply means 'achievement of an established goal'. For example, if you determine that the goal of your webshop is for visitors to place an order, then that is 'conversion'. But you can also aim for visitors to register for your newsletter by leaving their e-mail address.
The conversion rate of SME webshops and sites is often around 1%. That means that 1 in 100 visitors will take the action you set as a goal. In other words, 99% of the webshop visitors do nothing (of what you want) and leave again (empty-handed). With SYSO we always try to aim for a conversion between 2 - 3% and preferably higher.
- So 100 visitors makes 1 order = 1% conversion
Step 4 - What is the conversion of your webshop?
With good webshop software such as Shopify you have a nice and clear dashboard and that is called Analytics. There you will find very handy figures such as: total turnover, visitors, percentage of returning customers, conversion percentage, average order value, etc. Exactly the numbers that are needed and as described above. If you have such a shop, you can spoon those numbers out here. See what Shopify Analytics looks like below.
Step 5 - The math
Suppose we assume 1% conversion as the average MBK webshop has, then we arrive at the following calculation:
94 number of average orders per month x 100 = 9,400 monthly visitors. 9,400 : 30 days = 313. So you need 313 visitors per day (for an average income).
If you have a well-optimized webshop that converts 3%, the sum goes like this:
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94 orders x 33 = 3,100 monthly visitors. 3,100 : 30 = 103. Then you need 103 visitors per day (for an average income).
How nice, isn't it, to have it for you. Because, trust me - getting your traffic to 100 visitors a day is really doable. And more good news: increase your conversion too.
💡 Useful: save this article + the (fill-in) formulas as a pdf
Step 6 - Three numbers to work on
If you made it this far: congratulations! You now have a very clear insight into what your webshop needs. Now it's time to take care of:
- a higher order value
- more visitors
- higher conversion
For example, giving your conversion a big boost
There are about 20 pitfalls you can close when it comes to conversion. And if you go from 1 to 3% with this, you can see above what that does to your monthly turnover. A 1% increase is often already a doubling of your income! But how do you do that? We are happy to help you with that. And you can do that very well with our smart Conversion booster , one of the most popular separate tools from SYSO.
Increase the conversion of your webshop or website with the Conversion Booster. You will learn what you need to know about conversion. You scan your webshop on all crucial points and immediately improve where necessary. Because you now know: if the conversion goes up, the turnover goes up. You can order the booster separately for €197,- or with my help €497,-
Would you like more of these handy tools? Then take a serious look at a SYSO VIP subscription . This gives you direct access to all SYSO tools and the SYSO VIP hangout where you will find a great community of ambitious entrepreneurs with the motto 'We rise by lifting others'. SYSO VIP is the way to grow with pleasure!
How do I get more visitors?
Well, now that you know the formula and perhaps all your own numbers, you may be missing one more thing. Because you can 'pull' all numbers. This is how you can increase your conversion, with the booster mentioned above. There are also handy tricks to increase your order value, but the biggest issue always remains: how do I ensure more visitors (aka traffic)?
SYSO regularly gives a webinar about this, 'Boost your traffic as a marketing pro' is one of them. The replay of this can be found in the SYSO webinar tv, this tool can be ordered separately, but is also included in the SYSO VIP subscription .
For more visitors you need marketing as simple as that. In short, you have free and paid traffic. For free traffic, think of content marketing, SEO, organic social media posts, sending newsletters, excellent customer service, etc. This is not really free, because your time costs money and a newsletter course, for example, too.
But paid traffic often refers to advertisements such as Google and social media ads.
👉 Learn more about SYSO VIP
What costs more traffic?
We sometimes have ads that run at € 0.10 per result, but there are also those that go beyond a few euros. The prices vary considerably and also depend on countless factors such as industry, text, design, timing, type of media, audience, etc.
In general, you often hear that in a quick calculation example, a lead costs about € 1. In that case, 1,000 more visitors will cost you € 1,000. If 1% then orders something of € 33 (gross)...
That's not really a good idea, is it? Fortunately, there are many ways of marketing (paid and free) to combine. We call that 'your magic mix', a combination of a few super effective resources that are gold for you when it comes to more visitors. Because really, that everything is possible, does not mean that everything has to be done.
Handy fact: the average of marketing costs is often set at 20%.
💡 Also read: The (almost) invaluable value of your existing customer
A good webshop has it all
A good webshop converts, attracts visitors and is so attractive that your audience comes back. This is the home base of your company, where you can easily pull your numbers and give your (potential) customers a nice, safe place to come and shop again and again.
Entrepreneurs regularly turn to SYSO for a restyling of their branding , often in combination with a move from their webshop to Shopify. These are great projects where we see great results.
Suzanne from Little Suzies did this and made it a complete journey by going for a Golden ticket . When she came to us it was, in her own words, 'sink or swim'. She had no direction with her jewelry shop, sold very little, could not manage her webshop herself. Let alone make a career out of it. Now 1 year, a rebranding, new webshop, a coaching trajectory and SYSO VIP subscription later, she has completely found her niche. Her earrings are selling like hot cakes, she is working on a wholesale channel and her webshop is running like crazy. Not only has her business changed, it has also had a huge impact on her life and the fun she has now.
"Without SYSO and golden ticket, my webshop was still a point of frustration, where it is now a thriving company" , Suzanne - Littlesuzies.nl
In addition to a complete Golden ticket , you can of course go for a good (re)branding, because in the end everything stands or falls with that in the beginning. Or if your branding is in order, but your shop is just rattling, you can move or… go for a Shopify revamp.
Have your webshop revamped, what is that?
The goal of a Shopify revamp is a shop where your brand and products come out much better.
- We advise you on a brand new theme with lots of useful marketing tricks
- We make your pages conversion focused on
- We look at your SEO and you get a cheatsheet to get started
- We give you tips for smart apps (and install them)
- We make your shop multilanguage (automatically with an app to two extra languages)
- Finally, you will have a coaching session with me to go through everything properly and ask any questions you still have.
Fancy a revamp? Due to the high demand for our services, we are taking on three revamps per month. This way we keep enough time for each project, we can guarantee the quality of our work and it also remains a lot of fun. Please contact us to know what the price is and when we can do your revamp.
Long story short: How many visitors does a webshop need to make a living?
- First calculate what you want to earn per month.
- Find out the average order value of your webshop.
- Calculate how many orders you need per month to reach your desired monthly income.
- Know what the conversion of your webshop is.
- Try to increase the conversion rate of your webshop if you want to earn more.
- Find your own magic marketing mix.
- Make a strategy to get more visitors to your webshop.
- Let SYSO help you if you find it difficult to do this on your own.
The links from this article
- SYSO VIP
- golden ticket
- Conversion Booster
- Content coach program
- 1-on-1 business coaching
- SYSO Webinar TV
- Web shop revamp
- Online store
- Branding
Did you find this spicy?
In the monthly masterclasses of SYSO VIP , these kinds of matters are discussed in the group and you are not alone.
Would you rather be helped 1-on-1? I can do these calculations 1-on-1 with and for you in a business coaching process . That gives so much more insight and plenty of handles to make your growth plan!
Sources: Shopify, Nowweb, Roxtar
