This might work for blogs, But working for an e-commerce startup gave me a different experience. Conversion flow for our e-commerce site goes something like this[1]:
Typically visitor will go back and forth between product pages and category browse pages (or simultaneously using multiple tabs). Any visitor not visiting a Product page is consider a bounce. It does not matter how much visitors paginate or browse the category pages if they do not visit product page they will not convert.[2]
I think bounce rate, conversion rate and any other fancy metric you use depends on your business, website, type of product, target audience, pricing, etc. As a startup the best thing to do is continuous experimenting untill you find the right success formula that works for your particular situation.
[1] Yes for e-commerce site with a few or one product this flow does not apply, Also this is for physical products with longer sale cycle with average order size between $800 - $1000.
[2] Yes we tried a lot of experiments, including adding direct path from Browse/Landing Page to Checkout. That particular experiment was a failure as it created clutter in the browse page and reduce product views and hence the conversion. I guess some day I will gather my thoughts and write about all the experiments we did and still doing.
Comments
This might work for blogs, But working for an e-commerce startup gave me a different experience. Conversion flow for our e-commerce site goes something like this[1]:
Landing Page/Category Browse Page -> Product Page -> Checkout
Typically visitor will go back and forth between product pages and category browse pages (or simultaneously using multiple tabs). Any visitor not visiting a Product page is consider a bounce. It does not matter how much visitors paginate or browse the category pages if they do not visit product page they will not convert.[2]
I think bounce rate, conversion rate and any other fancy metric you use depends on your business, website, type of product, target audience, pricing, etc. As a startup the best thing to do is continuous experimenting untill you find the right success formula that works for your particular situation.
[1] Yes for e-commerce site with a few or one product this flow does not apply, Also this is for physical products with longer sale cycle with average order size between $800 - $1000.
[2] Yes we tried a lot of experiments, including adding direct path from Browse/Landing Page to Checkout. That particular experiment was a failure as it created clutter in the browse page and reduce product views and hence the conversion. I guess some day I will gather my thoughts and write about all the experiments we did and still doing.