Conversion rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete the desired action on your page out of total visitors. In cash-on-delivery it has two readings that are never the same: the percentage who submitted an order form and the percentage whose order arrived and was paid in cash. The first judges your page, the second judges the money in the bank.
Also calledCVRconversion percentageconversion metric
The formula
Form conversion = (Order forms ÷ Visitors) × 100 — Delivered conversion = (Delivered orders ÷ Visitors) × 100
- Order forms: each form submitted by a visitor, before confirmation calls.
- Delivered orders: orders that actually reached the customer and were paid in cash.
- Relationship between them: Delivered conversion = Form conversion × Confirmation rate × Delivery rate.
Worked example
Why 5% on the page isn't 5% in the bank
- 1A store in Algeria: 5,000 visitors per week.
- 2Order forms: 250 → Form conversion = (250 ÷ 5,000) × 100 = 5%.
- 3Confirmation rate 60% → 150 confirmed orders.
- 4Delivery rate 70% → 105 delivered orders.
- 5Delivered conversion = (105 ÷ 5,000) × 100 = 2.1%.
Takeaway: Same page, same week: 5% on paper and 2.1% in the bank. Budget your campaign on the second number.
What it means in practice
The number most dashboards show is form conversion, because it's recorded the moment you click "Place order." With prepaid purchases the journey mostly ends there; in cash-on-delivery it's just starting: a confirmation call that may not be answered and a delivery that may be rejected at the door.
Separate the two numbers in your weekly report and put them side by side. A page that raises form conversion with fewer fields may lower delivered conversion if the order becomes so easy it's not serious. The right decision needs both numbers together, not one alone.
To raise form conversion work on the page: load speed, real product photos, visible prices with no surprises, and a short form asking just name, phone, and city. To raise delivered conversion work on what comes after: faster contact, confirmation messages, and a delivery partner that covers your regions.
Common mistakes
- Showing one conversion rate to the team without specifying which, so everyone builds their decision on a different number.
- Celebrating higher form conversion after removing the city field, while undeliverable orders multiply.
- Measuring conversion across your whole store when ads drive to a single page: the denominator is wrong so the number looks smaller than it really is.
- Comparing conversion rate between a cheap product and an expensive one and treating the difference as a page problem.
Questions and answers
Which conversion rate should I use to calculate profit?
Delivered conversion. It's the only one tied to money actually collected, and it's what cost per order and break-even are built on. Use form conversion to test pages and ads only, because it gives you a faster signal with fewer visits needed.
My conversion rate is 1%—is that bad?
The number alone doesn't tell you. First ask: is it form conversion or delivered conversion? Then compare it to your own history on the same product from the same traffic source. The real verdict comes from your cost per delivered order versus your margin.
How do I measure conversion if some orders come through messages?
Manually add message orders to the numerator and mark their source. Without this your page looks weaker than it really is, and you might kill a campaign that's actually working but through a channel your dashboard doesn't track.
Does a shorter form always raise conversion?
Usually raises form conversion, but it may lower delivered conversion. The practical limit is asking only what you need to actually deliver: name, phone, and city or region. Cutting beyond that multiplies undeliverable orders.