Episode 75: Why Industry Benchmarks Are Bullshit

Industry benchmarks are an obvious starting point for anyone looking to set goals. Unfortunately, comparing your conversion rate to the rates of other companies (or the industry as a whole) is meaningless.

Unlike studying your competitors, studying your customers is directly applicable. The better you can serve their needs and create better shopping experiences, the higher your conversion rate will climb. In this episode, Jon and Ryan talk about alternatives such as goal-setting, iterative learning and experimentation.

Listen to the full episode if you want to learn:

1. Why industry benchmarks should not be your starting point for setting goals
2. How you should approach measuring conversion rates
3. What the flaws of self-reporting among competitors is
4. What factors affect conversion rate
5. How you can work on continuously improving your conversion rate

If you have questions, ideas, or feedback to share, connect with us on LinkedIn. We're Jon MacDonald and Ryan Garrow.