Store traffic

Store traffic is the volume of visits a store receives, usually counted per month. Only the store owner sees exact numbers, in their analytics. From outside, traffic must be estimated.

RivalSonar models monthly visits from public traffic rankings. Sites are ranked by popularity in public lists, and we map each rank to a number of visits with a rank-to-visits curve. Higher ranks get far more visits than lower ones, and the curve flattens towards the long tail of small sites. Estimates are least precise for small stores, where a small change in rank can mean a big change in visits.

Traffic research in RivalSonar also shows:

• traffic sources, such as direct, search, social and paid
• top countries
• engagement signals such as pages per visit and bounce rate

Traffic is the first step of a sales estimate. Estimated orders are estimated visits times a conversion rate, so any error in traffic carries through to sales. That is why we call every traffic, order and revenue figure an estimate. Compare stores with each other, and look at trends over months, rather than relying on one number.