DTC & eCommerce Benchmarks
Real performance benchmarks built from first-party client data — not surveys, not platform-wide averages. Every report publishes its median, its spread, and its full methodology.
DTC Benchmarks You Can Actually Trust
Most eCommerce benchmarks you find online are one of three things: a vendor's platform-wide average across every account type, a self-reported survey, or a number someone quoted from a 2019 blog post that quoted another blog post. None of them tell a DTC operator whether their click rate or checkout abandonment is actually a problem.
This hub is our answer. Each benchmark below is built from first-party performance data across the direct-to-consumer brands Top Growth Marketing works with — pooled, anonymised, and reported as a median with its interquartile range so you can see the spread rather than a single misleading average. We publish the sample size, the date window, the metric definition, and what we excluded and why.
What Makes These Different
- First-party data, not surveys — pulled directly from Klaviyo, Shopify and GA4 accounts, not self-reported by marketers
- Median plus distribution — every store weighted equally, with the interquartile range and percentile table published so you can place yourself honestly
- Stated methodology — exact metric definitions, sample size, date window, and exclusions on every page
- Refreshed annually — each benchmark becomes a dated series you can track year over year
If you want to run your own numbers first, our free eCommerce marketing calculators will get you the inputs in seconds — then come back here to see where you land.
Live reports with full data tables, month-by-month trends, percentile rankings and methodology. Free to read, no signup, and free to cite.
IQR 0.49%–1.39% · n = 20 brands
IQR 21.8%–49.8% · n = 16 stores
The next four reports in the series. Each follows the same method: first-party data, equal-weight median, published distribution.
How We Build These Benchmarks
The same five rules apply to every report in this series. They exist so a number here can be checked, challenged and cited — not just repeated.
Citing this research
These benchmarks are free to cite in articles, decks, reports and reference works. Please link to the specific report page rather than reproducing the tables, so readers reach the current edition and its methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the data in these benchmarks come from?
Every figure comes from first-party performance data in live client accounts — Klaviyo for email, Shopify for checkout and order events, and GA4 for site behaviour. Nothing is survey-based, self-reported, or taken from another publisher. Each report states its exact data source, sample size and date window.
How many brands are in each benchmark?
It varies by metric, because a brand only enters a benchmark if it has clean, complete tracking for that metric across the full window. The email benchmark covers 20 DTC brands and roughly 90 million delivered campaign emails; the checkout abandonment benchmark covers 16 Shopify stores and 423,978 tracked checkouts. Sample size is disclosed on every page.
Why do you report a median instead of an average?
Because DTC performance distributions are skewed. A handful of very high or very low performers will pull a mean away from what a typical store actually experiences, and blending by volume lets the largest sender in the panel effectively set the benchmark. We calculate each store's rate first, then take the equal-weight median across stores, and publish the interquartile range and percentiles alongside it.
How is this different from benchmarks published by Klaviyo, Shopify or Baymard?
Platform-wide benchmarks pool every account type on that platform — B2B, marketplaces, subscription, enterprise and hobby stores — which makes them a poor comparison for a DTC brand. Aggregator figures such as the widely quoted ~70% cart abandonment rate are averages of other published studies, often measuring a different funnel step. These reports are narrower on purpose: DTC eCommerce only, one clearly defined metric, and the full distribution shown.
Is client data identifiable in these reports?
No. All figures are pooled and anonymised. No client is named, no per-brand value is published, and no revenue or spend dollar figures are disclosed. Reports show pooled medians, ranges, percentiles and sample sizes only.
How often are the benchmarks updated?
Each benchmark is a dated annual edition built on a trailing twelve-month window, so the 2026 reports cover July 2025 to June 2026. New editions are published annually and previous editions remain available, which makes the series usable for year-over-year comparison.
Can I cite or republish these benchmarks?
Yes — citation is welcome and free. Please attribute Top Growth Marketing and link to the specific report page rather than copying the tables, so readers land on the current edition with its methodology and caveats intact. A suggested reference format is in the "Citing this research" block above.
Know where you sit. Now close the gap.
Benchmarks tell you there's a problem. We fix it — paid media, email and CRO for DTC brands, run by the team that produced this data.