It’s time to reveal the Online Sales Benchmarks for the entire year of 2021! These benchmarks offer a look at where we stand within the industry and allow us to see how things are changing in the world of online sales.
As always, we take special care to assure the highest level of data integrity. We have access to the data from over 127 online sales specialists, and we only use numbers from builders who consistently track their numbers the same way, ensuring we deliver the most accurate information.
In the takeaways below, you’ll see the context around what factors played a part in the final benchmark numbers. We continued to see strong demand, but low inventory levels of homes brought a shift in some of the numbers.
- 2021 saw a dip in conversion from appointment to sale, primarily from a reduction in the number of available homes. The demand was still strong, but even as the Online Sales Specialists increased qualification of appointments, the lack of supply suppressed that conversion rate below 20%.
- The overall average lead and appointment volume tapered down off the insane highs of Q1 2021. Leads were down around 30% in the 3rd quarter and appointments right around 20%. Still, total lead volume is exceeding capacity for many programs and causing some delayed response times and adjusted sales automation (aka less personalization). Also, as model homes continue to be open for business as usual, customers are venturing out and bypassing the OSC.
- Despite the top-of-the-funnel challenges, the contribution remains strong at 54% of total sales starting with online. We anticipate this hovering around the same rate for 2022.
You can view Mike, Jen, and Jessie's Opt In Live video
here and previous benchmarks
here. As always, we’ll continue to keep you updated as we have new information.
