The benchmarks: 1.26% median CVR, $652 median AOV. Autos & Vehicles has the highest median order value of any category in the H1 2026 dataset — and one of the lowest conversion rates. That combination is not a contradiction. It is how considered-purchase categories tend to behave.
The Q2 story splits across two metrics. CVR dipped slightly from Q1 to Q2 (−0.8%), coming in 3.9 percentage points below the Q1→Q2 2025 gain of +3.1%. Conversion volume softened modestly. But AOV jumped +13.3% from Q1 to Q2 — $588 to $666 — the second-largest AOV gain in the dataset behind Consumer Electronics (+14.4%). The customers who did convert in Q2 spent considerably more per order.
The P25-to-P75 AOV range is $358–$978 — a 2.7× spread. That span reflects a category where some merchants are selling parts and accessories and others are selling high-ticket equipment or vehicles directly. The median ($652) sits well above the cross-industry median of $312.
Autos & Vehicles has the highest median AOV in the H1 2026 dataset at $652 — more than double the cross-industry median of $312. The Q2 AOV gain (+13.3%) was the second-largest of any category. The trade-off: the category’s 1.26% CVR sits near the bottom of the dataset.
The median Autos & Vehicles CVR in H1 2026 was 1.26%, ninth among the 10 published industries.
The low CVR is a feature of the category, not necessarily a performance problem. When a shopper is evaluating a car part, an aftermarket upgrade, or a piece of specialized equipment, the session-to-purchase cycle is longer and more deliberate. Comparison shopping, research, and consultation are common steps before checkout. A 1.26% conversion rate in this context likely reflects a real purchase intent rate more accurately than a 3%+ rate would in a consumables category.
The P75 for Autos & Vehicles CVR is 1.98% — the tightest P75 in the dataset alongside Sports & Outdoors (2.46%). The upper end of the distribution is compressed. Even the best-converting stores in this category stay well below the medians of health or food categories. The ceiling is low because the category is low.
If you’re benchmarking your Autos & Vehicles CVR against the cross-industry median (1.74%), you’re using the wrong number. The category median of 1.26% is the right reference point. A store at 1.98% or above is in the top quartile of its category.
The median Autos & Vehicles AOV in H1 2026 was $652 — the highest of any published category.
The $652 median is more than double the cross-industry median ($312) and nearly $250 above the next highest category. That gap reflects the nature of automotive products: even accessories and parts carry higher price points than most retail categories, and larger purchases — tires, equipment, specialty components — pull the median up further.
The graph below shows monthly median CVR and bounce rate for active Autos & Vehicles stores in Shogun’s conversion tracking network.
The 18-month CVR trend shows a category with modest but real volatility. H1 2025 ran in the 1.35%–1.66% range — relatively consistent. Then November and December 2025 jumped to 1.96% and 1.91%, the highest readings in the window. What drove that late-year spike is not clear from the data alone — one possibility is that promotional activity or end-of-year purchasing behavior concentrated buyer intent, but that’s speculative.
January and February 2026 pulled back sharply to 1.01% and 1.11%, well below the H1 2025 range. March recovered to 1.74%, then Q2 settled into the 1.14%–1.36% range. The H1 2026 average sits modestly below H1 2025 on a like-for-like basis, though the small sample sizes (24–29 stores per month) mean individual months can move on relatively thin data.
Bounce rates are the clearest trend in the data. H1 2025 saw bounce rates mostly in the 35%–39% range — among the lowest of any category in the dataset. By H1 2026, they had climbed to 43%–50%, with May 2026 reaching exactly 50.0%. That’s a meaningful shift. Whether it reflects changes in traffic quality, page experience, or the types of shoppers reaching the site is hard to say from the aggregate alone.
Autos & Vehicles had some of the lowest bounce rates in the dataset in H1 2025 — the 35%–39% range suggests visitors were engaged. By H1 2026, that range had climbed to 43%–50%. CVR has held in the low single digits, but sustained bounce rate increases of this magnitude are worth paying attention to.
The graph below tracks monthly median AOV for the 100 qualifying Autos & Vehicles stores.
The AOV trend shows considerably more month-to-month movement than most other categories in this dataset. The range across the 13 months spans $543 to $649 — a $106 swing. That variability is consistent with a category where individual large orders can move the median meaningfully when sample sizes are in the 85–99 range.
The broad trajectory is upward. June–September 2025 ran in the $543–$571 range. The second half of 2025 trended higher, with November ($603) and December ($615) representing the strongest months of that period. January 2026 dipped back to $550, then February recovered to $604. April 2026 reached $649 — the peak for the 13-month window and consistent with the same-store matched Q1→Q2 AOV gain of +13.3% reported in the V6 AOV data.
May and June 2026 ($577 and $553) pulled back from the April peak, ending the quarter below the H1 aggregate of $652. The AOV surge was concentrated in Q2 but not evenly distributed within it.
On a matched same-store basis (n=53 stores active in both H1 2025 and H1 2026), median AOV grew from $621 to $752 — a +21.1% year-over-year increase.
Autos & Vehicles is the clearest example in the dataset of the inverse relationship between CVR and AOV. It has the lowest CVR of any category except Sports & Outdoors (1.24%) and the highest AOV by a wide margin. Shoppers in this category take longer to decide and spend more when they do. That’s the shape of a considered purchase.
The Q2 2026 picture is interesting. CVR declined slightly (−0.8%) while AOV surged (+13.3%). More revenue came from fewer, larger orders. Whether that reflects higher-priced product lines performing better in Q2, a shift in the types of buyers reaching checkout, or something else is unclear — but the directional signal is worth noting.
For Autos & Vehicles merchants, the bounce rate trend may be the most actionable number in the data. If bounce rates have climbed 8–12 percentage points year-over-year across the category, and CVR has held relatively flat, that means a larger share of traffic is leaving before engaging meaningfully. The revenue impact may be masked by AOV growth — but that’s a dynamic worth separating out in your own analytics.
In Autos & Vehicles, CVR and AOV pull in opposite directions relative to the rest of the market. The Q2 2026 AOV gain (+13.3%) is real and significant — but it came alongside a slight CVR decline and a notable rise in bounce rates. Volume and basket size are telling different stories.
See the full H1 2026 data — and benchmarks across nine other ecommerce categories — in the Shogun Benchmark Reports.
View the CVR report | View the AOV report
