Internet Retailer reports on a E-Tailing Group study which says that the main measuring stick used to gauge a website’s success is conversion rate (the number of browsers who beome buyers).

That was the good news. The bad news was that nearly 19% of those surveyed didn’t know what their rate was.

The results are not an indication that they don?t recognize the importance of knowing their conversion rate, says Lauren Freedman, president of The E-Tailing Group. Rather, it?s a reflection of the fact that the survey includes many smaller retailers who probably have invested a lot of resources in getting their sites up and running and only now are turning to a more sophisticated understanding of how the site operates.

Among retailers the retailers surveyed who knew their conversion rates, the average was 3-4%.