A word of warning on conversion benchmarks... Matt Belkin at Omniture has some sensible words of warning on relying too much on aggregated industry benchmarks.

More on conversion benchmarks...: "Since I wrote about benchmarking two weeks ago, I've received many follow up emails. Many of you said "Amen! Thanks for dispelling the myths around web analytics benchmarking." However, some of you pushed back, saying that "conversion benchmarks are useful if you simply weigh them appropriately". And truth be told, I do not disagree with the second point. Benchmarks can be useful if you weigh them appropriately" - of course, when compared to site-centric data, I give benchmarks very little weight. To illustrate why benchmarks are often misleading at best, take a look at the Fireclick Index http://index.fireclick.com/ I've focused on this index because it's publicly available and everyone can readily access it." Read more  ¶ 9:57 AM