There are an increasing number of e-commerce businesses today with numerous products and services online. With the rise in number there is also a rise in competition. In order to stay ahead of the competition, data is important. Initially you will focus on building your website in order to launch your business. After the launch, you need to start focusing on analysing your e-commerce metrics.
Keeping a track of these key metrics will help your business thrive. With the help of these metrics you can analyse the performance of your business. Measuring the right e-commerce metrics can help you make informed business decisions. It can enable you to see which areas need work and optimisation.
It is highly necessary to measure your marketing efforts metrics to make sure they align with your business goals. Download our free analytics measurement model template to get started and reach out to us to help you customize it according to your business needs.
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Here are some key e-commerce metrics that will help you measure the success of your business.
Sales Conversion Rate
Sales Conversion Rate is the percentage of people who visit your website and take the desired action by purchasing the product or service. It can be calculated by dividing the number of people who made a purchase by the total number of visitors.
Sales Conversion Rate is a basic yet important metric that will review the performance of your site or app. Getting an insight into the percentage of people that are completing the goals will enable you to track your success as well as areas of improvement. Improving your conversion rate will help you increase sales with the same number of traffic. You can test different ways to improve your conversion like using quality product images, informative product copy, improving page speed etc.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
Customer Lifetime Value is the total worth of a customer to a business over the course of their relationship. It takes into account a customer’s revenue value and compares it to the company’s predicted customer lifespan. Businesses use this metric to determine which customers are the most valuable to the company. It also shows how much you need to spend on a particular customer in order to retain them.
CLTV enables the business to see how much revenue they can expect to get from a customer. The more amount of time and money the customer spends on the company, the greater their lifetime value becomes. In this scenario the customer support team has a key role to play as they have an influence over the customer journey. Customer support reps provide the customers with solutions and recommendations which influence them to stay loyal to the company.
In order to calculate customer lifetime value first calculate average purchase value then multiply by the average purchase frequency rate to get customer value. Then calculate average customer lifespan and multiply by customer value to determine customer CLTV. It sounds complicated, but there are various tools you can use that will calculate it for you. CLTV is focused on forming long-term relationships with your customers. Once you nurture this relationship with your customers you will improve your CLTV.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer Acquisition Cost is another important metric that determines the cost for acquiring new customers. CAC is a company’s total sales and marketing cost to acquire a new customer over a certain time period. It goes hand in hand with the CLTV metric. Acquiring new customers is often more expensive than retaining the new ones. In order to acquire new customers, you might spend more on various marketing and advertising campaigns.
Both CAC and CLTV need to be measured in comparison to each other. If the cost of acquiring customers is more than the customer lifetime value, then your business might be operating at a loss. Reducing the CAC value means that the business is spending money efficiently and should expect more profit.
There are different ways to reduce CAC. For example, if you are getting organic leads through blog content, then you don’t have to spend much on ads. If your sales team is frequently nurturing potential leads, then you don’t need to hire more reps. If your current customers are happy, then based on their good reviews you can get new customers. It’s all about using your resources efficiently.
CAC is calculated by dividing cost of sales and marketing by the number of new customers acquired.
Average Order Value
Average order value is the average amount spent when a customer places an order on your website or app. It is calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of orders.
The average order value will help you evaluate your overall marketing efforts and pricing strategy by providing the metrics you need to calculate the long-term customer value. It helps you set your goals and strategies and then review their performance. You want customers to spend more as this will help you increase this metric. Since each order has a transaction cost associated with it, increasing your average order value will help you increase your profit.
Cart Abandonment Rate
Cart abandonment rate is the percentage of customers who add items to their cart but leave without making a purchase. These might be shoppers who are considering the purchase but are not the decision stage yet. Shopping cart abandonment is very common.
It is an important metric as it is related to conversion rate and revenue. A high cart abandonment rate indicates that there is friction in the checkout process. It could indicate a lack of trust or the customers are not sure about return policies and shipping costs. Cart abandonment rate cannot be entirely eliminated but it can be improved by making the checkout process easier for the customers.
Net Promoter Score
Net promoter score measures how willing the customers are to recommend a company’s products or services to others. It is used to gauge a customer’s satisfaction with the company and their loyalty toward it. In order to determine the net promoter, score the customers are surveyed and asked to rate how likely they are to recommend the product.
These respondents are divided into three categories:
- Detractors: those who give a score of six or lower. These people are not very likely to recommend the product.
- Passives: those who give seven or eight. They might be satisfied and purchase again
- Promoters: they give a nine or ten. They are happy with the brand and will definitely promote your product.
Make sure to reach out to the detractors and passives to assess their customer experience. Find out how you can improve their experience as well as improve on your brand.
Revenue By Channel
Revenue by channel is an important metric you can track to determine the performance of your various marketing channels. It is helpful to track how you are investing your money on various platforms and is that generating revenue. It can also help you make better marketing decisions in the future.
For example if you are running ads on any social media platforms, it can give you valuable insights on the number of conversions your ads have received. Google Analytics can give you access to conversion rate and revenue data by channel.
Website Traffic
Website traffic determines the total number of visits your website gets. This can help you understand the performance of your website and how visible it is. There are various metrics that can help you track website traffic. They can help you optimize your website and convert more customers.
If you want to know more about measuring website metrics, read our blog on How to Measure Website Traffic.
Page Speed/Load Time
Page load time determines the average number of seconds it takes to load a page on your website. If your website is slow it can have a negative effect on user experience, and the customer might leave the page. This will increase your bounce rate. A high bounce rate will impact your ranking on Google and your website might not be visible.
Page speed is crucial for user experience. This metric can help you check the load time for your website, and you can make improvements to reduce it. This metric is important because it not only affects the bounce rate but also sales conversion rate. If the customers are leaving without taking any action, then there might be no purchases.
Email Opt-in Rate
Email opt-in rate is the percentage of site visitors who subscribe to your mailing list. The subscription is voluntary which is why visitors need to be given an incentive so they can join your email list. You can give them free eBooks, white papers or discounts that will encourage visitors to sign up.
If visitors are willing to sign up to your email list, it means that they are interested in your products or services. They are more likely to make a purchase in the future.
Online stores irrespective of their size need to pay attention to ecommerce metrics. The metrics discussed above can help you get insights on the overall performance of your business. But along with tracking profit and revenue, you also need to focus on other aspects such as website, customers, channels etc. as they are contributing to your success. Make sure not to leave out these metrics in your audit. These metrics will eventually help you improve your online business and marketing strategies in the long run.
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