Measuring Success: Understanding Essential eCommerce KPIs

Sanket is the Founder and CEO of InVideo. InVideo now serves millions of users from 190 countries across the world. His desire to make video making and editing accessible to everyone has contributed largely to the video production industry. 8 minute read

It has become more critical to understand how your company operates and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) that may offer information about how well your e-commerce platform is working.

Businesses use measurements known as eCommerce KPIs, or key performance indicators, to assess the effectiveness of their online operations. eCommerce KPIs are essential in video marketing, email marketing, or social media marketing for determining how well your content is doing and where changes can be made. These analytics could include revenue, conversion rates, and website traffic.

Thus, creating and editing content plays a vital role in KPI assessment. Yet this takes time; however, using a simple video editor to create quality videos for your social media or your e-commerce website can reduce your efforts dramatically.

The growth and success of your company depend on how well you measure e-commerce performance. Making an informed decision on improving your eCommerce platform to increase sales and income is now possible. By measuring your KPIs, you may highlight parts of your business that are doing well and those that want improvements. Tracking your KPIs can also assist you in seeing possible difficulties before they develop into more significant concerns, allowing you to handle them as soon as they arise.

Traffic and Visitor Metrics

Website traffic is one of the most important KPIs to monitor for any eCommerce firm. It provides information on the number of visitors to your website, its origin, and the pages they view. Understanding your website traffic may assist you in seeing trends, enhancing the usability of your website, and making content choices that will increase visitors and revenue.

A. What is website traffic?

Website traffic is the number of users visiting your site over a specific period. The number of page views, unique visitors, and bounce rate may all be used to measure it.

B. Importance of tracking website traffic:

Understanding your website traffic can help you make decisive actions to increase website usability and revenue. Knowing how many people are visiting your website and where they are coming from is made possible by tracking website traffic. You may use this data to determine which marketing efforts bring the most visits to your website and which pages are the most well-liked by them.

C. Key traffic metrics to track:

Some of the vital traffic metrics to track include:

  • Page views: The number of times a page on your website has been viewed.
  • Unique visitors: The number of people that visited your website during a specific period.
  • Bounce rate: The percentage of site visitors that exit after just seeing one page.

D. Tools for tracking website traffic:

You may measure website traffic using a variety of tools, including Google Analytics, a free service that offers thorough insights into the traffic and performance of your website. Other common tools are:

  • Clicky
  • Matomo
  • Adobe Analytics

By using these tools, you can track your website traffic and gain valuable insights into how your eCommerce business is performing.

Conversion Rate Metrics

Another important KPI to monitor for your e-commerce business is conversion rate. It calculates the percentage of site visitors completing a desired activity, such as purchasing\ or subscribing to a newsletter. You may make choices to boost sales and income by identifying sections of your website that need development and understanding your conversion rate.

A. Definition of conversion rate:

The conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors completing a desired activity, like purchasing or subscribing to a newsletter. It is computed by multiplying the result by 100 and dividing the number of conversions by the total number of visits.

B. Importance of tracking conversion rate:

Tracking your conversion rate helps determine how effectively your website visitors are converted into paying clients. You can determine which pages on your website are functioning well and which ones need improvement by studying your conversion rate. You may use this information to guide your direction that will enhance sales and income while enhancing the usability of your website.

C. Key conversion rate metrics to track:

Some of the key conversion rate metrics to track include:

  • Cart abandonment rate: The percentage of visitors who add things to their cart but do not finish the transaction.
  • Purchase conversion rate: The percentage of website visitors who actually make a purchase.
  • Sign-up conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors registering for a newsletter or account.

D. Tools for tracking conversion rates:

You can use many tools to track conversion rates, including Google Analytics. Other popular tools include:

  • Optimizely
  • Unbounce
  • Hotjar

These are great applications where you can track your conversion rate and gain valuable insights into how your eCommerce business is growing.

Sales and Revenue Metrics

For any online business, sales, and income are important KPIs. They provide you with a general concept of the revenue generated by your company, as well as the average revenue per client. By understanding your sales and revenue statistics, you may find parts of your business that are doing well and areas that need development.

A. Definition of sales and revenue:

Sales are the entire quantity of goods or services your company has sold, whereas revenue is the total sum of money made from those sales. To understand how well your company is performing, this data may be tracked over a specified time frame, such as a month or a year.

B. Importance of tracking sales and revenue:

Because it offers you a clear view of how much money your organization is producing, tracking sales and income is important. By studying your sales and revenue KPIs, you can determine which goods or services are selling well and which ones aren’t. You may use this information to support goals that will enhance your pricing strategy and inventory optimization.

C. Key sales and revenue metrics to track:

Some of the key sales and revenue metrics to track include:

  • Average order value: The average amount of money spent per order
  • Revenue per visitor: The amount of money earned per visitor to your website
  • Gross margin: The difference between the cost of goods sold and revenue

D. Tools for tracking sales and revenue:

You can use many tools to track sales and revenue, including QuickBooks, a popular accounting software for small businesses. Other popular tools include:

  • Xero
  • Freshbooks
  • Wave
  • NetSuite

Try these out to track your sales and revenue metrics and gain valuable insights into how your eCommerce business is scaling.

Customer Retention Metrics

An important KPI for every e-commerce business is customer retention. It measures how successfully a company can hold on to clients over time. Understanding your customer retention numbers will assist you in determining which elements of your company are operating successfully and which areas want improvement.

A. Definition of customer retention:

The capacity of a company to keep its customers over time is referred to as customer retention. It is determined by how many customers come back again and how much money they spend with a company over time.

B. Importance of tracking customer retention:

Tracking customer retention is important because it helps you determine how successful your company is in maintaining consumers over time. By studying your customer retention numbers, you may determine which goods or services keep consumers returning and which do not. Use this data to support key decisions that will enhance your customer loyalty program and boost customer retention.

C. Key customer retention metrics to track:

Some of the key customer retention metrics to track include:

  • Customer lifetime value: the total amount of money a customer will spend with your business over their lifetime
  • Repeat customer rate: the percentage of customers who make multiple purchases with your business
  • Customer churn rate: the percentage of customers who stop doing business with your company

D. Tools for tracking customer retention:

You can use many tools to track customer retention, including CRM software such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho. Other popular tools include:

  • Mailchimp
  • Constant Contact 
  • ActiveCampaign

Customer retention metrics are the lifeblood of all eCommerce businesses, so check out these software to see if one might help you track your metrics easier.

Synchronizing metrics

To see the big picture and develop your business from a strategic perspective, you need to understand how the above-mentioned metrics influence each other. Using tens of different tracking software usually brings more mess into this process, and with the company’s growth, the business faces the necessity to build a unified system for workflow management, task tracking, and decision-making based on true, up-to-date data.

With such a system implemented in every concerned department, all the employees see their impact on the company’s business goal, as well as KPIs, metrics, and visualization. The earlier a company thinks of building a single environment for tracking its effectiveness, the better results it may receive in shorter terms.

Wrapping Up

eCommerce business owners can improve their bottom line by regularly monitoring these KPIs since they provide insightful data on how well their online store is performing. eCommerce KPI tracking and analysis are essential for the success of any online business. These metrics offer insightful data on consumer behavior, website functionality, and general business health. eCommerce business managers should be able to spot areas for development, strengthen their marketing and sales tactics, and make data-driven decisions to spur growth and boost income by regularly monitoring these KPIs.

Try out a few of these strategies, and let us know how they improved your business!