[2024] Most Important eCommerce Metrics You Should Measure To Grow Online Business

When it comes to making proper decisions for the growth of your online stores and skyrocketing your sales, eCommerce Metrics are crucial. Keeping track of the various business metrics will not only save you from failures but also help you take your business to the ultimate heights of success.

However, it is often very easy to get lost among the hundreds of business metrics and analytics. Regardless of whether you are new to the eCommerce world or have been a part of online businesses for some time, these numbers and values can overwhelm and confuse you. 

To help you understand the concept of business key metrics and make long-term positive impacts on your online business, we have made a list of the topmost important eCommerce metrics. You can effortlessly skyrocket your sales by keeping track of and optimizing these analytics. 

But before we can get into the list, you need to understand what eCommerce metrics are and why they are so valuable in growing your business. Interested to learn more? Then keep reading! 

What Are eCommerce Metrics & Why Are They Essential For Your Business? 

Any quantifiable, consistently defined measurement of an online business website’s performance is known as eCommerce Metrics. These metrics can be of many types and help you scrutinize and develop different sections of your business. 

Successful online businesses always keep a lookout for their website metrics to observe user engagement and interactions. eCommerce metrics can show which product or section you need to take immediate actions on, plan to improve in the future, or even remove from your store altogether. They can not only help predict impending losses but prevent them from happening too. Managing a successful online store requires the ability to gather, analyze and improve on these metrics for eCommerce.

Determine Which Metrics Matter To Your eCommerce Business 

You must be wondering how to know which business metrics to keep track of if there are so many. The good news is that there are only a handful of eCommerce metrics that are essential to your business’ growth or directly represent the state of your business. To figure out which eCommerce indicators are most important for your company, ask yourself the following questions:

🎯 How much will your online business store be affected if particular metrics changed? Suppose there are chances that changes in a specific metric, such as your website traffic, will significantly impact your business. In that case, it is likely to be an important metric for your online store. 

🎯 Will improving or working on a specific metric take your company closer to reaching its goals? Determine if improvements in particular metrics will make your online business website more successful and engaging to your customers. If it does, then it is a crucial metric for your business. 

🎯 Will you see changes in other metrics if you improve on a particular one?  You need to consider interconnected metrics and determine which improves or negatively impacts the other ones. 

We believe you have a good understanding of eCommerce metrics by now, so let’s dive in and have a look into the top eCommerce metrics you should measure to grow your online business. 

Top eCommerce Metrics You Need To Track & Optimize To Skyrocket Sales 

Most successful businesses around the world have a practice of tracking and thoroughly inspecting eCommerce metrics. We have created a list of the most important eCommerce metrics you need to keep track of to help you out. To boost your sales significantly, you should have these metrics and KPIs ready with you at all times. 

1) Sales Conversion Rates 

The most important eCommerce metric that you must follow, regardless of how large or small your site is, is your business Sales Conversion Rate. It is a percentage that determines the number of your site visitors who complete their purchase and become paying customers to your business. Any business needs to study how much traffic is converting and bringing it profit. 

👉 Keep  Track Of Your Conversion Rates

To calculate your company’s sales conversion rate, you need to find the percentage of users purchasing your products.  

So if you have a total of 100 website visitors and about 50 of them purchase a product from your business, your site’s conversion rate would be 50%.

Here, 

Total visitor = 100 

Number of conversions  = 50 

So, Conversion Rate = (50/100) * 100%  = 50%

 The best practice to track the conversion rate is to use Google Analytics and set up a goal. To understand how to set up your Google Analytics goal, we recommend you give ‘Analyze Enhanced eCommerce Data’ a read.

👉 Improve Your Sales Conversion Rate 

You can quickly boost your conversion rates by making your site more engaging and interactive. You can also incorporate social proof marketing and FOMO marketing with WordPress plugins such as ReviewX and NotificationX to add credibility to your site and convince your customers to make a purchase. 

2) Website Traffic Growth Rates

It is important to keep track of the number of users visiting your WooCommerce site regularly. Once you have understood your eCommerce conversion rates and taken proper steps to optimize these metrics, you need to focus on your website traffic. 

You need to know where your site visitors are coming from – whether it is your ads, email marketing, social media marketing, or some other strategy you are using. Analyzing your site traffic will help you calculate the revenue you get from different traffic sources and make investments in the right sectors.

To be more specific, some of your traffic sources may include: 

🎯 Your website traffic: Keep track of the number of visits per user to your website over specific periods of time. 

🎯 Your social media platforms: Share each new blog post and product on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and Pinterest, as well as other social media platforms to drive prospective buys. 

🎯  Blog posts on your site: Write engaging content for your blog posts. Blogs that use a range of on-page SEO tactics can help you rank higher in search engines and attract more visitors to your website. Read our blog on how to improve user experience on your WordPress blog to learn more.  

🎯  Google or other search engines: Take measures to improve your SEO ranking in search engines. It is important that your website or blog posts appear on the first search page because most users do not click past the first page. 

👉 Analyze Your Site Traffic

With the help of Google Analytics, you can analyze and track your website traffic in a number of ways, using different analytics and rates. 

📊 Bounce Rate: 

The bounce rate is a percentage used to carry out website traffic analysis. It represents the percentage of site visitors who leave (or, bounce) your online store without taking any action. You can measure your WooCommerce shop’s bounce rate using Google Analytics, mathematical equations, etc. The lower your bounce rates, the better it is for your website. 

📊 Average Time On Page:  

This is an important metric that is used to determine the average amount of time spent on a single web page by all users of the website. This metric does not consider exit pages and bounces.

📊 Page Value: 

The average value of a page that a user visited before landing on the goal page or completing an Ecommerce transaction is referred to as Page Value.

👉 Increase Your Website Traffic 

The most effective ways for the best improvements in your website traffic include: 

📊 Invest more in social media, email campaigns, and content marketing to boost your company’s marketing efforts.

📊 Consider sponsored commercials and other marketing campaigns to target the appropriate customer demographic if you have the budget.

📊 Increase user engagement level, by identifying and highlighting content that you think the customers will like. Showcase exclusive products or sale items by highlighting them through categories and product sliders. 

📊 Improve your website design and usability – make your site easier to navigate and use responsive themes and templates. You can also use vibrant colors with minimalistic layouts to catch users’ attention effortlessly and implement interactive widgets and buttons.

3) Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

According to Tech In Asia, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the amount of money you estimate each consumer to spend on your products and services. This particular metric helps to understand the total amount of revenue you will gain from the consumer during the customer’s lifetime. Knowing how much you can spend to get a customer and how far you should go to keep them will give you an estimation of AOV and CAC.

👉 Predict The Customer Lifetime Value

Predicting and tracking the CLV can be a little tricky. While some formulae help you understand a customer’s lifetime value, you can use this calculator to make the process easier. 

You can also analyze the high-valued customers and figure out their purchasing patterns, then replicate the system with the other customers. 

👉 Optimize The Customer Lifetime Value

To improve the CLV, you can try out the following steps:

📊 Encourage customers to return by offering discounts, special offers, and other promotional activities.

📊 Reduce the cost of acquiring new customers (CAC). You’ll be able to increase the profit from individual consumers.

📊 Find ways to increase your Average Order Value (AOV). 

4) Email Marketing Metrics

Email marketing is one of those strategies that are very important to grab the attention of site users and non-visitors. Emails are one of the most powerful tools for online businesses to drive repeat sales. 

👉 Evaluate Your Email Marketing Strategy

Like website traffic growth rate, there are multiple rates and analytics you can track to evaluate the number of sales and users you are getting from emails. These include the following eCommerce metrics: 

🎯 Email Subscription (Opt-In) Rate:

The email opt-in rate refers to the percentage of your WooCommerce store users who subscribed to your emails. 

🎯 Email Open Rates:

The open rate measures how many subscribers read the email you sent. These metrics help to analyze how engaging your email subject lines and contents are. 

🎯 Email Click-Through-Rates (CTR): 

This metric measures how many users clicked on the links in your email. It is usually measured to determine how well your email campaigns are doing. 

🎯 Email Unsubscription (Opt-out) Rate: 

The email opt-out rate is basically the opposite of the opt-in rate – it determines the percentage of customers who have unsubscribed to your WooCommerce store emails after receiving a mail. 

You can use some simple methods to evaluate your email marketing rates:

📊 Use the built-in analytics in your email marketing tool, such as MailChimp

📊 Use Google Analytics by setting up a conversion goal to track your opt-in’s “thank you” page. 

👉 Engage Users With Email Marketing

If you have an email list of site users, you can easily keep them informed of all types of improvements, updates, and latest releases of your products and keep them engaged with your business. Moreover, you can also notify them of special discounts that are sure to bring more users to your site and boost sales. 

You can also improve your email marketing strategies by writing more engaging and eye-catching subject lines that intrigue users to open and read your emails. Interactive call-to-action buttons are also a great way to increase your CTRs. 

5) Average Order Value (AOV)

The Average Order Value (AOV) metric helps to determine the amount of money or price that your customers spend on your products and services during a single visit. It’s an essential metric when it comes to determining marketing effectiveness. This feature directly relates to the total amount of profit that your site is making from its users.

👉 Calculate The AOV Metric

The AOV metric can vary from industry to industry. To calculate, you can use this simple formula: 

We can see from the formula given above, Average Order Value (AOV) is defined by the ratio of revenue earned and the total number of orders. To understand this, suppose in the month of August, you had a total number of 1000 orders made to your online store. And from the sales of those orders, you made a revenue of $21000. 

Here,

Total number of orders = 1000 

Total revenue earned  = $21000

So, Conversion Rate = ($21000/100)  = $210

We can say, the average order value for the month of August is $210. 

👉 Enhance Your Business AOV

Ways to increase AOV include:

📊 Offer bigger/bundled packs with more eye-catching discounts;

📊 Selling add-ons or services with regular purchases;

📊 Place more relevant packages on the homepage to attract more customers;

📊 Offer free or discounted shipping for individual purchases. 

6) Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

What if you spend more money to get a customer than the person spends in your store? This eCommerce metric, also known as CAC, helps determine the expense of gaining a customer and includes all types of related sales and marketing expenses. 

👉 Determine Your Average CAC

Your eCommerce business’ Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is basically the total expense that the business makes for every new customer. To calculate CAC, you divide your total expenditure (selling & marketing costs) over a certain period by the total number of new customers acquired during that time. 

Suppose, if your company spends $500 in the month of August and acquires 500 new customers, we can calculate to see,

CAC = $500 / 500 customers

         = $1 per customer

Your customer acquisition cost must be less than your consumer lifetime value to generate money. Your acquisition cost should also ideally be lower than your average order value (AOV), allowing you to profit from each new customer.

👉 Lower Your Company’s CAC

There are several methods to improve an eCommerce business’s customer acquisition cost, and these include: 

📊 Optimize website traffic and conversion rates

📊 Use customer feedback and review to improve their experience

📊 Plan marketing strategies to focus on users who have a higher potential of becoming customers

7) Cart Abandonment Rate (CAR)

The cart abandonment rate (CAR) compares the number of visitors who added items to their shopping cart but did not complete the transaction with the number of visitors who completed the purchase.

👉 Assess Your Abandonment Rate

You can easily use the formula given below to measure and assess this particular eCommerce business, CAR.

Research shows that the average abandonment rate is around 68%. If your CAR is similar or higher, you need to consider ways to lower the number immediately, such as improving your checkout strategy. 

👉 Convince Your Customers To Purchase

There are many ways to persuade your website users to complete their purchases and become paying customers. Some of the most effective changes that you can bring into your online store strategy are: 

📊 Make your checkout process easier

📊 Reduce the shopping costs

📊 Send cart abandonment reminder emails 

8) Return Customer Rate

The proportion of your customers who have made at least two purchases in a certain period is known as the return customer rate. This metric is also a measure of your customer’s experience and your services towards them. Therefore, it is a clear indication of which products or services you need to improve and which are causing issues. 

👉 Work Out Your Return Customer Rate

Return Customer Rate is determined by finding the total number of customers who have purchased before as a percentage of the total number of customers. Figuring out your return customer rate is simple. You just need to keep track of your eCommerce business customers and those who have made multiple purchases from your database. 

👉 Encourage Your Customers To Purchase Again

📊 Ensure your customers get the best user experience. You can simplify the purchasing procedure, deliver products and services at the expected time, provide discounts, and more. 

📊 Invest well into your marketing campaigns and make sure to keep your customers engaged in your company. 

📊 Implement customer loyalty programs, and encourage them to come back to redeem rewards and discounts. 

📊 Improve your customer service strategies. 

9) Net Promoter Score (NPS)

If you want to reduce churn for your eCommerce business, you have to focus on improving your customer’s user experience. You can easily evaluate your store’s customer loyalty and churn rates, by keeping an eye on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics. This is generally considered as one of the most important eCommerce metrics that any business should track to grow their business.

NPS measures how many of your customers are willing to recommend (promote) your products and services to others. It is a direct insight into users’ brand loyalty and satisfaction. 

To evaluate NPS, create a survey and ask your customers how willing they are to recommend products from your company to their friends and family. It’s a good idea to ask them to answer or give a rating on a scale of 0 to 10. Then, take your survey results and separate your clients into three categories: 

🎯Promoters:

Your business promoters are the ones who give your business a score of 9-10. These loyal customers are usually very satisfied and will gladly promote your products to others. 

🎯Passives: 

These are the satisfied customers who are not enthusiastic enough to encourage others to visit or buy from your shop. They will score your eCommerce business high with a rating of 7-8; separate them out and focus on improving their experience and converting them to promoters. 

🎯 Detractors:

Decorators are any customer who rates 6 or below. They are usually unsatisfied with your store and may put out a negative word of mouth. 

Follow up their answers by asking why their experiences were unpleasant and how you can improve their shopping experience the next time. 

👉 Measure Customer Loyalty With NPS

Now that you have your customers separated into categories according to their satisfaction levels, calculate NPS using the following formula: 

According to SPG Consulting, the average NPS value is 34.3; anything around this score means your business is doing well but it still has room to improve. Anything below 0 means you need to re-evaluate your business strategy and make some serious changes. On the other hand, any value above 70 means your eCommerce store is thriving!

👉 Get Your Customers To Promote You

In order to improve your NPS, you need to first understand how your business stands with the consumers. Knowing how many promoters, passives, and detractors you have and taking a survey of their feedback is a good first step. 

From here, you can take the following steps: 

📊 Do a comprehensive customer journey mapping to get a full picture of the consumer behavior and find the roots of the problem. 

📊 Create an efficient customer-driven plan based on the journey mapping and users’ feedback. 

📊 Formulate a survey and maximize the responses to understand which tactics are working and which are not. 

📊 Identify your detractors and take measures to eventually convert them into your business promoters. You can easily do this by improving qualities, removing the problem from the core, engaging them with proper marketing tactics, and delivering the brand value constantly.

📊 Push the passive to become a promoter. There are several ways of doing this and one such method is to use ReviewX to send automated email reminders to your consumers after they make a purchase. These email alerts will remind your consumers to leave reviews and provide ratings on your product pages.

📊 Determine who your promoters are and reward them for their loyalty to your business. You can offer discounts, special coupon codes, and sales, or ask or encourage them to become your brand ambassadors.

9) Social Media Engagement Rate

One of the most fundamental eCommerce metrics that you must track and constantly try to improve as an online store owner is the Social Media Engagement Rate. Every social media platform needs activity and engagement to create a pleasant brand experience and meaningful interactions with new and potential future customers. 

It is often used to measure the performance of a single piece of content on different social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, etc, based on the number of interactions the post gets. At times, it is also considered as a measurement of how good a marketing campaign is in keeping the audience and customer engaged. 

This important metric helps to understand that it is much more important to have engaged users compared to a large number of followers who do not interact. 

👉 Closely Observe Social Media Engagement Rates

Your engagement rate is a true representation of the quality of your content and helps visualize what your customers expect from your online business. Therefore, good social media analytics is crucial to measure the success of your WooCommerce business.

These days, there are several analytics tools online to help you measure the social media engagement rates of different platforms. However, you can also use the formula given below for calculations. 

However, before we can use any of these tools and equations to measure the social media engagement rates, we need to understand there are several different engagement methods for different media platforms.

While engagement on Facebook is represented by likes, comments, and shares, it is the number of retweets and replies. If your business has its own YouTube channel, then engagement should be measured based on the total number of views each video receives. 

Therefore, you will have to understand what your audience expects and depends on these different platforms and act accordingly. 

👉 Skyrocket Your Engagement Rates

To take your business to the ultimate heights of growth and success, you need to understand your audience and build engagement and interaction. There’s no maximum limit of engagement to reach, and so you get the opportunity to continuously revamp your methods and improve. 

There are countless ways to improve your website engagement rates. While it is impossible to list all of them down, here are a few techniques you can use. 

📊 Do a thorough analysis of your audience to get to know them

📊 Create and share interesting and valuable content online that your audience will enjoy

📊 Hold your users’ attention with specialized email and social media marketing

📊 Share interactive content that will get users to start a conversation and keep it flowing

📊 Be creative with poles, Q/A sessions, contests, giveaways, and more

📊 Keep your content visual to instantly grab the attention of your audience

📊 Always keep your responses quick and witty; users tend to lose interest in your product when they do not receive speedy replies to their queries

📊 Post regularly and at regular intervals to make sure user never misses your content – you can use helpful WordPress plugins like SchedulePress to automatically share posts and content on social media.

How Often Should You Measure Your eCommerce Metrics?

How often you need to analyze an eCommerce metric depends on the metric itself and what it represents. 

🗓️ Weekly: Some metrics should be monitored on a weekly basis to verify that your company is in good shape. Website traffic and social media engagement are all examples.

🗓️ Bi-weekly measures are ideally suited for metrics with larger sample sizes, as they are less influenced by week-to-week changes. Average order value (AOV), cost per acquisition (CPA), and shopping cart abandonment is examples of bi-weekly eCommerce metrics.

🗓️ Monthly: Some eCommerce metrics such as the ones related to email marketing can be measured monthly as they depend on website traffic numbers and your own marketing strategies. 

🗓️ Quarterly: Other eCommerce metrics can be viewed quarterly or yearly. These are the most strategic and are usually used to measure the overall condition and growth of your business. 

Effortlessly Measure Your eCommerce Metrics To Grow Your Business

There are several eCommerce metrics you can track to understand your customers and the business progress, but the ones mentioned above are key. Any store aiming to reach success should focus on them. If you analyze these top metrics and take proper measurements to enhance them, your business is sure to perform at its best. 

We hope you find our list helpful in growing your online business. If you try out any of the methods listed above, do let us know about your experience by commenting below; we would love to hear from you! To learn more valuable information about your online businesses like this, subscribe to our blog. You can also join our friendly Facebook community to know about our latest updates.