Top Ecommerce Metrics You Should Track

top ecommerce metrics

Want to know the right ecommerce metrics to track? Focusing on the right metrics can give your business an edge over competitors. It can also be the difference between a struggling business and a thriving one.

Ecommerce businesses often grow not as a result of chance or luck but because they make decisions based on measuring the right metrics. In a world of data overload, deciding what to pay attention to can be challenging.

At WebLime, we understand this challenge many online stores face. Therefore, we have drawn up an article that shines the light on the important metrics that will help make informed decisions for your business. From your average order value to your customer acquisition cost, tracking these metrics can help you determine from a data standpoint how your business is doing.

In this article, we’ll share with you the top ecommerce metrics you should pay attention to if you want to increase your business growth. Let’s dive in.

7 Top Ecommerce Metrics You Should Focus On

To make better decisions for your business, these are some important ecommerce metrics you should measure.

salves conversion rate illustration for ecommerce metrics

Sales Conversion Rate

The sales conversion rate is the percentage measure of people who visit your ecommerce site relative to those who make a purchase. Your sales conversion rate helps you determine the people that convert into customers.

A primary problem ecommerce entrepreneurs face is lots of traffic without any sales. Yet, according to a report, Amazon Prime has a conversion rate of a whopping 74%.

Ecommerce goes beyond driving traffic to your site. Once people visit your site, they need you to persuade them to make an order. Therefore, the experience, products and prices, website design, payment gateway, etc., need to feel right. WebLime offers solutions to your ecommerce business that help you optimize your website and increase your conversion rate.

To calculate your store’s conversion rate, follow the formula below.

Number of sales divided by number of users multiplied by 100% equals the conversion rate - ecommerce metrics

Of course, you would want your conversion rate to be as high as possible. Therefore, you can try the following steps to optimize the conversion rate.

  • Implementing elements to drive conversions (e.g., newsletter popups, discounts, etc.,)
  • Speed up your product page
  • Use high-quality pictures of your product
  • Optimize your product listing by including keywords

You can also use ecommerce marketing automation tools to improve your website and increase conversion.

website traffic metrics illustration

Website Traffic

Once you know your conversion rate and optimize it utilizing our help, you can then move to other ecommerce KPI metrics like website traffic. This is where measuring the number of visitors your website gets comes into the picture. Increasing the conversation rate drives more traffic to your website, especially after conversion optimization.

You can increase your website traffic by following these tips:

  • Search engine optimization
  • Promote your products and services on social media
  • Improve your website for search engines
  • Send email newsletters to subscribers
a mailbox on top of a mobile phone. The mailbox is packed with emails and there's a trash bin with a lot of envelopes in it

Email Opt-in Rate

Email marketing continues to be an essential tool for growing your ecommerce business. It is one of the top metrics for ecommerce you need to measure, and can be an effective way to eventually convert traffic into paying cusotmers.

Campaign Monitor reported in 2018 that 59% off marketers believe email delivers higher ROI for their ecommerce business. Like website traffic, you need to ensure many people are on your email list; this is important even if they don’t make a purchase immediately. You can also offer exclusive deals for first-time subscribers on their next purchase.

customer lifetime value - CLV - ecommerce metrics

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Another ecommerce metric you can measure through your ecommerce metrics dashboard is customer lifetime value. This metric measures the total amount you earn from an average customer in their lifetime. For example, if a customer makes six transactions, with each one worth $50, their CLV would be $300. Of course, you would still have to remove acquisition costs from this amount.

Therefore, this is one of the most important ecommerce metrics because you can use it as a benchmark to measure how much you need to spend to acquire a customer. It also helps you determine how long you should retain a client. Increasing your average order value—the subject of the next section—helps you increase customer lifetime value.

woman with a bunch of shopping bags

Average Order Value

This is one of the top ecommerce KPI metrics you can measure on your ecommerce metrics dashboard. You want customers to spend as much as possible, and your average order value determines the average value of each purchase. You simply have to divide the sum value of all sales by the number of carts.

Some of the tips you can implement to improve the average order value metric include:

  • Offering products as a package and offering a small discount as opposed to buying individually
  • Propose free shipping on purchases above a certain amount to entice consumers to make more purchases
  • Upsell complementary items to your customers to improve the usability of their primary purchase.
  • Implementing loyalty programs to encourage repeat customers to increase their spending.
customer acquisition cost illustration showing a customer support agent on one side of a store and a customer on the other side

Customer Acquisition Cost

If you’re concerned about growing your consumer base, the customer acquisition cost is one of the top ecommerce business metrics to measure. It is the total amount you spend to bring in a new client. Your average order value needs to be higher than the customer acquisition cost, or your business is running at a loss.

Some of the ways you can reduce your customer acquisition cost include:

  • Increase your conversion rate
  • Doubling down on retention through discounts, loyalty programs, cross-selling and upselling
  • Improve your advertising strategies
  • Invest in organic marketing
  • Explore referral marketing by encouraging existing customers to bring new customers

WebLime can help you improve your marketing strategy so you can keep your customer acquisition cost low and increase your average order value.

person placing an order on a mobile screen - ecommerce metrics

Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

This ecommerce metric considers the percentage of shoppers who add products to their cart and then abandon the store without making a purchase.

These are window shoppers who are still making up their minds on whether to make a purchase. Unfortunately, this is quite common, as a report by Barilliance shows that over 3/4 of shoppers choose to leave the site without completing a purchase.

Therefore, it’s always a good idea to reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate as it will increase your sales conversion rate. Below are some tips you can implement.

  • Improve the shopping experience by optimizing your website with Weblime solutions
  • Use remarketing to attract shoppers back to your site. You can do this with follow-up emails and targeted ads.

Weblime Can Help You Optimize Your Ecommerce Store

At Weblime, we’re happy to assist you with solutions to optimize your ecommerce site and increase your sales conversion rate. Apart from building an ecommerce from the ground up, we’ll also help your site scale and integrate third-party tools. Get in touch today to learn how we can help.

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