The Top Ecommerce KPIs You Should be Tracking

If you’re a Shopify storeowner, a web developer, or a designer, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of “KPIs” or Key Performance Indicators. In the world of online selling, tracking the right ecommerce KPIs is the key to making data-driven decisions for growth. 

Monitoring the right KPIs ensures you can make choices that improve customer experiences, improve the ROI of your marketing campaigns, and increase your sales. 

But, deciding which KPIs to track is tougher than it seems. There are countless different metrics you can monitor on Shopify with custom dashboards and reports. Shopify itself even lists more than 70 different KPIs worth tracking (depending on your goals). 

Here, we’re going to narrow things down a little, and discuss the main KPIs every ecommerce business owner should be monitoring. We’ll also give you a few quick tips on how to watch these KPIs from within your Shopify dashboard. 

What are Ecommerce KPIs and Why Do They Matter?

Ecommerce KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators are measurements that allow you to specifically track the success and impact of specific actions you take with your ecommerce store. KPIs give you a way to objectively, and consistently track how successful certain processes are. 

For instance, you could monitor KPIs related to conversion rate, average order value, and the numbers of orders you’re making each month, to see how effective your sales and advertising campaigns are. 

Ultimately, KPIs ensure you can keep an eye on the steps you’re taking towards specific goals, like increasing customer loyalty. They give you the information you need to make better decisions for your business. The important thing to remember is that most KPIs aren’t as valuable as they could be when they’re considered “individually”. 

You need a holistic view of your data to make the right decision. For instance, simply seeing that your sales numbers are increasing over a certain period is good – but you won’t know why sales are increasing until you do some extra research. 

The Top Ecommerce KPIs to Monitor

There are various different type of KPIs you can track depending on your specific goals. These often fall into categories related to sales, marketing, customer service, project management, and manufacturing (From an ecommerce perspective). 

While the exact KPIs you monitor will vary depending on your business, here are a few key ecommerce KPIs every business should focus on. 

1. Website Traffic KPIs (and Where it Comes From)

The success of any ecommerce business relies heavily on the amount of traffic it attracts. The more people visit your store, as a result of your marketing campaigns and SEO efforts, the more chances you’ll have to earn conversions. However, simply monitoring traffic alone isn’t enough. 

You need to look deeper at that traffic information. For instance, identify how many new visitors you have, compared to returning visitors, for insights into customer loyalty, and the impact of your marketing campaigns. Find out where your traffic comes from using tools like Google analytics.

Insights into whether your customers are visiting you from mobile or desktop devices helps you to define how to optimize your site’s design. Understanding whether customers are clicking on links in organic search, paid social ads, or organic social media ensures you know where to spend your marketing budget for the best ROI.

2. Conversion Rates (and Customer Value)

Conversion rates are one of the most common ecommerce KPIs any company will need to track. After all, you need to ensure customers are actually “purchasing” your products. However, conversions don’t have to exclusively involve buying products. Customers might “convert” when they reach out to your team for a quote, or subscribe to your newsletter too. 

If you’re focusing on tracking the financial value of your company, then there are a few additional KPIs you should look at alongside conversion rates. These include:

• Conversion ROI: The ROI of your conversion rate compares the cost of selling your goods, to the profit you’re actually getting from sales. It can involve looking at numerous factors, including average order value, and customer acquisition costs. 
• Average order value: It almost goes without saying, but the higher your customer’s average order value is, the more profitable your business will be. If your “AOV” is low, you might want to consider investing in upselling and cross-selling techniques. 
• Customer lifetime value: This KPI looks at how much a customer is likely to spend with your company over the course of their relationship with you. A higher CLV comes from earning the loyalty of your customers, through excellent service and products.

Another KPI to keep an eye on when it comes to conversion rates is the number of people who “abandon” their carts without making a purchase. A high cart abandonment rate could indicate the purchasing process is too complex, or that you need to invest in remarketing strategies. 

3. Customer Experience KPIs 

When it comes to ecommerce KPIs, it’s easy to overlook the impact of customer experience. However, the happier that customers are with the “experience” on your website, the more likely they are to purchase your products, promote your business to friends, and remain loyal to your brand.

While you can get direct insights into customer experience through surveys and reviews, there are also KPIs that offer insights into customer experience. For instance, higher “average session durations” on your website, and lower bounce rates generally indicate customers are enjoying your website, and feel less inclined to go elsewhere.

High numbers of returning visitors, as well as a growing subscribe rate to your email newsletter, also indicate that your customers are happy with your company. Additionally, low “churn rates”, which mean customers aren’t abandoning your business after a single purchase, suggest that you’re benefitting from higher customer loyalty.

Some of the most significant customer experience KPIs to monitor include:

• CSAT: CSAT or customer satisfaction score indicates how happy customers are with their overall experience when using your website. It’s gathered through direct feedback.
• NPS: Your Net Promoter Score indicates how likely a customer is to recommend you to another buyer, based on their experience with you. 
• Customer support KPIs: Customer support KPIs include things like average resolution time, first response times, and service escalation rates. They look at how well you’re supporting  customers with specific issues. 

4. Marketing KPIs 

In the world of ecommerce KPIs, there are a lot of different metrics related to marketing. We’ve already mentioned some of the most common options, like traffic and traffic sources. There are also various KPIs linked to specific marketing campaigns. For instance, you might track the specific number of page views you get from an AR marketing campaign. 

Alongside looking at traffic results from your marketing strategies, some other key areas to focus on when you’re building your ecommerce brand include:

• Email KPIs: KPIs for email marketing include everything from your subscriber growth rate and “unsubscribe” rate, to the number of people opening your emails, clicking on links within your messages, and responding to your campaigns. 
• Social KPIs: If you’re using integrations with social media to promote your business, you can track things like social followers and fans, as well as how often those fans engage with your business through likes, comments, shares, and even purchasing products on social channels.
• SEO KPIs: SEO KPIs focus on your position in the search engines, and how well you’re driving awareness to your company. You might monitor blog traffic, and average position in the search engines. 

Other marketing KPIs can include number of product reviews, banner or display advertising click-through rates, and even affiliate marketing click through rates.

5. Business Performance KPIs

Finally, ecommerce KPIs related to business performance look a little closer at how the workings of your business are impacting your overall profitability. These areas fall into a few key areas: including manufacturing KPIs, and project management KPIs. 

Manufacturing KPIs, such as average cycle time for a product, overall equipment effectiveness, and overall labor effectiveness examine how effective your team are at creating and shipping products to customers. The better your manufacturing processes and supply chains, the more likely you are to sell products at scale, and improve customer satisfaction. 

Project management KPIs look a little more broadly at how your team is completing certain tasks related to your ecommerce business. You might look at things like how many hours employees work, how much budget you spend on labor, and how much of a “return on investment” you get in terms of new customers, conversions and sales. 

Looking at Business Performance KPIs can help you make intelligent decisions that improve your “customer acquisition costs”. If your team isn’t performing effectively, making changes to your processes could help to reduce the cost of acquiring customers, and boost profit margins.

How to Monitor KPIs in Shopify

Now you have an idea of the kinds of ecommerce KPIs you should be monitoring, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to keep track of them. The good news is that Shopify offers access to a range of customizable reports and dashboards to help you. Plus, it can integrate with platforms like Google Analytics, for more in-depth insights.

To monitor KPIs with Shopify, simply go into your Analytics Dashboard in the Shopify admin, and set a goal. From there, you can choose the KPIs you want to monitor. For instance, if you want to boost sales by 20% in the next quarter, you’d track things like Daily Sales and Conversion Rates.

The key to success when tracking KPIs with Shopify is being very specific with your goals. Take the “SMART” approach, ensuring your goals are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-Bound. For instance, instead of saying “we want to increase customer loyalty”, you might say: 

“Our goal is to increase customer retention rates by 20% within the next three months, using loyalty campaigns and email marketing.” 

Optimize your Ecommerce KPIs

Hopefully, this guide has given you a useful insight into the value of ecommerce KPIs, and the most important measurements you’ll need to track. However, if you’re struggling to see results from your store, and you need a boost, you can always consider working with an expert. 

Storetasker Shopify experts can do so much more than simply help you design the perfect store. They can work with you to design enhanced customer experiences that increase retention, conversion, and loyalty rates. We can even partner you with a marketing expert that increases your visibility and increases traffic to your store.

Contact us today to start your KPI-boosting project. 

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