Are you confused about which ecommerce tracks to track for your store?
Ecommerce metrics help you measure the performance of your store and can even help you make more strategic product and business plans for the future.
In this post, we list the best metrics to track for ecommerce and how to calculate them.
Key ecommerce metrics to track
The metrics we recommend tracking for your online store:
- Conversion rate
- Click-through rate
- Average order value
- Customer lifetime value
- Customer acquisition cost
- Customer satisfaction rating
- Customer service metrics
- Repeat customer rate
- Customer retention rate
- Churn rate
- Cart abandonment rate
- Checkout abandonment rate
- Return rate
- Refund rate
- Loyalty program metrics
- Coupon redemption rate
- Return on investment for marketing campaigns
- Units sold
- Top SKUs
- Metrics for shop pages
1. Conversion rate
Conversion rate (CR) is measured by the percentage of users who completed a specific action out of all users who were exposed to that action.
In ecommerce, conversion rate is typically measured by the percentage of visitors who made a purchase of a specific product out of all visitors who visited that product’s page in your shop.
The formula looks like this: conversion rate = number of sales for a specific product divided by the total number of website visitors who viewed that product’s page, multiplied by 100.
You can also keep track of the average conversion rate of your entire ecommerce business.
This formula looks like this: conversion rate = number of sales divided by total number of website visitors, multiplied by 100.
Note: Check out our Conversion Rate Calculator.
2. Click-through rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is measured by the percentage of users who click a specific button that leads to a specific page out of the number of users who visited the page that button is featured on.
In ecommerce, click-through rate is used to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and marketing elements, such as a call to action for a product on your homepage.
The formula to calculate click-through rate is identical to the formula you use to calculate conversion rate: CTR = number of clicks a button has received divided by the number of visitors who viewed the page that button appears on, multiplied by 100.
You can also calculate CTR for products you promote through your email list.
You can calculate CTRs for social media or ads by changing the second parameter in the formula to “number of impressions a promotional post or ad has received.”
You’ll need to use a tool like Google Analytics and set up Google Tag Manager to track link clicks.
3. Average order value
Average order value (AOV) is the amount customers spend per order based on all orders on your site.
The way to calculate this metric is simple: total revenue from orders divided by number of orders.
This metric may be available by default in the analytics section of your ecommerce platform’s dashboard.
If not, you should be able to use the platform’s analytics to view total revenue from ecommerce sales and total number of sales without having to count and add it all up yourself.
Tracking average order value can help you predict how much revenue you earn from sales on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, especially if you also track the total number of sales you earn daily, weekly and monthly. You should be able to filter your ecommerce platform’s analytics by day, week or month or date ranges.
4. Customer lifetime value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total amount of revenue from sales you’ve earned from a specific customer.
It allows you to keep track of your store’s best customers, which can help you organize customer loyalty and customer appreciation campaigns.
However, CLV also refers to the amount of revenue you can expect to earn from a single customer.
In this case, you can multiply the amount of revenue you earn from a single customer by average customer lifespan.
Use your average customer lifespan to choose a date range for this formula. For example, if your average customer lifespan is 1.5 years, you should use the amount of revenue you earn from a single customer in a year or expect to earn from them in a year, then multiply that number by 1.5.
Note: Check out our Customer Lifetime Value Calculator.
5. Customer acquisition cost
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the amount of revenue you spend to earn a single customer.
This is an important metric to track as you work to optimize your marketing and advertising campaigns as it’ll help you track the effectiveness of such campaigns.
After all, if you’re spending more on customer acquisition than you earn from sales, you run the risk of operating at a loss.
There are two ways to calculate CAC:
Method 1: customer acquisition cost = marketing expenses divided by number of new customers acquired.
Method 2: customer acquisition cost = (sales expenses + marketing expenses) divided by number of new customers acquired.
The first method allows you to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
The second formula is a more accurate way to calculate customer acquisition because it includes the amount you spend to make sales. Sales expenses include monthly costs for hosting, third-party tools that make sales possible and the average amount you spend to fulfill orders.
Note: Check out our Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator.
6. Customer satisfaction rating
Customer satisfaction rating (CSAT) and net promoter score (NPS) are two metrics you can track to gauge customer loyalty, satisfaction and engagement.
Both are calculated based on simple survey questions.
For your CSAT score, you ask one of these questions: how satisfied are you with (name of online store) or how satisfied are you with your order?
Alternative phrasing: On a scale from 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with (name of online store)?
These are the responses you can list:
- 1 – Extremely dissatisfied
- 2 – Somewhat dissatisfied
- 3 – Neutral
- 4 – Somewhat satisfied
- 5 – Extremely satisfied
Customers should only be able to choose one option. You can also provide an optional textbox your customer can use to give a detailed reasoning for their response.
For NPS, you ask this question: on a scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend (name of online store) to a friend or colleague?
Your customer should only be able to choose one number from 1 to 10.
This metric helps you determine the number of promoters your ecommerce site has versus the number of customers who are likely to damage your brand’s reputation.
7. Customer service metrics for ecommerce businesses
Customer service is an important aspect of managing an ecommerce store. It helps you turn first-time customers and even repeat customers into loyal customers when done properly.
Good customer service also gives you the opportunity to reduce your store’s churn rate.
Your customer service app may have an analytics dashboard you can use to track certain metrics, but these are the metrics we recommend tracking for customer service:
- Number of tickets per day, week and month
- Number of tickets resolved by each customer service representative per day, week and month
- Average satisfaction rating for each representative
- Number of tickets per product
- Number of tickets per customer issue (product defect, account issues, shipping time, quality of packaging, etc.)
8. Repeat customer rate
Repeat customer rate measures the percentage of customers who have made two or more purchases in your store.
Here’s the formula: number of repeat customers divided by total number of customers, multiplied by 100.
Your ecommerce platform may track this metric for you. Check your store’s analytics.
9. Customer retention rate
Customer retention rate measures the percentage of customers who continue buying from your store over a specified period of time.
This is the formula for this metric: (number customers you had at the end of a specified period of time minus new customers acquired during this time period) divided by number of customers you had at the start of the time period), multiplied by 100.
10. Churn rate
Churn rate measures the percentage of customers who stop buying from your store. This makes it the exact opposite from your customer retention rate.
This is the formula for churn rate in ecommerce: (number of repeat customers at the start of a specified period of time minus number of repeat customers at the end of that time period) divided by number of repeat customers at the start of that time period, multiplied by 100.
Note: Check out our Churn Rate Calculator.
11. Cart abandonment rate
Cart abandonment rate measures the percentage of customers who place items into their carts but do not check out.
The formula for this metric is simple: completed purchases divided by number of shopping carts created, multiplied by 100.
Your ecommerce platform’s analytics should include a metric for number of carts created or cart sessions.
If your platform lists metrics for both abandoned carts and number of carts created, use this formula instead: number of abandoned carts divided by number of carts created, multiplied by 100.
12. Checkout abandonment rate
Checkout abandonment rate is measured as the percentage of checkout sessions that do not result in completed orders.
Some ecommerce platforms feature the inverse of this metric in their analytics. In this case, this metric will appear as “checkout conversions,” which measures the percentage of checkout sessions that did result in completed orders.
Shopify has a behavior metric called “reached checkout,” which records the number of sessions in which a user reached the checkout page.
To calculate checkout abandonment in this case, use this formula: number of completed orders divided by checkout sessions, multiplied by 100.
You can also use the number of sessions your checkout page had in place of “checkout sessions.” If your ecommerce platform doesn’t have this metric, check Google Analytics.
13. Return rate
Return rate measures the percentage of orders that result in a return.
It’s a simple formula: number of products returned divided by number of products sold, multiplied by 100.
14. Refund rate
Refund rate measures the percentage of orders that result in a refund.
Not all returns result in a refund, and not all refunds result in a return. Therefore, tracking these metrics separately is useful.
Nevertheless, the formula is just as simple: number of refunded transactions divided by total number of transactions, multiplied by 100.
15. Loyalty program metrics
A customer loyalty program is a fantastic way to keep customers engaged and encourage them to promote your store to friends, family and peers.
We recommend tracking the following metrics to keep an eye on your program’s performance:
- Percentage of customers who are members of your loyalty program
- Percentage of loyalty customer members who complete tasks
- Percentage of loyalty program members who redeem points
16. Coupon redemption rate
This metric measures the percentage of customers who redeem your coupons.
Coupons are used to engage new customers and re engage existing customers who haven’t made purchases in a while.
Here’s the formula to calculate this metric: number of coupons redeemed divided by number of coupons issued, multiplied by 100.
17. Return on investment for marketing campaigns
There will come times when you create marketing campaigns to advertise a specific product, not just your entire store. There will also come times when you create marketing campaigns to advertise your entire store.
In any case, you should always record your return on investment (ROI) for such campaigns so you can optimize the next one and see if you’ve made improvements.
ROI has a simple formula: revenue earned during a campaign divided by marketing expenses accrued during the campaign, multiplied by 100.
Note: Check out our Return On Investment Calculator.
18. Units sold
You should keep track of the number of products your store sells.
Track the total number of products you sell on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
You should also keep track of the number of units you sell by stock keeping unit (SKU).
Tracking units sold by SKU is important because it allows you to keep an eye on product variants that are more popular than others.
19. Top SKUs
Keep track of your best products by tracking products and individual SKUs by number of units sold and total sales.
20. Metrics for shop pages
View your central Shop page as well as your individual product pages in Google Analytics.
Track the following metrics, some of which aren’t based on numbers:
- Number of sessions
- Bounce rate
- Time spent per session
- Traffic source
- Location
- Device
These metrics will help you optimize your main shop pages as well as keep track of your online store’s performance.
Other metrics to track for ecommerce
You can also track the following metrics for your store:
- Website metrics
- Email metrics
- Social media metrics
Website metrics to track for ecommerce
- Users – Website traffic. Measures the number of people who visited your site.
- Sessions – Number of individual browsing sessions. Sessions begin when a user first visits your site and ends after the user leaves or is inactive for 30 minutes.
- New users – Number of users who visited your site for the first time. Keep in mind that returning users who clear their cache will be considered “new users.”
- Bounce rate – The percentage of users who leave your site within 10 seconds or do not engage with elements on your site or visit other pages.
- Session duration – How long a user stays active per session.
- Pages visited per session – The number of pages a user visits per browsing session.
- Traffic source – The page or social media platform that referred a customer to your site. Google Search is an “organic” traffic source.
- Location – Countries where your users are from.
- Device – Devices your users browse your website from.
An analytics tool will help you track these metrics. You can also use a heatmap tool to uncover data on user behavior for your site.
Email metrics to track for ecommerce
- Open Rate – Average percentage of subscribers who open all of your emails, a specific email or a specific type of email.
- Click-through rate – Average percentage of subscribers who click a link in your email.
- Unsubscribe Rate – Percentage of subscribers who unsubscribe from your email list.
Social media metrics to track for ecommerce
- Engagements per post – The number likes, comments, shares and follows you receive from a post in which you promote a product.
- Engagements per post type – The number of engagements you receive for a specific type of post.
What are key performance indicators? (KPIs)
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are ecommerce metrics that give you an idea of the success of your online business as a whole.
There are dozens of KPIs you can track for ecommerce, but some are more important than others.
Conversion rate (CR) is one of the most important KPIs for ecommerce. It helps you understand the percentage of website visitors who go on to make purchases.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is important as well. This metric helps you keep track of the success of your marketing efforts, specifically if you’re spending more on acquiring customers than you’re making from them.
Be sure to keep track of your store’s cart and checkout abandonment rates. You can optimize your prices and checkout experience to help lower these.
Other important KPIs are related to your website, specifically the amount of website traffic you receive, your bounce rate, the number of sessions you receive and your average session duration.
