Key metrics demystified

When running an online store, there’s no shortage of metrics to keep track of. We suggest drawing your primary insights from a handful of carefully selected metrics, which can provide a useful snapshot of your online store. This, in turn, can help to highlight the areas where you’re kicking goals, and the areas that could use some improvement.

Shopping cart abandonment rate

This one is pretty straightforward: it describes the potential customer who begins the check-out process for an online order, but fails to complete the purchase for some reason. Research indicates that the cart abandonment rate fluctuates between approximately 60% and 80% worldwide—and this figure is even higher for mobile.

Common reasons prospective customers abandon a transaction include additional costs (such as shipping and customs), being forced to create an account, slow load times, and clunky forms. If you notice your abandonment rate creeping up, it might be time to revisit your checkout process and make it smoother.

Average order value

Knowing your company’s average order value gives you the metrics needed to assess the long-term value of individual customers—which helps to evaluate your overall online marketing efforts and pricing strategy.

Sales conversion rate

It’s important to talk with your agency (and/or to undertake your own research) on the industry benchmark for your vertical, both locally and globally, and to compare your statistics.

Revenue by traffic source

Knowing which channel(s) are bringing in revenue is vital in allocating your marketing budget—and identifying potential areas of development or growth.

Revenue by device

Both mobile and desktop website experiences are key considerations, of course; but the device metric is worth keeping an eye on as it can help you determine whether to focus your efforts on a particular experience.

Exit pages

The exit page of a website refers to the last page viewed by a user before they leave the site (or before the session ends). Keeping track of common exit pages provides an opportunity to optimise them, helping to retain visitors and boost conversion rates.

Bounce rate

As its name suggests, a website’s bounce rate is the percentage of all sessions that bounced—that is, the percentage of visitors who visit a site, but leave without taking an action (such as completing a purchase, clicking another link, or viewing a product). If a webpage is intended to drive traffic to other parts of the site, then a high bounce rate—above 70%—may indicate an opportunity for improvement to prevent visitors from leaving.

These are just a small slice of the metrics available for online stores. To chat about other ways to boost sales, or if you’d like to go deeper into the data, drop us a line