When it comes to running a successful business, it is important to look further than just total sales and profit. While these reflect how much your business is earning, they don’t exactly represent how successful your business is.

Certain aspects of your business, such as your market reach, brand value, and solid customer base, can better spell whether your business is achieving success or not.

Luckily, there are tons of ways for entrepreneurs to gauge their business success. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable data used to measure and track a business’s progress and performance in relation to a particular goal. 

To give you a better idea, here’s a list of important ecommerce business KPIs you can use to gauge your business’s performance. 

 

Why Track KPIs?

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Before diving into the key performance indicators for ecommerce business, let’s first look into the benefits of tracking KPIs.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are designed to track the progress of a business toward a particular outcome, result, or goal. Depending on your objective, your KPI can determine whether you are on the right track to achieving them or are dealing with poor-performing campaigns.

So why should entrepreneurs diligently track their ecommerce business KPIs?

One of the reasons why measuring KPIs is important is because knowledge of the business performance allows entrepreneurs to manage and adjust whatever needs changing appropriately. 

Precisely measuring your progress based on quantifiable metrics also provides you with an objective perspective regarding the performance of your business. In addition to this, tracking business KPIs provides entrepreneurs with a clear idea of how far or close they are to their goals. 

Another benefit of tracking KPI is it allows you and your team to be on the same page. When everyone on the team knows about your business KPI, they know the business’s current position and understand what it needs to achieve its objective. 

Tracking KPIs encourages teamwork, as everyone on the team works toward the same goal.

It is also essential when it comes to business decision-making and planning. Having a good understanding of your business’s overall performance allows you to make quick rational, and objective decisions based on facts and statistics. 

KPIs allow business owners to see each of their campaign’s performance, giving them the opportunity to detect problems and address them quickly. Data from the key performance indicators can help determine a campaign’s efficiency and cost-effectiveness, which can be crucial when it comes to resource spending and allocation. 

 

8 Important Key Performance Indicators For Ecommerce Business Growth

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Customer acquisition cost

Acquiring customers is a primary goal of any business. However, that doesn’t mean that they should spend every penny they have to get all the customers in their target market. 

The customer acquisition cost (CAC) is a key performance indicator that shows how much your business spends in order to get a new customer. Generally, the CAC is measured in comparison to the customer lifetime value (CLV). 

The objective is to have a CAC lower than the CLV. Otherwise, you are spending too much on customer acquisition without receiving enough in return.

 

Customer Lifetime Value

The customer lifetime value (CLV) is another important business metric that is used to gauge the quality of your customer relationships. The CLV shows the average amount an individual customer is likely to spend on your ecommerce store based on the length of their relationship with your brand.Generally, your business tends to be more stable the higher the overall CLV is, as it represents your brand’s loyal customer base. In order to do so, consider increasing your efforts on customer retention as well as paying close attention to high-value customers.

 

Average Order Value

The average order value (AOV) refers to the average value of the total number of orders made on your ecommerce website. While the AOV is a metric that involves computing the total sales, this key performance indicator focuses on learning about the customer’s purchasing habits. 

The average order value is computed by dividing the total revenue by the number of orders within a particular time period. It shows how much customers tend to spend on your website and predicts their long-term value. 

With the average order value, business owners can better interpret and evaluate their efforts toward acquiring customers in relation to revenue. Business owners can adjust their marketing spending and make necessary changes to their pricing to increase their business’s AOV.

 

Refund and Return rate

The refund and return rate is a KPI designed to measure the performance of your website in terms of providing accurate product information. 

Product returns and refunds often occur when a customer is unsatisfied with an item they purchased. But for this to happen, they should be enticed to buy the product in the first place. 

A high return and refund rate means that your product page is effective in encouraging potential customers to buy from your online store, but your products don’t meet the expectations set by your website. Asking for feedback from customers who requested for return/refund can help you find the issue that led to the customer’s disappointing experience.

 

Return on Ad Spend

The return on ad spend (ROAS) is a key performance indicator focused on the company’s marketing campaigns. The ROAS represents the total revenue generated for every dollar spent on marketing.

It is a simple metric that shows the costs of advertising and how much money comes back from each campaign. The ROAS can help business owners evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of their marketing strategies.

 

Page Views Per Visit

The page views per visit metric show the average number of web pages a visitor goes through when coming to your ecommerce website. The general rule of thumb is the higher the average, the more engaging your site is.

However, the page views per visit count can also mean that your ecommerce website’s navigation is not well optimized. Thus, making it difficult for visitors to find what they are looking for easily. 

To help distinguish between the two, online business owners can use heat mapping tools for more detailed information about their website visits.

 

Bounce Rate

Your ecommerce website’s bounce rate is another key performance indicator that shows the percentage of visitors that immediately leave your site after viewing one page. A high bounce rate can mean a ton of things regarding your website’s performance. It can be caused by slow-loading pages, unengaging content, poor website UI and UX design, or other technical issues.

 

Social Media Subscription and Engagement

Social media is another powerful digital channel used in online marketing. Considering this, online businesses can also use their social media scores as a key performance indicator. 

One of the most common factors looked into when it comes to social media is the total number of followers or subscribers. This shows the people who are particularly interested in your brand and content. They are also committed to knowing what else you have to offer in the future. 

Aside from the follower count, social media is also one of the most accessible channels for customer engagement. Take a look into the quality of interaction you and your customers make online. The more engaged they are, the more valuable, visible, and relevant your brand becomes.

 

Bottomline

For the most part, starting a business is the easiest step in every entrepreneur’s journey. The most challenging part revolves around planning how to keep your business running and earning for the long run. 

Tracking key performance indicators can help business owners manage and operate their businesses better. They can have a better understanding and a clear objective perspective on their performance, allowing them to make changes and adjustments as needed.

 

Want to know more about running a successful ecommerce business? Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company, and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Get a free ebook and learn more about how we can help you by signing up for our newsletter. We also offer a free 30-minute consultation if you prefer something more personal.

 

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