What leads to success? The question which has a variety of possible answers and causes a number of disputes. There is one simple truth that considers success as a science and if you have the conditions, you get the result. The driving force appears to be a tolerant mistake correction and arriving at some conclusions that can turn all the efforts into right direction.
There is no difference whether you are a newbie on e-Commerce path or a retailer that just changed his solution, every e-merchant faces the dilemma of the store optimization methods wishing to make the shop money-making and prosperous. Online business has its own factors which help such businessmen to perform a control of their stores’ profitability and popularity. The main measurements used for watching a real panorama of the progress are Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). However, first of all, the company has to define and establish its strategic and operational goals. Only after that there is a chance to choose the controls for the results check. So, what are the most popular KPI’s that retailers use to meet their aims? Actually, they have a classification which includes more than 10 subdivisions, each depending on the areas they examine. Key Performance Indicators attach sales, marketing, SEO, finances, social media and even healthcare. Let’s have a look at the KPI’s which are considered to be the most used among the global e-merchant community.
1. Conversion rates. Do you tend to turn more visitors into your customers? Then it will be exciting for you to know how to calculate the conversion rates. E-merchants have a possibility to calculate the level of store conversion in the multitude ways. The most common ones are the rates of orders, buyers, checkouts and carts. Use the analytics or A/B testing for elements comparison and find out whether your landing pages are optimized, content placed right and traffic intends to increase. According to the results you get, you are able to make a conclusion and put right the wrongs.
2. Exit Pages. Are the visitors leaving your site really quickly? Correct the situation immediately! Find out when exactly and the reasons why the customers don’t want to stay at your store’s site and simply close the page. Hmm..Who likes a long registration process? Who wants to wait more than 30 seconds till the page is loaded? Or, maybe, the shipping price is too high? Take into the consideration all possible factors and make your visitors not to leave the website too early.
3. Average order value. This measurement helps to define the average value of the order that was processed by your team. This is the most commonly used KPI among all e-Commerce sites as it describes the cash flow to the business and defines the level of store profit. What is the purpose of your AOV? It consist of one target: increase the purchase rate with the same traffic amount. Is it clear? Then to the point!
4. Social interactions. 1,4 billion people all over the world are Facebook users and hard to presume the general number of social network members which is really high. What does it mean for you, dear e-merchant? Likes, shares, posts to the world about your store! Therefore, of course, the importance of interaction with social networks is highly important as it helps to encourage more and more customers to visit your site. Make sure users have a possibility to like and share your products via social networks and increase the traffic easily.
5. Site Traffic. How many people visit your online shop? To measure the number of your web store traffic for an exact period of time (day, week, month) you need to use this kind of KPI. There are four important stats that may estimate it and help to indicate the glades:
- Unique website visitors;
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) from conversions;
- Conversions per site visit;
- Conversion by source.
Pay attention that it is important to differentiate the types of traffic for further analysis and taking action. It is divided into:
- direct - when the customers type store’s URL into their browser;
- organic - the store has been found with the help of searching engine;
- referral - your online shop has been entered through the link placed on another website;
- campaign - the clients visit your store through the dedicated campaigns or by clicking on link with tracking settings.
So, you should check a variety of traffic rated to reset the goals and develop the strategies for their achievement.
6. Visit value. This KPI is estimated with ratio of revenue with visits or sessions to your store. It helps you to see the situation with content and traffic statistics. When the rates are not satisfactory, then be ready to check store’s loading speed, keywords used and campaigns for the traffic optimization.
7. Net profit. How effective is your business at generating profit? Examine net profit and the rates you get will lead you to the long- and short-term financial plans. What is important, there will appear an advantage of transparent visibility what prices should be set to begin the war against your opponents.
8. Return rate. Compare the quantity of new visitors with those who return to your webstore. Are you trying to make your customers return for shopping? And you have to. Obvious that it is easier to return the client that to get new one and webstore owners have to provide positive shopping experience to increase the rates of this KPI.
9. Back order rate. It is the reflection of the order quantity that cannot be filled at the time customer places them. If back order rate is high, then you need to explore and correct the matters that influence on slow purchase delivery.
10. Customer Satisfaction. Don’t make your clients angry! This KPI is directly connected with the previous one and is a hand of help in finding out the rates of satisfaction with the products and services you offer. If the rates are low or decreasing, then there is more opportunities for the opponents to sidestep you.
Even spending 10 minutes per day advancing Key Performance Indicators will surely direct you to improve your business and put it right. Have the world by the tail!
March 29, 2024 
