Brand managers are painfully aware of how important KPIs for e-commerce businesses are. You’re likely collecting dozens of different measurements and monitoring them carefully from day to day and month to month. How you track those KPI for product pages has a huge impact on revenue. That’s hardly a revelation for anyone involved in e-commerce.
Brand marketing is a science, a perfect blend of measuring the right analytics and interpreting them accurately. While that may sound obvious, we find in our business that many managers aren’t reading or tracking their KPIs correctly. Measuring experience is a practiced science. Here are some practices to make sure that the KPI for e-commerce business metrics you’re tracking will work better for you.
Your Top KPIs for E-Commerce Business Success
1. Page Load Speeds
According to a 2015 report from digital SEO marketing firm Wolfgang Digital, fast load time leads directly to high conversion rates. It also has a direct and correlative impact on Google search results. Per their data, an additional delay of one second reduces conversion rates by 7 percent. So pay close attention to your product page load speeds, especially for items that aren’t hitting your forecast ROI numbers.
2. Desktop VS. Mobile
While there is quite a lot of hype around the traffic generated by mobile, the conversion numbers still aren’t quite there. Adobe analyzes 80 percent of all retail traffic from the top 100 retailers in the U.S. every year. Their data is vast, encompassing 290 plus billion visits. Because of the company’s massive infrastructure, $7.50 of every $10 spent with the top 500 retailers goes through its marketing cloud. When it comes to mobile, 26 percent of carts on desktops turn into orders compared to only 16 percent on smartphones. However, smartphone traffic is increasing, according to that same report. So, bottom line: balance your focus on mobile platforms vs. desktop accordingly. Read the full report here.
3. Product Page Visits
Measuring the best KPIs for product pages starts with a ranking of your most viewed to least viewed. This is maybe the single most important metric to track for your product pages. What if, for example, the most viewed pages are not generating the most revenue? What is the average ROI for the pages that you spend the most resources promoting? Generate a dynamic report for your product page visits so you can watch trends, especially during big buying seasons.
4. Returning Visitors
The 80/20 rule applies to almost every aspect of a business. For retailers determining how to leverage important KPIs for e-commerce, assume that 20 percent of your loyal customers will generate 80 percent of your revenue. How many of your overall page views are from returning customers? What do those returning customers do on the site? How does that relate to your sales forecasts? Just like restaurants get the most reliable business from their regulars, so do e-commerce sites.
5. Cart Abandonment Rate
If there’s one KPI for e-commerce businesses that needs its own weekly report, it’s how many customers purchase items that they place in their carts. The Baymard Institute went through the effort of collecting abandonment rate statistics from 37 different sources. In 2013, Comscore cited that 67 percent of shoppers abandon their carts. In 2017, Adobe listed the number at 75 percent. Your homework knows the average in your industry and constantly dive into those numbers so you know how your business compares.
Delving into KPIs for e-commerce is as time-consuming as it is crucial. Tracking the right metrics is akin to a doctor washing his or her hands before surgery: it’s good business hygiene. Of course, it’s not easy, and most teams need third party support to do it right. Let us know how we can help.
