Top eCommerce KPIs

1. eCommerce eBook
Top eCommerce KPIs
Every online business process is characterised by 4 main phases: reaching qualified
prospects, engaging with them on site, converting their actions into sales/call to action, and
thus offering those services ensuring their brand loyalty.
Each phase has to be monitored analysing the historical (4-week, 3-month Moving Average
and %Y-on-Y) trend of bespoke KPIs.
Successful eCommerce websites use some variation of the following metrics to convert a
visitor:
websites use some variation of the following metrics to convert a visitor:
Repeat
REACH
ENGAGE
Landing Page
Targeting & ACTIVATE
Effectiveness
Acquisition
LOYALTY
Modifying & Testing Hypothesis
1. REACH
All eCommerce websites have as main goal to reach qualified prospects. Following the well-
known Pareto rule, roughly 80% of the outcomes come from 20% of the prospects – the
qualified ones. Technically speaking, segmentation process can be very complicated, thus
it's best to use advanced analytic tools. Luckily, most web analytics software currently
include in their offer the use of behavioural segmentation variables which facilitate the
monitoring of product usage rate, brand royalty, benefit sought, decision making units,
ready-to-buy stage, and so on. The best KPIs to monitor at this stage are:
KPIs Calculation Definition Reason
Visits to Purchase by Total visits by AS Shows the best traffic Manage MKT campaigns to
Acquisition Sources leading to a purchase sources in terms of focus on sources producing
on Total Visits by AS likelihood of converting the higher outcome
1 ©Creative Digital Ideas 2010-11

2. eCommerce eBook
Cost per referrer Total MKT cost per Shows the best traffic in Manage MKT campaigns to
Visits referring source/Total terms of cost per visit focus on sources producing
number of visits per the lower associated cost
referring source per visits
Visits to Purchase by Total visits by Kw Shows combination of Manage SEM campaigns to
Keywords/Key leading to a purchase keywords (both focus on Keywords
phrases on Total Visits by Kw considering the quality and combinations producing the
the quantity) in terms of higher outcome
likelihood of converting
2. ENGAGE
In eCommerce the term engage mainly refers to a set of measurements of the activities a
customer performs whilst interacting with the onsite marketing features. Typical old school
KPIs were: 1) Click-Depth: defined as the number of clicks your customers completes
whilst searching onsite, and; 2) Duration: usually defined as the average time spent
onsite. Whilst these KPIs are still valid, more sophisticate measurements have been
developed for describing how your qualified prospects engage with your site.
The starting point is the landing page which represents the first page a visitor encounters
after a successful search. Few eCommerce sites still consider as a landing page their Home
page. Whilst this may still be true for users who bookmark your site URL in their browser or
use your brand name as a search keyword, the majority of your visitors will experience your
site thought your product page, and so you should use this as a landing page.
The landing page must contain a call to action, leading the prospect visitor into the
beginning of the buying funnel.
To measure the effectiveness of individual landing pages, various calls to action, and
landing page designs, we need to monitor the following KPIs:
KPIs Calculation Definition Reason
Landing Page Bounce Total visits to LP by Shows the lost opportunity Manage MKT campaigns to
Rate by AS AS viewing just one focus on sources producing
page on Total number the higher depth of visits
of visit to LP by AS
Shopping Cart Total number of Shows the funnel drop-off Show shopping cart room
Abandonment rate by purchase by AS on by AS for improvement both by
AS Total visits to AS and Total
2 ©Creative Digital Ideas 2010-11

3. eCommerce eBook
shopping cart by AS
Scoring Customer Visits from high score Show the effectiveness in Manage MKT effort in
Segment ratios customers as attracting high score attracting engage
proportion of visit customers (likelihood of customers, likely to be
from low score buying the product in the product CONNECTORS &
customers next 3 days, sharing info, CHAMPION
…)
Task completed Rate Total number of Shows the effectiveness of For design purpose, help in
complete task on call to action features (my identify unnecessary call to
Total visits lending basket, shipping costs, …) action
page
3. CONVERT
Conversion is the most important action in an eCommerce website, and occurs when a
prospect finally becomes a client.
The most important KPIs that we need to monitor are:
KPIs Calculation Definition Reason
Conversion Rate Total confirmed Shows the percentage of Revenues.
conversion on Total landing page visits that
Landing Page Visits ends with a sales
Cost per acquisition Total MKT costs on Shows the cost of Used for determining the
number of sales delivering one sales most effective source of
traffic.
Average Order Value Sum of revenue Show the value generated Usually this KPI is to be
generated on Number per unit sold segmented by type of
of Orders Taken buyers and helps focusing
on the high revenue group.
Days and visits to Number of days/visits Show how long it takes for When segmented by AS, it
purchase before an action a prospect to become a adds insights on the most
client. effective AS.
The second area in this stage is cross selling. Any visitor, who decides to buy one item, is
receptive to buying multiple items. Once the initial questions are answered and trust
3 ©Creative Digital Ideas 2010-11

4. eCommerce eBook
established, the process of cross selling is many times simply the effort it takes to suggest it
to the consumer.
4. LOYALTY
The eCommerce cycle doesn’t end with the purchase. After a product or service has been
successfully delivered, a series of services are offered to the customer to ensure their
stickiness with the brand.
As such, the KPIs that need to be taken into account are:
KPIs Calculation Definition Reason
Visitor Number of time a Shows the likelihood of It gives us insight into
Loyalty/Recency visitor visits your visitors to stick to your whether visitors have a
website in a given brand. reason to come back
timeframe
My Account usage Total number of visit Show the likelihood of Used to contained Call
to My Account section clients in using My Member Centre costs.
on Total Visits help.
My Account CTR Clicks to services on Show the effectiveness of Used to contained Call
Total visits to My My member content. Centre costs.
Account Personalisation.
Email Open Rate Total number of email Show the likelihood of an Improve upselling
opened on Total email being read by your capabilities,
number of email customer. Personalisation.
received
Email CTR Clicks to services on Show how effective the Personalisation, Upselling,
Total email opened email’s content is. repeat buying.
4 ©Creative Digital Ideas 2010-11