10 e-commerce KPIs to track 👀

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are an essential part of any effective e-commerce strategy. Not sure what they are? Then read on! E-commerce KPIs give you trustworthy statistics and figures you can use to build your strategy and drive your online sales. Discover the 10 e-commerce KPIs to track. But first, make sure you know what they are! 👀

What is an e-commerce KPI?

KPIs means Key Performance Indicators. These highlight your e-commerce website’s strengths and weaknesses.

Without them, it would be hard to measure exactly how your online presence is developing. Fortunately, KPIs give you useful information like the total number of orders last month on your site, or the reasons behind a sudden increase in traffic.

To choose the right performance indicators, you should pinpoint:

Your commercial goals
Your client profile (persona)
Consumer expectations

All clear? Then here are the 10 e-commerce KPIs to track! 👀

10 e-commerce KPIs to analyse if you want to boost your online sales

1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

We’ve put Customer Satisfaction Score first because this is the top KPI used by marketing teams. Measuring client satisfaction is generally produced via a question, “What did you think of your experience?”, with clients giving a mark out of 5.

This e-commerce KPI tells you how a client feels just after interacting with customer services. It shows you anywhere your process isn’t working and why clients are unhappy. You can then solve any problems to improve overall client satisfaction with your brand.

2. Conversion Rate

The Conversion Rate is the percentage of users who do the thing you want them to. For example, it could be the click-through rate for a landing page, or the conversion rate for your online store, or newsletter subscriber numbers.

This e-commerce KPI is handy as it tells you how engaged your users are with your website. When you launch your e-commerce site, you don’t just want to attract people to it: you also, and above all, want to convert them into clients!

To calculate your e-commerce website’s Conversion Rate, divide the number of sessions ending in a transaction by the total number of sessions.

Good to know: In 2021, the average Conversion Rate was 2.96% in the e-commerce sector.

3. Average Order Value

How much does your website make on an order?

To answer, you need to know the Average Order Value, which is the average spend for an order on your website.

It’s one of the most important e-commerce metrics to track as it can help you work out your commercial goals. With this information, you’ll be able to better understand clients’ buying habits and introduce loyalty-building strategies.

4. Net Profit

Net Profit is often neglected as an e-commerce KPI to track. But it’s actually a key indicator for assessing your online store’s financial health.

It tells you how much money you can put back into marketing, client experience and buying backlinks (which takes people from another site to a page on your website), and also shows if your business is viable, money-making and prosperous.

It’s important to evaluate the impact of any changes (such as a new delivery method, an e-commerce website translation, or special offers) on your turnover. These can all lead to conversions, but can also negatively affect your Net Profit. So, make sure to carefully track your Net Profit and profit margin whenever you modify your website.

5. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost means the amount a business spends to gain a new client. It’s becoming easier and easier to analyse your company’s marketing campaigns thanks to interconnected tools such as social media, SEO and SEA.

But it does cost money!

You can use this e-commerce KPI to acquire clients while keeping control of your budget. You can also regularly assess how cost-effective your business is with the aim of focusing on more profitable investments.

To calculate the CAC, divide the amount you spend to acquire new clients over a certain period by the number of clients you acquire in the same period.

6. Cost of Sales

Cost of Sales is key for anyone in e-commerce. Sometimes known as Cost of Goods Sold, this data point is about the cost of producing what you sell. In other words, it’s the cost of acquiring products (materials and labour).

7. Return on Ad Spend

Return on Ad Spend measures how effective a marketing campaign is. You can use it to determine if your advertising investment has been worth it.

We suggest you look at this KPI halfway through and at the end of a campaign.

To measure Return on Ad Spend, divide your total sales by the total amount you’ve spent on advertising.

8. E-commerce Cart Abandonment Rate

Cart Abandonment Rate means the number of people who visit your site and add products to their bag, but never actually make the purchase!

Track this KPI to learn more about how difficult your payment process is. If your Cart Abandonment Rate is high, your clients may be unhappy with your delivery charges or payment options.

Whatever the reason, you’ll know something is going wrong when clients are about to buy. This means you can come up with solutions. For example, you could offer more payment options such as PayPal or three interest-free instalments.

To calculate your Cart Abandonment percentage, divide your store’s number of sales by the number of carts loaded and multiply the result by 100.

Have a high e-commerce Cart Abandonment Rate? Don’t worry: the average Cart Abandonment Rate is estimated to be around 69.82% by Baymard Institute.

9. Product Performance

Our next KPI is Product Performance.

Online traders can use this indicator to find out which products are most popular based on how many sell and how much income is generated. You can also work out how a category is performing.

And if you sell your products through retailers (such as Amazon), you can check how your products are performing on these marketplaces too.

10. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Finally, we come to Customer Lifetime Value, which we just had to include. This e-commerce metric is the amount the client spends at your store for as long as they’re a customer. The CLV includes various elements:

Average Order Value
Number of repeat sales
Client lifetime

You can use these three figures to calculate how viable your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is. If the Customer Lifetime Value is higher than the CAC, the relationship with the client is “profitable”. 81% of marketers say that tracking CLV boosts sales, according to a Criteo survey.