KPI eCommerce: what are the most important indicators?

KPI eCommerce: what are the most important indicators?

To monitor an online business it is not enough to observe the number of sales, but it is necessary to rely on useful parameters to establish if the strategy used works and if they give room for growth.

To observe the progress of a web project it is essential to monitor the KPIs, i.e. the Key Performance Indicators.

These indicators are useful for understanding if an online sales business is bringing profits, customer satisfaction and in what way. An eCommerce will have its own KPIs based on specific needs, in fact we will see that there are many.

What are KPIs?

The performance indicators, indicated precisely with the acronym KPI, are numerical and quantifiable parameters, which consist of useful data to measure the performance of an eCommerce activity according to pre-established objectives. They are generally used for any type of business and vary according to the type of business. By collecting these parameters, marketing strategies are then planned.

 

Why use KPIs?

KPIs allow you to evaluate your company, as well as the sustainability of your business model.

 

An online store generates a lot of data, but not all of them are essential: a lot depends on the target market, the segment, the size of your company and the intended results. For this, it is necessary to define the reference KPIs useful for achieving the objectives.

 

The first performance indicators concern the performance of your e-shop and its visibility . If you want people to buy from your eCommerce, they need to be able to find it. You can use specific measurement tools to access this data:

 

traffic and  number of unique visitors;

the time your customers spend on a particular page;

the bounce rate .

Which KPIs to choose for an eCommerce?

If we had to analyze and take into consideration all the existing performance indicators we could stay here for weeks or months, considering that they exist in practically infinite quantities and every day different ones are born to meet the new needs of the activities.

 

But there are certain KPIs that are useful for evaluating the performance of an online shop which cannot be ignored. Let's see the main ones.

 

Number of sales and average cart

The first parameter indicates the number of sales in a certain period of time, while the second is useful for identifying the average value of each transaction, which is obtained by dividing the total revenue by the number of orders placed in a certain period of time.

 

Conversion rate

This is one of the most popular KPIs. The conversion rate, not surprisingly, is very useful for determining the effectiveness of an online sales activity, indicating the conversion rate.

 

To calculate the percentage, simply divide the number of actual customers by the number of visitors, multiplying by one hundred.

 

ROI

Acronym for Return On Investment, it is the rate of return on total investments. This means that the ROI indicates how profitable a given investment is or not.

 

The ROI calculation is obtained by dividing the operating income by the invested capital.

 

Cart abandonment rate

All eCommerce managers have to deal punctually with the abandonment of items in the cart. In any case, this behavior is an indication of interest on the part of the user, who, for some reason, has decided not to terminate or postpone the purchase.

 

If the dropout rate is high, it will be necessary to intervene to understand the causes.

 

KPIs to measure User Experience (UX)

Some KPIs are used to identify interactions with their customers and to know their preferences and purchasing habits, in order to give the best experience. UX indicators are more complicated to identify as they correspond to qualitative data, which will then be transformed into numbers for analysis.

 

These KPIs are divided into behavioral and attitudinal

 

Behavioral KPIs

These indicators express how a user interacts with a product or website through:

 

Task success rate : Task success rate is the percentage of tasks successfully completed by users. This is probably the most used performance metric that reflects how effectively customers are able to complete certain tasks.

Time on task : This metric measures the average time it takes a user to complete a task, expressed in minutes and seconds. The lower the figure, the better the user experience will be even if there are exceptions based on the objectives. For example, if the intention is to keep the user more engaged, such as staying on the Facebook news feed, longer uptime might be better.

Use of search vs. navigation : this is a useful metric for evaluating the efficiency of the architecture and navigation of your website, providing data on the number of users who use the search bar. Generally, this indicates a navigation difficulty.

User error rate : This metric is useful for detecting any errors during navigation, providing an idea of ​​how easy your website is to use. The higher the score, the greater the number of usability problems.

Attitudinal KPIs

Key attitudinal indicators are generally more difficult to collect, but equally valuable in customer buying behavior analysis as they quantify lifetime value, retention and loyalty.

 

CSAT, Customer Satisfaction Score . This parameter measures customer satisfaction and is part of those best practices that aim to increase the number of customers who repeat their purchases.

NPS, NET Promoter Score. It measures customer loyalty in response to a direct question that is usually asked in these terms: "How likely is it that you would recommend this company / product / service / experience to a friend, relative or colleague?"

SUPR-Q. This is a questionnaire consisting of eight elements useful for measuring the quality of the user experience on the website.