“You can't improve what you can't measure,” so the saying goes. That’s why we have key performance indicators (KPIs). They are essential for any retailer because they help measure progress, and therefore help achieve goals. But selecting the right KPIs is equally important for online retailers. So how do you select the right KPIs?
You should start by setting clear goals for your company and identifying the areas of business that will affect those goals. When you use your company’s goals as a guideline, it will be much easier to determine the right KPIs that drive your business. For example:
Undoubtedly, each retailer’s KPIs will differ, so to inspire you we’ve listed the most common KPIs used in e-commerce below.
- Conversion rate
- Cost of goods sold
- Shopping cart abandonment rate
- Average order size
- Sales (hourly, daily, monthly, annual, etc.)
- Content appreciation (the number of ‘likes’ per post)
- Content amplification (the number of shares per post)
- Sentiment (the type of opinion or sentiment expressed towards your post - this is usually done through social media tools such as Radian6)
- Conversational exchange (the number of comments per post)
- Number of fans on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Unique visitors vs. returning visitors
- Blog traffic
- Page views per visit
- Site traffic
- Newsletter subscribers
- Customer service email count
- Customer service phone call count
- Customer service chat count
- Average resolution time
- Concern classification
- Pages per visit
- Number of users per issue
- Percentage of new users per issue
- Most popular spreads
- Top exit spreads
- Number of clicks on buttons
- Number of clipping shares
(For more information on these seven KPIs, have a look at one of our previous posts, ‘7 metrics to measure publication success’.)
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