KPIs are essential for evaluating and optimizing the performance of your online store.
By monitoring the right indicators closely, you can identify levers for improvement and adapt your strategy to maximize your sales.
Let's explore the most relevant KPIs, divided into three categories: acquisition, conversion and loyalty.
A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a measurement used to assess the effectiveness of actions taken to achieve specific objectives.
In the context of e-commerce, KPIs enable you to track the performance of your site, whether you're B2C (business to consumer) or B2B (business to business) oriented.
Tracking KPIs is crucial for a number of reasons. Without them, you're going blind!
Firstly, they enable you to manage your e-commerce site by giving you a clear view of your results.
Secondly, they help you identify high-impact optimization levers, whether for conversion, loyalty or acquisition.
What's more, thanks to specific KPIs, you can better understand your customers' behaviors, such as retention rates or customer lifetime value.
Finally, these indicators enable you to adjust your strategy to maximize your online sales with truly informed decisions.
So, how do you choose the right KPIs? Don't panic, we'll guide you! We'll show you the essential indicators you need to monitor to effectively manage your e-commerce business, according to your context (acquisition, conversion and loyalty).
To analyze the effectiveness of your traffic acquisition, there are several KPIs to consider.
The click-through rate (CTR) is a key indicator for evaluating your marketing campaigns and SEO.
It measures the percentage of people who click on your link in relation to the total number of people who have seen it.
A high CTR indicates that your content is relevant and attractive to your audience.
The bounce rate reveals the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing a single page.
A high bounce rate can indicate problems such as irrelevant content or a poor user experience.
To improve it, make sure your site is intuitive, fast and that the content matches visitors' expectations.
The number of unique visitors helps you analyze the evolution of your audience over time.
By tracking this indicator, you can assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and identify trends in site traffic.
Traffic acquisition sources are essential for understanding where your visitors come from and optimizing your marketing efforts.
Organic traffic (SEO), paid traffic (advertising), social media, e-mail... each channel has its own specificities and effectiveness.
But did you know that your own customers can become a powerful acquisition lever?
Thanks to a referral program, they can recommend your store to their friends and family, generating qualified traffic and increased trust from the very first contact.
👉 Find out how Loyoly can help you boost your acquisition with referral.
The final indicator we recommend for understanding your traffic is the rate of product sheets viewed.
The more product sheets a visitor consults, the more committed they are to their purchase.
A low rate may indicate a lack of appeal on your home pages or categories.
Highlight your best-sellers, improve navigation and enhance your product descriptions to encourage visitors to explore your catalog further.
To understand whether your conversion tunnel is optimized, we've selected 7 KPIs to monitor in order to identify areas for improvement.
The conversion rate in e-commerce is an essential KPI that measures the percentage of visitors who have made a purchase on your site.
To calculate it, divide the number of transactions by the total number of visitors, then multiply by 100.
For example, if your site received 10,000 visitors and made 200 sales, your conversion rate is 2%.
Aiming for a conversion rate of between 2% and 3% is generally considered satisfactory in the industry.
The add-to-cart rate measures the percentage of visitors who add a product to their cart in relation to the total number of visitors.
A high rate suggests that your products and offers are attractive to visitors.
However, your product may be attractive, but the cart abandonment rate may be high... We'll explain this last indicator in detail right after!
The shopping cart abandonment rate indicates the percentage of customers who add products to their shopping cart, but don't complete the purchase.
To calculate it, divide the number of abandoned baskets by the total number of baskets created, then multiply by 100.
A high rate can signal obstacles in the purchasing process, such as high delivery charges or a complex checkout process.
Identifying these friction points is crucial to improving this KPI.
Average time spent on site is an indicator of visitor engagement.
Sufficient time spent on the site can increase the likelihood of purchase.
If visitors leave quickly, this may indicate irrelevant content or difficult navigation.
The average order value (AOV) represents the average amount spent per transaction.
To increase it, consider strategies such as upselling or cross-selling.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) measures the average revenue generated per user over a given period.
This indicator is useful for assessing the profitability of your customer base.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) represents the average amount spent to acquire a new customer.
To calculate it, divide total marketing expenditure by the number of new customers acquired over a given period.
Understanding your CAC is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and ensuring the profitability of your business.
To explore these concepts in greater depth, take a look at our video excerpt from an episode of our podcast, in which the guest discusses some of these e-commerce KPIs.
We mentioned customer acquisition cost (CAC), which is a very important KPI to monitor and optimize, particularly through customer loyalty.
But how do we know if our customers are loyal to our brand?
The following 5 indicators will help you find out.
The retention rate measures the percentage of customers who return to make purchases on your site over a given period.
To calculate it, use the following formula:
[(Number of customers at the end of the period - Number of new customers acquired during the period) / Number of customers at the beginning of the period] x 100.
A high retention rate indicates high customer satisfaction and loyalty.
To learn more about retention rate, you can read our article on this crucial KPI
Pssst... You might find this interesting!
Loyalty programs are strategic for your brand, and we can probably help. Check out our platform!
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) assesses your customers' satisfaction by measuring their willingness to recommend your brand to others.
It is calculated by asking customers, on a scale of 0 to 10, how likely they are to recommend your company. Scores of 9 to 10 are considered promoters, 7 to 8 passive, and 0 to 6 detractors.
Subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to obtain your NPS.
Purchase frequency indicates how many times, on average, a customer makes a purchase over a given period.
A high purchase frequency suggests strong customer commitment.
The attrition rate, or churn rate, measures the percentage of customers who stop buying your products or services over a given period.
A high attrition rate may signal problems with customer satisfaction or product quality.
The relationship between CAC and CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) is crucial to understanding the profitability of your customers.
CLV represents the total value a customer brings to your company over the course of their relationship with you.
An LTV/CAC ratio greater than 1 indicates that the value generated by a customer is greater than the cost of acquiring it.
B2B e-commerce KPIs differ from those of B2C, notably due to a longer sales cycle, a more limited number of transactions, but higher order volumes.
These particularities call for specific indicators to optimize sales performance and profitability.
In B2B, purchasing decisions are often complex, requiring several exchanges before a sale is concluded.
The average sales cycle measures the time elapsed between the first contact with a prospect and the finalization of the order.
The shorter it is, the more efficient your sales process. So how can you optimize it?
The sales proposal success rate is a B2B e-commerce KPI for evaluating the sales force.
It measures the percentage of quotes accepted in relation to proposals sent out.
A high rate means your offer is relevant and well positioned in the market. To improve this rate :
The repeat purchase rate must be monitored to understand customer retention. B2B relies heavily on loyalty and repeat orders.
The repeat purchase rate measures the proportion of customers who place repeat orders over a given period.
A good repeat purchase rate indicates high customer satisfaction and a certain dependence on your offer. To optimize it, we recommend :
Tracking your e-commerce KPIs is essential, but you have to do it properly!
Some common mistakes can distort the analysis and lead to counter-productive decisions.
Here are 4 mistakes to avoid when selecting KPIs.
A KPI without a clear objective is useless.
Before tracking a KPI, ask yourself: what do you want to improve? What is your target?
Example: A conversion rate of 1.5% can be good or bad, depending on your sector.
Setting a target based on benchmarks and your track record is essential.
Having too many KPIs kills KPIs. Focusing on 5 to 10 key indicators is far more effective than tracking 50 metrics without knowing how to interpret them.Tip: classify your KPIs into 3 essential categories:
A global KPI can mask very different realities depending on the type of customer, product or acquisition channel.
For example, an average conversion rate of 2% may hide the fact that new visitors convert at 0.5% and loyal customers convert at 5%.
Segmenting allows you to identify the real opportunities for optimization.
To measure is to understand. Here's a selection of tools to effectively monitor your KPIs and make better decisions.
With these tools, you can automate data collection and analysis to make strategic decisions quickly.
Ignoring them to track loyalty-related KPIs is a strategic mistake!
KPI analysis shouldn't be a one-off affair, but an integral part of your day-to-day management. To do this
Good management of e-commerce KPIs is a powerful lever for maximizing growth and optimizing every stage of the customer journey.
In short, by integrating these indicators into your day-to-day management and using the right tools, you lay the foundations for solid, sustainable growth.
Loyoly can help you optimize your customer retention.
Discover the high value-added loyalty programs we offer our customers.
Loyoly is a loyalty and referral platform combined with UGCs, which helps to engage customers in 40+ ways to increase LTV and social proof, while reducing CAC.
