eCommerce KPIs: 20 Most Important eCommerce Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) & Metrics to Track for Measuring Business Performance in 2024

eCommerce retail as an industry is subject to a larger number of variables than conventional retail due to all the different factors and processes that need to be monitored and successfully implemented. In order for businesses to be successful in the hyper-competitive space of online selling, they need to consistently keep an eye on certain metrics that will help give them detailed insights into their performance regarding sales figures, profit margins and more. By doing this, they will be able to ascertain which components of their business are doing well and which aren’t and necessary changes can be made in order to streamline the ones that are lagging behind or causing a disruption to their overall achievements.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used across various industries and businesses to help achieve this. In this blog, we will take a detailed look at what eCommerce KPIs are, why they are important, the characteristics that form successful KPIs and the 10 top eCommerce KPIs for online retailers to track.

What are eCommerce KPIs?

Key performance indicators, abbreviated as KPIs, are trackable metrics that provide detailed insights to businesses about their real-world performance in relation to their predetermined goals and estimations. Because of the competitive nature of online retail, eCommerce KPIs are necessary for businesses to be able to gauge where they stand compared to their own objectives and those of their competitors. This enables them to understand which aspects of their business processes are successful and which aren’t, which allows them to make relevant changes and adopt well-performing strategies on a broader scale.

Suggested Read: What are Inventory Management KPIs?

Importance of eCommerce KPIs to Online Companies

Identifies Areas That Require Improvement

eCommerce KPIs measure important aspects of a company’s eCommerce operations and hence, is able to identify areas where performance is lacking compared to prior estimations. For instance, perhaps the rate of order fulfillment has stagnated in relation to the anticipated rate, sales numbers are lower compared to initial projections or operational costs are higher than previous estimations. These sub-par results can easily be identified by analysing the eCommerce KPIs that a business uses to track its performance. 

Provides Detailed Insights Into Business Performance

The entire goal of tracking eCommerce KPIs is so that online businesses can get a better idea of where they stand in relation to their goals and the performance of their competitors. Identifying important information such as which products have the highest demand, which products are generating the highest profit margins, which products are incurring a loss and more, can help businesses focus on what is making them money and eliminate what is resulting in wasted time and resources. 

Streamlines eCommerce Processes

Because businesses are able to keep track of important metrics by analysing eCommerce KPIs, they are able to streamline processes across the board, including order fulfillment, and customer support and adjust their marketing budget, among others. This ensures that every process is operating at their highest and most efficient capacity which will ultimately make the business more profitable.

Pinpoints Recurring Trends

Many eCommerce KPIs involve the inspection of historical data for similar events or seasons during prior years to help estimate budgets and sales objectives. This can help companies identify where they stand in comparison to similar circumstances during previous years and can provide insight as to whether they are on the right track by observing whether they have grown, maintained similar numbers or stagnated during the current financial period.

Improves the Overall Success of the Business

Since eCommerce KPIs enable retailers to improve their operations and adjust their objectives according to their actual performance, it helps them to adopt practices that make them more successful and eradicate practices that are wasting time and resources and resulting in a negative outcome. By analysing the results of tracking the top eCommerce KPIs, firms can make well-informed decisions and ensure that they do not stray away from financial prosperity.

Tips to Choose the Top KPIs & Metrics for Your eCommerce Business

Determine Your Business Objectives

Retailers need to identify their business objectives before shortlisting eCommerce KPIs so that they will not know what their desired outcomes are. KPIs relay information but their value is limited if the information provided is out of context and cannot be compared to a set of predetermined goals. To maximise the value of KPIs, eCommerce businesses need to understand what metrics they need to be measured.

Select Easily-Measurable KPIs

Not all eCommerce KPIs are created equal and some can be more easily measured than others. Retailers need to choose KPIs that can be easily quantified and provide trackable insights with a numerical value. This will enable firms to concisely monitor and analyse the information that is provided to them so that they can come up with accurate conclusions.

Identify the Growth Stage of Your Company

eCommerce consists of a wide variety of companies from small homegrown startups to large multinational conglomerates. Every business requires different KPIs that are tailored to its specific requirements, based on the growth stage that they are in. Bigger companies may need to place more emphasis on tracking sales numbers while smaller firms might gain more importance from tracking profit margins so they can stay afloat.

Choose KPIs That Showcase Desired Information

As mentioned above, eCommerce companies that operate in the same sector can be at many different stages of development so it is important to use eCommerce KPIs that provide the necessary information at a glance so that they can use it to further the growth of their company. Not all KPIs will be useful for all companies so it is important for businesses to identify the relevant ones to them.

Opt for Quality Over Quantity

It usually isn’t a good idea to clutter your analysis with eCommerce KPIs that don’t provide any valuable insights into your business performance. While it is good to have all aspects covered, not all information is necessary to track for all businesses, especially for small and medium-sized businesses that only need to keep an eye on a few vital KPIs.

20 Best eCommerce KPIs & Metrics to Measure Business Success in 2024

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is one of the top eCommerce KPIs to measure. It refers to the total number of people that ended up purchasing a product from your website or online listing after visiting after browsing a single or multiple pages, subscribing to a newsletter or online service and much more. It implies that a user has been “converted” from a prospect to a customer by taking the necessary actions that a retailer wanted them to. It provides insights as to how fruitful your website is at coaxing customers into making a purchase.

A high conversion rates signifies an efficient website and marketing strategy whereas a low conversion rate signifies that users aren’t interested in the products because of the way it is displayed, described or some other reason. The average conversion rate of eCommerce businesses is between 2.89% to 3.31% and a conversion rate of 5% and up is considered good.

Formula: Conversion Rate = (Number of Conversions ÷ Number of Leads) x 100

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value refers to the average net profit that a customer spends at a business during the span of their association. It is one of the eCommerce KPIs that is used to measure the ROI of a company and can help with framing future objectives and strategies. It also helps businesses increase their efforts to appeal to existing customers since they have already shown that they are willing and capable of purchasing their products. By providing customers with a seamless experience during their first encounter, the profit margins of retailers can skyrocket if those same customers return multiple times for repeat purchases. 

Formula: Customer Lifetime Value = Average Order Value x Average Number of Times a Customer Buys Per Year x Average Customer Retention Period in Months or Years

Customer Retention Rate

Research estimates that just a 5% increase in customer retention can result in a 25% to 95% increase in profits. Similarly, trying to acquire new customers can be 5% to 25% more expensive for retailers than encouraging existing ones to purchase again. Lastly, repeat customers spend 67% more on purchasing products from businesses that they have bought from before than new customers trying out a retailer for the first time.

All these studies indicate that retaining customers is of the utmost importance to eCommerce retailers if they want to be profitable and expand their revenue. Customer retention rate is one of the most important eCommerce KPIs to measure in this regard as it quantifies the number of existing customers that have returned for repeat purchases. 

Formula: Customer Retention Rate = [(Customers a Firm Had at the End – Customers Acquired During the Measured Period) ÷ Customers a Firm Had at the Beginning] x 100

Return on Marketing Investment

Marketing is one of the most crucial aspects of the current eCommerce climate due to the amount of readily available publicity that can be had on social media apps or video streaming platforms. Firms need to keep aside a significant chunk of their budgets to promote their products and increase the visibility of their brands due to their competitors trying to do the same thing. Ultimately, people buy what is readily and easily accessible to them and the firms that place their products in the right place at the right time will win that particular battle.

However, firms also need to track the amount of money they are spending on marketing and also the returns they are getting for their efforts. Return on marketing investment is one of the top eCommerce KPIs that can help companies determine which campaigns are successful and which aren’t so that they can double down on the ones that are fetching them a high rate of returns and alleviate the ones that are wasting their money.

Formula: Return on Marketing Investment = (Sales Growth – Marketing Cost) ÷ Marketing Cost

Average Order Value

Average order value or AOV is one of the top eCommerce KPIs for measuring the average purchase value spent by each customer per order. It helps firms understand how much the average customer spends on a shopping spree on their website or listing pages and can also help them figure out ways to get people to spend more money on each order by employing various marketing or promotional campaigns.

One of the primary goals of eCommerce companies is to get their customers to spend as much as possible and to keep them engaged so that they continue to browse their websites as opposed to their competitors and AOV provides insights into their current performance and how they can improve it.

Formula: Average Order Value = Revenue ÷ Number of Orders

Bounce Rate

Contrary to conversion rate, bounce rate signifies the number of users that have visited your website or listing page but left abruptly without purchasing anything. It is one of the most predominant eCommerce KPIs that is used to measure how many customers have scrolled through a web page of an eCommerce retailer but have left without any major interaction and can also help firms identify patterns as to why this may be the case.

For instance, if the majority of users all leave while they are on a certain page, it could indicate that something on that page is causing them to lose interest which will enable sellers to make edits to encourage users to stay longer and keep them engaged.

Formula: Bounce Rate = Number of One Page Visits ÷ Total Number of Visits

Cart Abandonment Rate

Cart Abandonment refers to when customers have items in their online cart but leave the website before making the purchase. Cart abandonment could be due to multiple factors such as a cumbersome checkout process, frequent prompts to enter sensitive contact information and more.

Cart abandonment rate is one of the top eCommerce KPIs that can help retailers determine what percentage of their customers leave without purchasing anything while they have added products to their cart. While many customers add items to their cart to compare prices between websites, many of them can be recovered if a few minor changes are made to the checkout process. Read here how to optimise checkout page for good customer experience.

Formula: Cart Abandonment Rate = 1 – [(Completed Transactions) ÷ (Created Carts)] x 100

Add to Cart Rate

In a similar vein to the cart abandonment rate, add to cart rate can provide visibility to retailers as to the proportion of the total amount of customers that visit their website or listing page and actually end up adding products to their cart. It is one of the eCommerce KPIs that acts as a precursor to cart abandonment and when calculated along with it, can help firms to understand the rate at which people end up purchasing products after they have added them to their online cart.

Formula: Add to Cart Rate = Sessions With Items Added to Cart ÷ Total Number of Sessions

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer acquisition cost refers to the cost of acquiring each customer that ends up making a purchase from a business. Understanding it is vital for firms to determine how much they want to spend on their marketing and promotional efforts while also ensuring that the cost of acquiring each customer is within reach and doesn’t end up costing too much.

While a firm can acquire large amounts of customers, if they spend more on acquiring them than the customers do purchasing goods and services from the firm, it may not end up being worth it. This is one of the top eCommerce KPIs that enables firms to plan and budget their customer acquisition strategy accordingly.

Formula: Customer Acquisition Cost = Total Expenses to Acquire Customers ÷ Total Number of Customers Acquired in the Same Timeframe

Gross Profit Margin

The main goal of eCommerce companies is to generate revenue and have the highest possible profit margin they can muster. Gross profit margin provides an insight into the total amount of profit that a firm is left with as a percentage after reducing all the operational, promotional and logistical expenses associated with selling their products. It is one of the top eCommerce KPIs that assist firms in understanding if their strategies are ultimately fetching them a profit and if so, how much they are getting in return for their risk and struggles.

Formula: Gross Profit Margin = (Revenue – Costs) ÷ Revenue x 100

Organic Search Rankings

Organic search rankings are one of the most important eCommerce KPIs to track where your website stacks up on search engines such as Google and Bing. Search engine optimization or SEO, is crucial for businesses that want their website or product pages to rank highly so that they can receive the maximum amount of visibility from potential customers. Customers tend to explore the top 1 to 5 search results when they enter their query into a search engine so if a page ranks below that, odds are that very few customers will end up visiting it. Keeping track of this KPI will enable retailers to take efforts to improve their ranking if they aren’t happy with their position.

Note: Organic search ranking does not have a specific formula. Instead, a website or listing page can be tracked using SEO tools such as Semrush.

Customer Satisfaction Rate

High rates of customer satisfaction is what every eCommerce retailer strives to achieve because it can have a vast array of positive implications in terms of other top eCommerce KPIs such as lowering cart abandonment rates, increasing average order values, enhancing conversion rates and much more.

If customers are satisfied with their overall experience with a particular brand, chances are they will return if they have similar requirements, recommend the company to friends or family and leave positive reviews and feedback on websites and online forums. Tracking the customer satisfaction rate is important because it provides genuine insights into what customers truly think about a brand.

Formula: Customer Satisfaction Rate = Satisfied Customers ÷ Total Number of Customers Surveyed

Revenue Per Website Visitor

Tracking the revenue that is generated per user that has visited the website of a retailer is important to track as it provides an impression of which customers are spending money on purchasing items and which are just browsing and exiting without buying anything. This can give online sellers a detailed look at which audience they need to focus on and which products are being purchased at the highest rates.

Formula: Revenue Per Website Visitor = Total Revenue of Specified Website ÷ Total Number of Website Visitors

Return on Investment

Return on investment is one of the top eCommerce KPIs as it provides a detailed look at whether a business is generating a profit or loss while also offering insights as to whether certain marketing, production, and logistics operations are running efficiently. This enables firms to streamline all their processes and make them as efficient and cost-effective as possible so that they can receive a higher return on their investment and eventually become more profitable.

Formula: Return on Investment = (Net Return on Investment ÷ Total Investment Cost) x 100

Gross Merchandise Volume

Gross merchandise volume is a KPI that indicates the total monetary value for all units of merchandise that are sold on a particular online marketplace during a specified amount of time. This can give retailers a detailed look at which online selling platforms are serving them the best and generating the most demand and sales out of all the marketplaces they sell on. For example, if the gross merchandise volume on Amazon is higher than Flipkart’s, retailers can spend more time and effort on marketing and selling their products on Amazon than on other platforms.

Formula: Gross Merchandise Value = Selling Price of Goods x Number of Goods Sold

You may like: What is Merchandise Inventory?

Orders Per Active Customers

Orders per active customers offers retailers insight into the number of orders made by active customers during a specific timeframe. It lets businesses know how frequently their existing customers make repeat purchases and how many of them have been actively engaging with the business since their first interaction. It can indicate whether the customers are satisfied with the business or just make one purchase and do not make another one for a long time. This lets businesses know how quickly they are growing and if the number and frequency of orders from existing customers are high, it generally means that the company is successful.

Note: There is no specific formula to calculate orders per active customers. It can be observed by analysing the orders placed by each repeat customer.

Net Profit Rate

Net profit rate refers to the amount of net profit that is generated in relation to the total amount of revenue. It is expressed as a percentage and takes into account the profit after subtracting all the expenses that are business has to incur to sell its products. Fluctuations in net profit can indicate the profitability of a business and whether it is on the right path or not as it provides businesses with its actual profitability after paying all the costs that are associated with selling, producing and transporting their products

Formula: Net Profit Rate = (Net Income ÷ Revenue) x 100

Average Time Spent on Website

The average time spent on a website is one of the key eCommerce KPIs that provides insights into the success of a company’s website. It indicates the amount of time each customer spends on a retailer’s website on average. This in cohesion with the bounce rate, can provide information as to which web pages are generating the most engagement and time spent on scrolling and browsing which will enable retailers to understand how they can improve their website to be more successful. 

Formula: Average Time Spent on Website = Total Time Spent on Website in Minutes ÷ (Page Views – Page Exits)

Return on Advertising Investment

Online advertising involves the use of paid ad campaigns on platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Each campaign is liable to charges depending on factors such as the duration, reach, target audience and visibility of the campaign. While some ads will generate more leads than others, they do not always end up converting. The efficiency and effectiveness of an ad campaign depend on how many prospects end up converting into customers. Thus, it is important for retailers to analyse and track every metric of their ad campaigns so that they can determine which ones were successful and continue to employ similar tactics in the future.

Formula: Return on Advertising Investment = (Net Return on Investment ÷ Total Advertising Cost) x 100

Return on Influencer Investment

In a similar manner to running advertising and marketing campaigns, the use of social media influencers to create hype and generate enhanced visibility around a brand and its products is increasingly being used. Since many influencers have large followers on their respective platforms, businesses use them to promote their products to create awareness among their audience.

However, not all audiences will have the same willingness and capability to purchase products. Some might consist of people that are too young while some may contain people that don’t have enough income. For these reasons, it is important for businesses to track the return on their investment when they choose to partner with influencers.

Formula: Return on Influencer Investment = (Net Return on Investment ÷ Total Investment Spent on Influencers) x 100

Conclusion: Keep Track of the Top eCommerce KPIs With WareIQ

eCommerce KPIs are essential for online businesses to have a realistic picture of their performance in relation to their estimated objectives. While different KPIs are suitable for various kinds of businesses, identifying and measuring the ones that directly correlate with their goals can have positive implications for the way they are able to streamline their business procedures and expand their operations.

eCommerce is a numbers game and companies that have statistical data to analyse will have a competitive advantage against those that don’t. If firms want to be successful, it is critical that they measure every important aspect of their operations so they can understand how to improve their performance and out-pace their competitors. If you are an eCommerce retailer that needs assistance with tracking vital historical data and other fulfillment requirements, WareIQ can be the solution for you.

WareIQ is one of India’s leading eCommerce fulfillment companies that uses a centralized tech platform to tackle a vast range of eCommerce challenges from order fulfillment to reverse logistics and everything in between. In relation to giving you access to a significant number of trackable metrics and solutions, WareIQ offers the following services:

• A custom WMS that tracks and consolidates order and inventory data across fulfillment centers and integrates with more than 12 eCommerce marketplaces
• You can monitor and analyse various analytics such as incoming orders, bounce rate, conversion rate, cart abandonment and others
• A custom app store that can enhance the productivity of multiple eCommerce processes
• A central dashboard where all your inventory and order data is stored and can be easily accessed

eCommerce KPIs: FAQs

Supercharge your fulfilment with WareIQ now, contact our team.

Contact Us