Ecommerce KPIs – The Ultimate Guide on 91 Vital Metrics in Ecommerce

Ecommerce KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are the key performance indicators that measure the performance of an ecommerce business.

You can use these metrics to monitor and analyze how well your ecommerce company is performing, what its weaknesses are, and where it could improve.

Knowledge is power, and you can get the knowledge you need to run your ecommerce business from data. 

It’s challenging to run a successful ecommerce business without utilizing and applying knowledge derived from data.

And this is precisely why ecommerce KPIs provide the critical metrics based on business data to excel and grow your ecommerce venture.

There are many ecommerce Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you can use to measure your ecommerce business with ease.

KPIs for ecommerce are like milestones on the path to the success of an online business. 

Furthermore, ecommerce KPIs enable you to learn more about your customers, identify progress towards sales, marketing, and provide tailored products and services to your customers.

This guide provides a comprehensive list of all the most important KPIs in ecommerce, so you know which ones to focus on for your own business! 

So let’s get on with it!

Ecommerce KPIs Overview

For any ecommerce business, tracking website traffic, sales, and profits is a key performance indicator. 

However, there are dozens of KPIs out there, and the one you choose to monitor should depend on your business’s unique goals.

According to research by Google and Econsultancy, to truly matter, 95% of leading marketers agree that marketing analytics KPIs must be tied to overall business objectives.

KPIs ensure you have the correct data about your business, and this will help you make data-driven decisions about your business when needed.

Likewise, it helps ecommerce businesses to scale in the right direction, knowing what to do and when to do it. 

So in this guide, you will learn everything you need to know about ecommerce KPIs. 

We will also help you identify the top ecommerce KPIs for your business industry and niche.

What Is a Performance Indicator?

First, let’s get the definition stuff out of the way. A performance indicator is a kind of performance measurement. 

It is a set of quantifiable data measurements that you can use to measure the performance of your business goals. 

As a result, performance indicators evaluate the success of your ecommerce business or a particular activity such as sales, traffic, and more.

For instance, you might have a goal to boost the traffic to your online store by 60 percent in the next 12 months. 

Therefore, you can focus on performance indicators such as the number of new daily visits or sources of traffic to your online store.

Then you can take appropriate digital marketing steps to increase traffic to your online store via paid media, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, etc.

What Is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)?

Now that we know what a performance indicator is – what is a key performance indicator?

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurement that shows how effectively a business is achieving its set goals and objectives. 

Hence, businesses and organizations use key performance indicators to measure their success at achieving specific targets. 

Low-level key performance indicators might focus on processes in departments like HR, marketing, sales, and more, while high-level key performance indicators focus on a business’s overall performance.

In simple terms, KPIs measure how effective a business is and its progress towards achieving its goals.

What Is an Ecommerce KPI?

An ecommerce KPI is a metric that shows how well your business is doing.  

It’s a vital indicator of the health of your online store, and it allows you to compare your performance over time.  

And it determines how well your ecommerce business and your team are doing in achieving your objectives and goals. 

If you keep track of your ecommerce KPIs and take steps to improve, you’re stirring your ecommerce business towards achieving its goals and objectives.

When you monitor the right ecommerce key performance indicators, it enables you to make well-informed decisions about marketing, conversions, customer satisfaction, revenue, and operations.

Likewise, ecommerce KPIs enable you to gauge your progress on the road to online retail success. And they often support several goals of the business. 

Overall, ecommerce KPIs help you see where your business currently stands, as well as what you need to do to achieve the set goals and targets of your business.

Why Do Ecommerce KPIs Matter?

Ecommerce KPIs are important for several reasons. They represent more than simply numbers. 

They help you understand the health and performance of your ecommerce business. 

With the right ecommerce KPIs for your business, you can make vital adjustments to your plans and executions to achieve your goals.

When you know and measure the right ecommerce key performance indicators, you can achieve most of your business goals. 

Nevertheless, it will be difficult for you to measure the success of your online business without these key performance indicators. 

Many businesses have failed because of the inability to make data-driven and well-informed decisions.

Ecommerce KPIs provide you with more information about your company, business, and customers so that you can make more informed decisions. 

And the most crucial aspect of ecommerce KPIs is the actionable insights you can derive from analyzing the data.

What Is the Difference Between Ecommerce KPIs and Metrics?

Are ecommerce KPIs and metrics different? There’s a difference between them. They are similar, but they’re not the same.

There are many differences between ecommerce metrics and KPIs, including what they measure and how you can use them.

Metrics help track your store’s performance, while KPIs help you evaluate the success of your online business.

Consequently, ecommerce KPIs are a subset of metrics; they are metrics that matter the most. 

There are dozens of metrics, including sales percentage, clicks, subscription revenues, and more, but not all metrics are key performance indicators.

Key performance indicators are essential metrics. And they are the metrics that matter most in determining the success and growth of your business and how you achieve your goals. 

While metrics are more like measuring tools, KPIs, on the other hand, are a means of monitoring the most crucial parts of your online business. And doing so in ways that help you determine the best decisions to make.

Like metrics, key performance indicators are very well defined and quantifiable. 

In other words, KPIs are indicators of the progress made by the business in achieving its strategic business goals.

What Is the Difference Between Ecommerce KPIs and SLAs?

“What are KPIs and SLAs, and what’s the difference between the two?” is common question business owners ask.

SLA is short for service level agreement, and it is different from an ecommerce key performance indicator (KPI). 

You can measure how successful your online store is by using ecommerce KPIs. 

On the other hand, SLAs are agreements that businesses make with their customers (or vendors) about what will happen when a service interruption occurs.

Ecommerce SLAs define the parameters of a working relationship between ecommerce business owners and vendors (or customers). 

Both key performance indicators and service level metrics provide helpful information. 

Key performance indicators provide information on the progress and efficiency in meeting the goals and expectations of a business. 

Whereas a service level agreement ensures service level metrics do not fall below the benchmark for specific metrics. 

A business or organization can also use KPIs to ensure that specific performance goals and objectives are met or exceeded.

Types of Ecommerce KPIs

There are several key performance indicators (KPIs) available. 

And they may be quantitative or qualitative, revealing what has happened in the past or predicting what will happen in the future.

Indeed, various aspects of a business are affected by key performance indicators. 

Ecommerce key performance indicators (KPIs) can fall into five categories:

1. Marketing
2. Sales
3. Customer service
4. Project management
5. Manufacturing

What Determines an Effective Ecommerce KPI?

The mere fact that you know what KPI stands for and what it means does not make it effective. KPIs are only as valuable as the actions they inspire.

An effective KPI (key performance indicator) helps you identify and analyze the areas of your business that need improving. 

Furthermore, it should also help you make changes to fix those problems, increasing sales and profits.

The majority of businesses adopt an industry-recognized KPI and wonder why the KPIs they adopt do not result in positive changes in their business.

Notably, ecommerce KPIs are a form of communication, and many companies overlook or disregard this aspect. 

KPI follows the same best practices and rules as other forms of communication. Business owners should therefore know the ins and outs of their company.

For instance, suppose that you want to develop a strategy that identifies key performance indicators. 

If so, you should start by understanding your company’s or organization’s objectives, how you plan to achieve them, and who is responsible for acting on that information. 

It would be helpful if your team went through this process together. And it should be an iterative process involving responses from managers, department heads, and analysts.

After learning more about these processes, you will better measure them with a key performance indicator dashboard. 

Having that information in hand will also enable you to understand how you should share it with others. 

Generally, the action you take determines the effectiveness of KPIs in ecommerce.

Top 91 Ecommerce KPIs for Business Excellence

There are hundreds of ecommerce KPIs available, and they are all useful in different business situations. 

As a result, it is imperative to choose the right one for your business model and style. 

For example, to grow your ecommerce business, you should focus on specific key performance indicators and select only those relevant to your business model.

This section will provide you with a comprehensive ecommerce KPIs list. 

Although the list of KPIs for ecommerce is almost endless, we will list the 93 top ecommerce KPIs for different types of businesses, industries, and organizations.

Sales KPIs for Ecommerce

Sales KPI for ecommerce are metrics that help you measure the performance of your business in terms of revenue and conversions. 

As a result, paying close attention to this KPI will provide you with all the vital information and data you need to make informed business decisions. 

Here are some examples of sales KPIs for ecommerce:

1. Sales

When you operate an ecommerce business, you can monitor your sales yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, and even hourly.

2. Gross Profit

Another key performance indicator for ecommerce is gross profit. By using this KPI, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your company’s labor and supplies in producing goods and services. 

The formula for calculating gross profit is as follows:

Gross Profit = Total Revenue – Total Cost of Goods Sold

3. Net Profit

It is crucial to track your net profit as one of your key performance indicators. If you are not making profits, something is wrong with your business or is not viable. 

And if you’re business is generating profiles, then you’re off to a good foundation. The formula for calculating net profit is:

Net Profit = Total Revenue – Total Expenses  OR Net Profit = Gross Profit – Expenses

4. Profit Margin

Profit margin is your profit expressed as a percentage of costs. A business with $250 in costs and earnings of $100 in profits has a profit margin of 40%.

You calculate the profit margin by dividing the profit by costs:

Profit Margin = Profit / Cost

5. Average Profit Margin

A business’s average profit margin reflects its profit margin over a long period, usually several years.  

It is calculated by adding up all costs and profits and calculating the overall profit margin.

6. Average Order Value (AOV)

Average Order Value is also called Average Market Basket. You can use this KPI to track how much your customers spend on a single order.

The AOV formula is:

Average Order Value = Total Revenue / Number of Orders

7. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

The cost of goods sold (COGS) is another key performance indicator that measures your overall selling expenses. 

Costs associated with manufacturing and production, along with all other expenses, are included in this figure.

For example, a distributor, manufacturer, or retailer’s COGS is the cost of a product to them.

It tells you the total amount it costs to sell a product, including employee wages, manufacturing, and overhead costs.

The formula for calculating your COGS is:

Cost of Goods Sold = (Beginning Inventory Costs + Additional Inventory Costs) – Ending inventory

8. Conversion Rate

Your ecommerce business’s conversion rate is another vital KPI to measure and improve constantly.

Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who convert into buyers in your online store.

The formula for the conversion rate is:

Conversion Rate = (Total Number of Visitors / Total Number of Conversion) x 100%

9. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

You can use this KPI to figure out the total cost of acquiring a new customer.

To determine this KPI, divide the marketing spend in a given period by the number of new customers for that period.

You can calculate your CAC using the following formula:

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) = Marketing Cost to Acquire Customers / Number of Acquired Customers

10. Churn Rate

Traditionally, churn is a measure of how often customers leave a business.

Also, it measures how many customers fail to renew or cancel their subscriptions.

The formula for calculating your ecommerce business’s churn rate is:

Churn Rate = ((Number of Customers at the Beginning of the Month – Number of Customers at the End of the Month) / (Total Number of Customers at the Beginning of that Month)) x 100%

11. Revenue per Visitor (RPV)

The RPV (Revenue per Visitor) KPI measures the revenue generated by a customer when they visit your site.

Using it, you can determine how much each additional visitor is worth for a given period. And you can calculate this KPI by dividing the total revenue you earn by the total number of visitors to your site.

If you’re experiencing a low RPV, you should consider more effective methods for boosting online sales.

The RPV formula is:

Revenue per Visitor (RPV) = Total Revenue / Number of Visitors

12. Number of Transactions

The number of transactions KPI is self-explanatory as it measures the total number of transactions your ecommerce business conducts.

Using this KPI as a variable, you can calculate other KPIs for your ecommerce business that needs it as an input.

13. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a KPI metric that tells you how valuable a customer is to your business throughout their relationship with your business. 

Indeed, the goal of every business is to increase this number. 

You can increase this number by investing more in customer loyalty and strengthening your relationships with your customers. 

You can calculate your ecommerce business’s Customer Lifetime Value with the following formula:

Customer Lifetime Value = ((Average Purchase Value * Average Number of Purchases) * Average Customer Lifespan)

14. Revenue per Click (RPC)

The Revenue per Click (RPC) KPI indicates how much money you earn per click on your pay-per-click campaigns. 

For each paid click, it assigns a certain amount. You can calculate your revenue per click by using the following formula:

Revenue per Click = Revenue / Total Number of Clicks

15. Purchase Frequency

The Purchase Frequency KPI helps to measure the number of purchases your customers make over a specific timeframe such as one year (i.e., 365 days).

This key performance indicator is also important, as you can use it to measure customer loyalty and categories or products that are not performing well. 

The formula for calculating Purchase Frequency is:

Purchase Frequency = Number of Orders (in 365 days) / Number of Unique Customers (in 365 days)

16. Time Between Purchases

The Time Between Purchases KPI shows how long it takes for a customer to come back and make a purchase from your store. 

In effect, you can tailor your marketing strategy to target your customers based on this key performance indicator.

You can calculate this KPI using the following formula:

Time Between Purchases = (365 days / Purchase Frequency)

17. Repeat Purchase Rate (RPR)

The Repeat Purchase Rate KPI shows how many customers come back to your website to make another purchase. 

This KPI provides vital data that you can use to shape your sales strategies. For example, you can also use it to measure customer loyalty. 

If you want to calculate the Repeat Purchase Rate of your ecommerce store, here’s the formula to use:

Repeat Purchase Rate = Number of Customers (who purchased more than once) / Total Number of Customers

18. Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate (CAR)

The Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate (CAR) shows you the number of customers who start the checkout process for their purchase journey but drop out of the process before completing the purchase.

Statista research found that 88.05 percent of online shopping carts were abandoned in March 2020.

Online shoppers abandon their shopping cart for a wide range of reasons, but there are ways you can reduce it. As a rule of thumb, the lower your shopping cart abandonment rate, the better. 

To reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate, you need to reduce friction in your online store’s checkout process. 

Accordingly, you can do this by using an attractive checkout design, improving the checkout process, using email marketing services with a cart abandonment feature, and more.

Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate = (1 – (Total Number of Completed Purchases / Total Number of Shopping Carts)) x 100

19. Shopping Cart Conversion Rate (CCR)

The shopping cart conversion rate is the opposite of the shopping cart abandonment rate. 

This key performance indicator tells you the number of customers that add items to their online shopping cart and complete the checkout process.

The formula for calculator the Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate is:

Shopping Cart Conversion Rate = (Visitors Who Placed an Order / Total Number of Visitors Who Start a Shopping Cart) x 100

20. New Customer Orders (NCO) vs. Returning Customers Orders (RCO)

The New Customer Orders vs. Returning Customer Orders is a key performance indicator that compares the order rate of repeat customers and new customers. 

It is common for businesses to focus solely on gaining customers. It is also important to keep your current customers, as it can boost loyalty, higher-order values, and referrals.

21. Competitive Pricing

To thrive in a highly competitive marketplace, you must measure your growth and success against yourself as well as your rivals. 

With the competitive pricing KPI, you can keep track of your competitors’ pricing strategies and compare them with yours.

22. Inventory Levels

The Inventory Levels KPI will give you a complete insight into your inventory. 

Essentially, it will tell you the current level of your stuck, how fast your product(s) are selling, how long some of your products have been sitting around, and more.

23. Product Affinity

The Product Affinity key performance indicator monitors combined items purchased together.

Effectively, this KPI can help you in different aspects of your business, such as cross-promotion.

It will also help you decide the best product pairs to promote together.

24. Product Relationship

Product Relationship is another vital sale KPI for ecommerce. This KPI lets you know which items in your online store customers are viewing consecutively.

Like the Product Affinity KPI, you can use this KPI to create better cross-selling strategies.

25. Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV)

The Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) measures the total volume of merchandise sold over a specific period. 

For this reason, the GMV tells you how successful your ecommerce store is from top to bottom. 

A high GMV is a sign that your ecommerce business is progressing and growing. If it is low, then you must improve your sales strategy to improve conversions. 

You can measure your GMV yearly, quarterly, or even monthly.

26. Add to Cart Rate

The Add to Cart Rate key performance indicator measures the percentage or number of visitors that add item(s) to their shopping cart. 

This KPI metric helps you determine if you are attracting the right audience and if your products and price tags meet your customers’ expectations, and more.

27. Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

The Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) KPI metric demonstrates the average cost per paying customer acquired through a marketing campaign.

Consequently, it is one of the most important key performance indicators in ecommerce. 

Your CPA calibrates for the other key performance indicators, showing how well they perform. 

Knowing your CPA will help you project your Return on Investment safely, which is vital for the growth of your ecommerce business. 

It gives you a clear vision of the other KPIs to determine if they perform at sustainable or optimal levels.

The formula for calculating Cost per Acquisition is:

Cost per Acquisition = Total Campaign Cost / Number of Conversions

28. Average Profit per Customer

The Average Profit per Customer KPI measures a percentage of sales a customer represents. 

It is the percentage of net income a customer contributes to your business. Thus this KPI helps you focus on maximizing profit from each customer.

The formula for the Average Profit per Customer is:

Average Profit per Customer = Total Profit / Total Number of Customers that Contributed to the Profit

29. Annual Repurchase Rate

Your annual repurchase rate is the number of customers that come back to your store to make more purchases within a year. 

This KPI is also important, as it helps you to monitor customer retention and customer loyalty. 

Purchasing more than one item in one order does not count. The Annual Repurchase Rate KPI only looks at many orders. 

This key performance indicator will also help you identify your products that better align with your market.

Annual Repurchase Rate = (Total Number of Repeat Purchases over 12 Months / Total Number of Customers that Made the Purchases) x 100%

30. Conversion Rate per Traffic Channel

The Conversion Rate per Traffic Channel KPI tells you the percentage of your traffic through a particular channel doing what you want them to do.

For example, if you’re running ads on Facebook to support your ecommerce support. The percentage of visitors from your Facebook traffic who purchase counts at the conversion rate from Facebook.

Conversion Rate per Traffic Channel = (Number of Customers Who Purchased an Item from a Specific Channel / Total Number of Visitors from that Channel) x 100%

31. Orders per Active Customers

This key performance indicator will tell you the average number of orders your active customers make over a certain period. 

Moreover, you can use this metric to see whether or not your ecommerce store attracts frequent buyers. And you can use it to evaluate the growth and revenue of your business. 

If you want to increase this number, you have to boost your customers’ repeat rate.

Marketing KPIs for Ecommerce

Are you frustrated by the lack of leads and conversions from your marketing efforts? Then it might be a good idea to step back and assess what is happening. 

Ecommerce businesses can measure success with Marketing KPIs by monitoring how many customers they can acquire and keep well after they leave.

By analyzing them, you can determine where there is room for improvement and which campaigns work best.

Invariably, marketing KPIs also influence your sales key performance indicators.

If you have the proper marketing KPIs, you can determine which products sell and which do not, who buys them, why they buy them, and how. 

Furthermore, you can shape your marketing strategies properly and drive more traffic to your site. And this is because your marketing KPIs influence sales KPIs.

Here are some of the top marketing KPIs for ecommerce:

32. Affiliate Performance Rates

If you market your ecommerce business using affiliate marketing, you will find this key performance indicator very useful. 

With the Affiliate Performance Rates KPI, you can separate your most successful affiliates from those not doing well.

33. Average CTR

The Average Click Through Rate (CTR) is an essential KPI that tells you the ratio of clicks to impressions across your adverting campaigns.

While high average CTR doesn’t always spell successful campaigns, a low CTR, on the other hand, indicates viewers aren’t inspired to click on your ads.

You can have a high average CTR on your ad, but your product landing pages poorly convert the clicks.  

Thus Average Click Through Rate (CTR) as a KPI can help you fine-tune ad creatives and settings to target the right audience.

You can calculate this KPI using the following formula:

Average CTR = (Total Unique Clicks / Total Impressions) x 100

34. Average Session on Website

The Average Session on the Website KPI is the average time a visitor spends on your website during a single visit. 

The formula for calculating this key performance indicator is:

Average Session on Website = Total Time Spent on Website / Total Number of Sessions

35. Average Position

This key performance indicator tells you about the paid search performance and search engine optimization of your website. 

Notably, this KPI will give you an idea of your search engine ranking.

If you are not on the first page, which is the goal of many online businesses, you need to improve your SEO.

36. Average Session Duration

The Average Session Duration is the average amount of time spent on your website during a single visit. 

It is the same as the Average Session on the website, and they share the same formula.

37. Banner or Display Advertising CTRs

The KPI measures the percentage of people who clicked on your banner or display ads.

Banner or Display Advertising CTRs = (Total Click Received / Total Impressions Received) x 100%

38. Blog Traffic

If you’re executing a content marketing strategy as the path of your marketing effort, your blog traffic is a key performance indicator.

This ecommerce KPI tells you the number of visitors to your blog. You can create a filtered view in your analytics tools to see this KPI.

39. Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is a metric that measures how many people leave your page without clicking or scrolling down. 

For instance, if your online store receives 100 visits and only 20 of those visits leave after viewing the landing page (i.e., without proceeding to another page), then your bounce rate would be 20%.

It is one of the best ways to determine how engaging your content is to your audience.

You can calculate your ecommerce store’s bounce rate using the following formula:

Bounce Rate = (Total Number of Single Page Visits / Total Number Website Entries) x 100

40. Chat Sessions Initiated

Ecommerce businesses with live chat functionality will benefit from this KPI. 

You can use it to determine the rate at which your customers wish to interact with you by measuring the number of chat sessions initiated.

41. Clicks

By using this KPI, you can determine how many people clicked on a particular link. 

Measuring this KPI is possible on your website, display ads, social media, SEO, and more.

42. Conversion by Device Type

This KPI metric tells you the number of conversions you have across different devices – tablet, mobile, or desktop.

43. Cost Per Conversion (CPC)

The Cost Per Conversion KPI shows you how much it costs to convert a visitor into a customer.

To calculate your CPC, divide the total ad spend amount by the number of conversions received.

The formula for this KPI is:

Cost Per Conversion = Total Ad Spend Amount / Total Number of Conversions

44. Customer Retention Rate

Over time, this KPI represents the percentage of customers who return to your ecommerce store to make more purchases.

The formula for calculating your Customer Retention Rate is:

Customer Retention Rate = ((Total Customers at the End of a Specific Period – Total New Customers within that Period) / Total Customers at the Start of That Period) * 100

45. Day Part Monitoring

The Day Part Monitoring KPI shows you the time of the day your site has its highest traffic.

Monitoring ecommerce store activity during that period will be crucial whenever you want to increase traffic or sales during a specific day period. 

It will also indicate times when your ecommerce store’s traffic peaks, which you can use for ad scheduling and content creation.

46. Email Bounce Rate

In email marketing, the bounce rate refers to the percentage of emails returned to a sender because they were not delivered. 

As a result, this KPI tells you how many emails did not reach their intended recipients. 

So this means only a tiny portion of the emails sent by an email campaign reach their intended recipients.

You can calculate your email bounce rate using the following formula:

Email Bounce Rate = (Number of Bounced Emails / Total Number of Sent Emails) x 100%

47. Email Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The Email Click-Through Rate or Email CTR is the ratio of users who clicked on a link in an email to those who received and opened the email.

You can calculate this KPI using the following formula:

Email CTR = (Total Number of Clicks / Total Number of Email Opens) x 100

48. Email Conversion Rate

For ecommerce, your email conversion rate reflects how many email subscribers complete a goal after reading your email marketing communication.

A goal in this instance usually means those that complete a purchase on your online store.

Here’s the formula to use if you want to find this critical KPI:

Email Conversion Rate = (Total Number of Email Conversions / Total Number of Sent Emails) x 100%

49. Email List Subscriber Growth Rate

You can use this KPI to measure the growth of your email list subscribers in a given period.

Email List Subscriber Growth Rate = ((New Email Subscribers – Unsubscribers) / Total Number of Subscribers) * 100

50. Email Newsletter Subscribers

You can use this KPI to see how many users subscribe to your email newsletter.

51. Email Open Rate

Essentially, the Email Open Rate KPI represents the percentage of recipients who opened your email.

Email Open Rate = (Total Unique Email Opens / (Total Email Recipients – Bounced Emails)) x 100

52. Email Unsubscribes

This ecommerce tells you the total number of subscribers that unsubscribed from your email list.

By all means, you can better tailor your email marketing communications to suit your audience and reduce unsubscribes using this KPI.

53. Influencer ROI

Today, many ecommerce businesses rely on influencers for marketing purposes. 

Using the Influencer ROI KPI, you can track the returns on investment when you use influencers to promote and market your business.

54. Mobile Site Traffic

With this KPI, you can keep track of how many mobile users access your website.

55. New Visitors vs. Returning Visitors

Visitors who visit your website for the first time are new, while returning visitors are those who have previously visited your website. 

Comparing these KPIs will help you determine whether your website is attracting new visitors or not.

56. Number and Quality of Product Reviews

The number and quality of product review your ecommerce business receives are key performance indicators to monitor.

Thus using this KPI, you get first-hand feedback on your business and the products or services you sell.

57. Organic Search Rankings

Using this metric, you can measure the performance and growth of your e-commerce site’s rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

As a result, you can use this to determine whether or not your off-page and on-page search engine optimization efforts are effective.

58. Pageviews Per Session

Pageviews per session determine how many pages are viewed by a user during a given session. 

To calculate this metric, divide the total number of page views by the total number of sessions.

Pageviews Per Session = Total Page Views / Total Number of Sessions

59. Pageviews Per Visit

Pageviews Per Visit KPI is the same as Pageviews Per Session. It is the number of web pages (and interactions) a visitor views during a visit.

60. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Traffic Volume

By measuring this KPI, you can see how much traffic your ecommerce website is getting through Pay-Per-Click advertising.

61. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Among the KPIs for ecommerce businesses, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) measures how much revenue every dollar you spend marketing your store generates.

Hence, this KPI allows you to assess the effectiveness of an ad campaign.

You can calculate this KPI using this formula:

Return on Ad Spend = Revenue Generated by Ads / Cost of Ads

62. Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)

Another essential marketing KPI for ecommerce businesses is the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI).

You can use this KPI to check how much revenue a marketing campaign generates to how much it costs to run.

Also, the ROMI allows you to examine campaign results to the specific marketing objectives.

63. Site Traffic

Using the Site Traffic KPI, you can find out how many people are visiting your online store.

64. Site Traffic Referral Sources

With this KPI, you can see which sources send the most visitors to your ecommerce store.

65. SMS Texting Subscribers

You use this KPI to determine how many people subscribe to your SMS texting list.

66. Social Media Engagement

Social media is the center of gravity in digital marketing’s realm. Altogether, it’s all about engagements and how well your fans and follower engage with your brand communications.

This KPI demonstrates how engaged your fans and followers are with your brand on social media.

67. Social Media Followers and Fans

Similarly, you can track your social media followers and fans on different social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with this KPI.

68. Time on Site

Also, knowing how long your visitors spend on your website is helpful.

Your Time on Site KPI indicates how much time visitors spend on your ecommerce site.

Ecommerce KPIs for Customer Service

An ecommerce business cannot succeed without an effective customer service team. 

In addition to being the first point of contact for your customers, they are often the last point of defense. There’s something wrong if you’re not meeting your KPIs in this area. 

By measuring customer service KPIs, you can determine whether your service level is adequate. Furthermore, it will show whether your performance meets expectations. 

Below are some important KPIs for customer service that every online retailer should monitor:

69. Active Issues Count

When you keep tabs on this KPI, it shows you the number of active customer queries in progress.

68. Average Complaint Resolution Time (ACRT)

Likewise, this KPI measures how long it takes customer support to resolve the issue for a customer.

You can calculate its value using the following formula:

ACRT = Total Resolution Time / Total Number of Resolved Requests

69. Average Resolution Time (ART)

This KPI measures how long it takes customer service to resolve a client’s issue, as it is the same as the ACRT.

70. Backlogs

In general, a backlog is an itemized list of items to be completed in the future. From a customer service perspective, it lists all the unresolved issues and questions from customers.

This KPI shows you the number of backed-up issues that in your customer service system.

71. Concern Classification

It is helpful to classify your customers’ concerns to measure your progress towards addressing issues.

Also, when you classify customers’ concerns, you find new trends that reduce the number of customer support requests.

72. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Score

You can use surveys to measure your customer satisfaction levels. You can ask them to measure their experience with your service on a scale of 1 to 10.

CSAT = (Total Number of Satisfied Customers (those with ratings of 4 or 5) / Total Number of Responses) x 100

73. Customer Service Chat Count

This KPI keeps track of the total number of live chats customers initiate on your ecommerce store.

74. Customer Service Email Count

Similarly, the Customer Service Email Count KPI records the number of email inquiries your customers send to customer service.

75. Customer Service Phone Call Count

In the same way, this KPI tracks and records the number of calls your customers are placing to the customer service department.

76. First Response Time (FRT)

First response time refers to the time between a customer’s inquiry and when you respond to it.

The FRT KPI measures how long it takes a customer to receive their first response and reflects the responsiveness of your customer service team.

77. Hit Rate (HR)

Your product hit rate is calculated by taking the sales generated by that product and dividing it by the number of customers who contact your customer service department regarding that product.

78. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Frequently, ecommerce businesses can use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to gauge customer loyalty and increase sales.

With this KPI, you can gain insight into customer loyalty and relationships by knowing if your customers will recommend your product to a friend or colleague.

79. Refund/Return Rate

Refund/Return Rate measures the number of refunded or returned products compared to the total amount of sales. 

Based on this information, you can project a business’s success and the overall satisfaction of customers.

You can measure this by looking at the number of returns or refunds your customers’ requests.

Refund/Return Rate = Refunded/Returned Orders in a Period / Total Orders in the Same Period

80. Service Escalation Rate (SER)

The KPI measures how often your support team has forwarded a customer’s call to a senior employee or supervisor.

Manufacturing KPIs for Ecommerce

Surprisingly, some ecommerce businesses involve manufacturing or partnering with contract manufacturers. 

Manufacturers have KPIs that measure the success of their processes, and you can apply these KPIs to measure your efficiency when sourcing products.

Using the top ecommerce KPIs for manufacturing, you can measure the efficiency and inefficiency of different parts of your manufacturing process. 

Here are a few examples of manufacturing KPIs for ecommerce.

81. Cycle Time

Using your cycle time KPI, you can maximize production efficiency by knowing how much time you spend manufacturing each product.

82. First Time Yield (FTY) and First Time Through (FTT)

First Time Yield (FYT) KPI measures the percent of the time that a service or product passes through a process step without any defects.

While the First Time Through (FTT) KPI measures the productivity, ability, skill, and quality of a company’s production process. 

It determines how many items are produced correctly without errors or rework as a percentage of the total units produced in a production process.

83. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

You can use this KPI to measure the performance and efficiency of your manufacturing equipment.

84. Overall Labor Effectiveness (OLE)

With the OLE KPI, you can measure the productivity of your employees when operating your machines.

85. Number of Non-Compliance Events or Incidents

Using this KPI, you can keep track of the number of incidents in your manufacturing facility. At all times, you should keep this number to the minimum.

86. Yield

This KPI refers to the number of successful products you have produced.

Ecommerce KPIs for Store Performance and Project Management

Is your online store’s performance in need of improvement? You need to track your ecommerce store performance KPIs to determine your success. 

Similarly, the perfect KPI mix for project management can be challenging for many ecommerce businesses. Perhaps they lack the proper knowledge or don’t have the right metrics in place.

The key performance indicators for project management indicate how well your team is performing.

You will need KPIs for tracking your workflow and project progress in your ecommerce business for any project or initiative you undertake.

So let’s take a quick look at some in this section. 

87. Budget

You can track specific amounts of money you allocate to specific projects using this KPI. 

By using this KPI, you will see when you are going over budget and need to make some adjustments.

88. Cost Performance Index (CPI)

By measuring Cost Performance Index KPIs, your company can determine the value of its resources.

You calculate this KPI using this formula:

Cost Performance Index = Earned Value / Actual Costs

89. Cost Variance

In this KPI, you compare your actual expenses with your predicted expenses.

90. Hours Worked

You can use this KPI to measure how much time your team spends on a project.

91. Return on Investment (ROI)

The return on investment (ROI) measures how profitable an investment will be for a company. It simply refers to the return on investment as compared to the amount invested.

As a result, this KPI projects how much money your business has earned based on your hard work and efforts.

How to Set Up & Measure Ecommerce KPIs for Success

To build a successful ecommerce business, you must measure your success. The following approach outlines how to measure and set up key performance indicators for ecommerce.

1. Focus on Relevant Ecommerce KPIs

When setting up your ecommerce KPIs, you should choose only the right ones relevant to your business. 

To do that, here are some key things to keep in mind:

• What is the niche or industry of your business?
• Do you have current business objectives and goals?
• Are you starting a new business or already operating one?

The correct answers to those questions will help you find the right ecommerce KPIs for your ecommerce business.

2. Define & Measure Ecommerce KPIs Accurately

When determining an ecommerce store’s performance, there are many great tools available for you. 

Google Analytics is one of the best and most popular tools. Using Google Tag Manager, you can also measure customized ecommerce key performance indicators. 

Using these tools, you can define and measure your ecommerce KPIs accurately. Your non-technical team can also use them to collect data without modifying the code.

3. Monitor Success with Realistic Benchmarks

Benchmarks are critical to your business’ growth because they allow you to distinguish between strategies that work and those that don’t. 

As such, you should only track your business’ success using realistic benchmarks. 

Listed below are some recommendations to benchmark your primary ecommerce key performance indicators:

• Identify your long-term business goals.
• Evaluate how well your site is performing currently.
• Decide where to direct your efforts.
• To track success, identify the relevant key performance indicators.
• Establish benchmarking procedures.
• Implementing, analyzing, altering, and repeating the process is necessary.

Example Key Performance Indicator Template Formats

You do not have to be a guru to set up a performance indicator format. 

Below are a few examples, each with the target and the key performance indicator:

Goal I: Increase conversion by 10 percent within six months

Relevant KPIs:

• Conversion rate.
• Competitive pricing.
• Shopping cart abandonment rate.

Goal II: 10 percent sales growth for the next year

Relevant KPIs:

• Conversion rate.
• Daily sales.
• Site traffic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wrapping Up

In the final analysis, we have outlined some of the top ecommerce KPIs in different niches and industries. 

But what makes a practical ecommerce KPI? There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this question. 

Remember, when setting up your ecommerce KPIs, always look for the ones relevant to your ecommerce business. 

Every business has different needs and goals, but the most crucial thing in determining your KPIs is identifying why you measure them. 

Is it for sales and marketing purposes or operational efficiency? 

Whatever the reason may be, make sure that whatever metrics you choose align with these objectives before setting up any reports or dashboards. 

We covered about 91 KPIs available to measure various aspects of your business, from customer satisfaction rates to cart abandonment rates.

So there’s bound to be something on here that will help get your ecommerce business back on track.

Choosing the right ecommerce KPIs, monitoring them, and taking the right actions will significantly contribute to the growth of your business.