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Top 18 Ecommerce KPIs to Measure Business Success in 2024

Reports suggest that the ecommerce landscape is projected to grow significantly in the next 5 years. Despite the projections, in the post-pandemic world, the industry faces various challenges, such as reduced customer confidence, inflation, supply chain issues, and unemployment. These factors resulted in negative growth in the ecommerce sector for the first time in many years (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Factors that resulted in negative growth

An illustration showing that factors such as reduced customer confidence, inflation, supply chain issues, unemployment resulted in reduced growth in the ecommerce sector. Reinstating the importance of tracking ecommerce KPIs
Source: Statista

Reports also show that people are spending money, which they spent on online shopping during the pandemic in other areas, such as travel (Figure 2). To thrive in this challenging environment, online businesses need to keep a close eye on their performance by tracking the right metrics.

In this guide, we’ll explore the importance of ecommerce KPIs, how an ecommerce analytics platform can help manage KPIs, and list the top 18 KPIs you should be monitoring to optimize your business performance.

Figure 2. The focus of consumer spending changes

A graph showing the people who were spending more on online shopping during the pandemic are now using that money for other activities such as travel, offline shopping, etc. Reinstating the importance of monitoring ecommerce KPIs.
Source: Statista

What are ecommerce KPIs?

Ecommerce Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) are measurable values that help businesses track, evaluate, and optimize their performance over time. By setting specific targets and monitoring progress, KPIs enable online businesses to identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions to achieve their goals and gain competitive intelligence.

Why is tracking KPIs crucial for ecommerce businesses?

Tracking KPIs is vital for ecommerce businesses for several reasons. KPIs:

  1. Provide insights into the overall health of your business and help you identify trends, challenges, and opportunities. 
  2. Allow you to set clear objectives and measure progress towards those goals. 
  3. Enable organizations to make data-driven decisions to improve their customer experience, streamline their operations, and ultimately drive growth.

The challenge of tracking ecommerce KPIs

Despite their importance, tracking KPIs can be a challenging process due to the significant amount of data available and the need to prioritize the most relevant metrics. Measuring internal KPIs is straightforward since it requires working with internal data which is already stored and available to use.

On the other hand, external KPIs can be rather challenging to measure. This is mainly because external data, such as data on competitors, market activity, etc., is not always easy to access and gather. And data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) make the job even harder.

Another challenge is related to the changes a business goes through. As your company grows and evolves, so do your KPIs, making it essential and difficult to continually evaluate and update your measurement strategy.

An all-in-one ecommerce analytics tool can help you track and manage relevant ecommerce KPIs and the data related to them. Bright Data offers Bright Insights, which is an AI-powered platform that helps ecommerce businesses monitor and manage relevant KPIs. The platform offers:

  • Data analytics of multiple competitors
  • Track competitor pricing for their products and services
  • Monitor competitor product catalogs to help you improve yours
  • Monitor consumer sentiment toward your brand
A visual showing bright insight's features including tracking e-commerce KPIs

Top 18 ecommerce KPIs to measure business performance

This section highlights some of the important key performance indicators that every online retailer should have in their performance measurement strategy. The KPIs are divided into external and internal categories. Some examples are also provided to clarify the KPIs further.

External KPIs

These KPIs use internal organizational data:

1. Competitor Sales Growth Rate

The Competitor Sales Growth Rate measures the percentage increase in sales for a specific competitor within a given period.

Example

Suppose a sports apparel retailer wants to compare its sales growth rate with that of its primary competitor. In Q1, the competitor’s sales amounted to $500,000, while in Q2, they reached $550,000. The sales growth rate for the competitor would be calculated as follows:

An image showing the formula of sales growth rate KPI, which is one of the external ecommerce KPIs

In this case, The competitor’s sales growth rate is ((550,000 – 500,000) / 500,000) * 100 = 10%.

2. Competitor Pricing Index

The Competitor Pricing Index is a KPI that compares the average price of a product offered by an ecommerce business with the average price of the same product offered by competitors.

Example

Suppose an online electronics retailer, called E-shop, sells a popular smartphone model for an average price of $400. After conducting research on five competitors, E-shop finds that the average price for the same smartphone across these competitors is $420. The Competitor Pricing Index for E-shop would be:

An image showing the competitor pricing index formula which is one of the external ecommerce KPIs

Here, E-Shop’s Competitor Pricing Index is (400 / 420) * 100 = 95.24%.

You can also use automated price monitoring tools to track this KPI more efficiently and accurately.

3. Market Share

This KPI refers to the percentage of the total market revenue attributed to a specific ecommerce business, highlighting its relative size and competitiveness within the industry.

Example

If the total revenue generated by all online retailers selling smartphones in a specific market is $10,000,000 and Amazon’s revenue from smartphone sales is $1,000,000, Amazon’s market share can be calculated with the following formula:

An image showing the market share KPI formula, which is one of the external ecommerce KPIs

Amazon’s market share in this scenario is (1,000,000 / 10,000,000) * 100 = 10%.

Internal KPIs

4. Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the percentage of the visitors of the website who complete an action, such as subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase. Monitoring this KPI helps you identify the effectiveness of your website and marketing strategies in driving sales.

Example

An online clothing store records 1,000 visitors in a day, with 50 making a purchase. Their conversion rate would be 5%.

5. Average order value (AOV)

This metric estimates the average amount a customer spends per order on your website. Tracking AOV helps you understand your customers’ spending habits and develop strategies to increase revenue.

Example 

A tech store has total sales of $10,000 from 100 orders. Their AOV would be $100.

6. Customer lifetime value (CLV)

CLV estimates the total revenue a customer generates for you over their entire relationship with your company. It helps understand the long-term value of your customers and allocate resources to retain and acquire profitable ones.

Example

A skincare brand calculates its average CLV as $600, allowing it to optimize its customer acquisition and retention strategies.

7. Cart abandonment rate

The average shopping cart abandonment rate continues to be a challenge for online retailers (Figure 3).

Cart abandonment rate is another crucial KPI which refers to the number of customers who add items to their carts but do not checkout or complete the purchase. Monitoring this KPI helps you identify issues in your checkout process and address them to improve conversion rates.

Figure 3. Average shopping cart abandonment rates by medium

An image showing the market share KPI formula which is one of the external ecommerce KPIs
Source: Baymard Institute

8. Revenue growth

Revenue growth measures the increase in your ecommerce business’s revenue over a specified period. This KPI is crucial for evaluating your overall financial health and the effectiveness of your strategies in driving sales and profitability.

Example

A jewelry store’s revenue increases from $50,000 in January to $60,000 in February. Their revenue growth would be 20%.

9. Return on investment (ROI)

ROI calculates the profitability of your marketing campaigns and other investments by comparing the return generated to the initial cost. A positive ROI indicates that your investment was worthwhile, helping you make informed decisions on future campaigns and resource allocation.

Example

An online bookshop spends $5,000 on a marketing campaign that generates $15,000 in revenue. The campaign’s ROI would be 200%.

10. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

CAC is the average cost a business spends on acquiring a new customer through marketing and sales efforts. Monitoring this KPI helps you assess the efficiency of your customer acquisition strategies and determine if they are sustainable in the long run. If you are spending more on marketing for a customer segment that results in a lower CLV, then you are investing in an unfruitful affair.

Example

A fitness apparel store spends $10,000 on marketing and acquires 200 new customers. Their CAC would be $50.

11. Retention rate

Retention rate measures the number of customers who continue to make purchases from your ecommerce store over time. A high retention rate indicates strong customer loyalty and satisfaction, contributing to long-term revenue growth.

Example

An online grocery store retains 800 customers out of the 1,000 they had at the beginning of the year. Their retention rate would be 80%.

12. Churn rate

Measuring the churn rate helps identify how many customers stopped buying from your online store within a given period. Monitoring churn rate helps you identify issues that may be driving customers away and allows you to take corrective actions to improve retention.

Example

An online subscription box service loses 60 customers out of 1,500 in a month. Their churn rate would be 4%.

13. Net promoter score (NPS)

NPS is used to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. This is calculated by asking customers how likely they are to recommend your business to others. A high NPS indicates a strong customer base and positive word-of-mouth marketing potential. It is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (customers that say negative things about your brand) from the percentage of promoters (opposite of detractors). 

An image showing the formula of calculating NPS which is one of the most important ecommerce KPIs
Example

A cosmetics retailer has an NPS of 75%, indicating a high level of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

14. Website traffic

Website traffic is a self-explanatory KPI. It is the number of visitors who arrive at your online store’s website within a given time frame. Monitoring website traffic helps you gauge the effectiveness of your marketing and SEO efforts and helps identify opportunities for improvement.

Example

A home decor store attracts 30,000 visitors in a month, indicating strong marketing strategies driving traffic to their site.

15. Bounce rate

Having high website traffic is not necessarily a positive indicator. It is important to keep visitors on your site longer and reduce bounce rates. Bounce rate helps measure the number of visitors who leave your ecommerce website after viewing only the first page. A higher bounce rate may indicate issues with your website’s user experience or relevance to visitors, prompting you to improve your site’s design or content.

Example

A pet supplies store has a bounce rate of 70%, suggesting a need for improvements to its website’s user experience or content.

16. Email open rate

Email open rate helps measure the percentage of recipients who open your marketing emails. Tracking this KPI helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and optimize your subject lines and content to improve engagement. The average email open rate can be different from industry to industry (Figure 4).

Example

A toy store has an email open rate of 25%, indicating that its email marketing efforts are capturing the attention of a significant portion of its subscribers.

Figure 4. Average email open rate by industry

A bar chart showing the average email open rates by industry. This chart can be used to calculate ecommerce KPIs.
Source: Hubspot

17. Social media engagement

Social media engagement measures the number of likes, shares, comments, and other interactions on your ecommerce store’s social media posts. This KPI helps you gauge the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy and allows you to make data-driven decisions to optimize your content and increase brand awareness.

Example

A boutique fashion store receives an average of 500 likes, 50 comments, and 20 shares per post on Instagram, indicating strong engagement and interest in its content.

18. Mobile conversion rate

This KPI is the same as ‘customer conversion rate’, but is specific to the mobile website or app users. It measures the percentage of visitors using mobile devices who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase. Monitoring this KPI helps you evaluate how good your mobile channel is and optimize the user experience.

Example

A sports equipment store has a mobile conversion rate of 3%, suggesting potential improvements needed in their mobile app’s user experience to increase conversions.

Conclusion

Using the right ecommerce KPIs is crucial for businesses looking to optimize their performance and achieve long-term success. By focusing on the KPIs outlined in this guide, you can gain valuable insights into your business’s health, make data-driven decisions, and stay ahead of the competition. 

Keep in mind that tracking KPIs is an ongoing process that can become challenging as your business grows and evolves. Leveraging a sophisticated tool can help streamline this process.

Further reading

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Principal Analyst
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Shehmir Javaid
Shehmir Javaid is an industry analyst in AIMultiple. He has a background in logistics and supply chain technology research. He completed his MSc in logistics and operations management and Bachelor's in international business administration From Cardiff University UK.

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