Lesson 10: Measure success
As the saying goes, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” which is overwhelmingly true with eCommerce stores. Once you launch, how will you be able to know how your store is doing? In Course 5, we talk about how Google Analytics (GA) can be useful for measuring your SEO. As luck would have it, GA can also measure and track every aspect of your website, including your store.
KNOW YOUR VOCABULARY: KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIS)
A key performance indicator, or KPI, is a quantifiable measure used to evaluate an organization’s success and serve as a benchmark when comparing across time and competition.
Ten common KPIs to track for your online store
You can use Google Analytics to understand who your customers are, where they are coming from, how they spend their time on your site, where you lose them, and so much more. You’ll want to identify your KPIs to give you a better understanding of how your store is performing over time. Here are the top ten KPIs to track for your online store.
- Revenue/sales
Total sales throughout a specified period. - Average order size
Average order size of a customer on a single order. - Site traffic (including source)
Total number of visits to the eCommerce site. - Conversion rate
Rate at which users are converting/buying. Total number of visitors divided by total numbers of conversions. - New versus returning customers
Comparison between new and returning customers. Highlights loyalty and potential affiliates or advocates for the company. - Subscriber growth rate
Depicts the growth of the subscriber list. - Social media followers
Followers on all social media channels. Useful for gauging loyalty and brand awareness. - Social media engagement
Measures interactions for your brand on social media. - Click-through rate
Tells the percentage of users who click on a link or asset. - Cart abandonment rate
How many users add products to cart without checking out.
Use Google Analytics to visualize your data
By tracking these KPIs over time, you gain the ability to see what the best and worst-performing parts of your site are, allowing you to adjust your website and store accordingly. Google Analytics helps visualize the data in various charts, tables, and graphs to help you understand the story of what the customers are doing on your website.
For eCommerce specifically, you can assign values to your customers in Google Analytics so you can understand which regions, cities, channels, keywords, or referrals drive the most revenue for your business. Want learn even more about how to leverage KPIs for your business? Check out this super helpful article here.
We’ve just covered a ton of information! Hang in there, we’ve got a couple of lessons to go. Now might be a good time to stand up and take a stretch. When you’re ready, let’s move on to learn about how to leverage GoDaddy’s Marketplace and social media.