Do you want your online store to generate profit and continue to grow? Then it is important to monitor the main indicators of your website’s performance. Let’s take a look at the key metrics that contribute to increased sales and website efficiency. We’ll find out how to measure these metrics and what you can do to improve them.
Number of visitors and traffic sources
This metric shows how many potential customers visit your website over a specific period. Google Analytics (the “Sessions” metric) and similar analytics systems can help you monitor traffic.
It is also important to know where your visitors come from. They may arrive through paid advertising, social media, or organic search. Why is it important to monitor traffic? Because when traffic is low, there will be fewer sales. This is true even when the conversion rate is high. By analyzing traffic channels, you can identify which sources are the most effective and which ones need further development.
Use Google Analytics to view the number of sessions and the channels that generate the most visits. Built-in traffic source reports allow you to find out how many customers came specifically from advertising, search, or social media.
What should you do if traffic is low? In this case, it is worth investing in SEO as well as advertising — contextual or targeted. Advertising should be optimized, with a focus on channels that have the highest conversion rate. For example, if you receive few customers from organic search, try focusing on keyword optimization. If you notice a high bounce rate (discussed below), meaning that users quickly leave the website, you should check the relevance of your landing pages and optimize their loading speed.
Conversion rate
The conversion rate shows how many visitors to an online store purchase a product. It can be calculated using the following formula: conversion rate = (number of purchases ÷ number of visitors) × 100%. For example, if 5,000 people visited the website and 100 made a purchase, the conversion rate is 2%.
Why is it important to track conversion rate? It shows how effective your website is — whether it successfully turns visitors into customers. Even a small increase in conversion rate can result in significantly more sales without the need to attract additional traffic.
You can also track and calculate conversion rate in Google Analytics using the “E-commerce” report. Alternatively, you can simply divide the number of orders by the number of visitors. It is important to analyze this metric across different channels and devices, as well as for new and returning customer segments.
To increase conversion rate, you need to test and optimize your website. Use A/B testing for different versions of product pages and checkout pages. It is also worth testing and improving usability. Simpler navigation, faster page loading, and a streamlined payment process can all help.
Content quality is equally important. Product descriptions should be clear and include a sufficient number of images and reviews. Sometimes, even changing the color of buttons or the order of fields in a form can increase conversion rate. For example, if you notice that many customers reach the shopping cart but do not complete the payment, you should simplify the process. You can remove unnecessary steps or fields from the form.
Average order value (AOV)
This refers to the average amount that one customer spends per order. It can be calculated using the following formula: average order value = total revenue ÷ number of orders.
A high average order value directly affects your profit. Increasing AOV does not require you to increase traffic or advertising costs.
A high average order value means that each customer spends more, which directly affects your profit. It is important to note that increasing AOV does not require additional traffic or higher advertising costs. The revenue of an online store depends on the growth of its average order value.
How can you track it? Sales reports in your system, such as a CRM, CMS, or Google Analytics, can help. They can show the average order value for a day or month. You can also calculate it manually using total revenue and the number of orders.
What can help increase this metric? You can offer customers more expensive product alternatives or bundles that include additional products. Blocks such as “Other users also bought” or “Recommended products” can help with this. You can also encourage customers with bonuses for reaching a certain purchase amount, such as free shipping or a discount when buying several units of a product. Promotional products can also be offered. These are methods commonly used by marketers.
Bounce rate
The bounce rate shows how many potential customers viewed a page on your website but did not continue browsing and instead left the site. In other words, they did not interact with the website after viewing the homepage or a product page.
If the bounce rate is high, it may indicate that the page content is not interesting to the customer or that the traffic is not targeted. When customers leave quickly, it may also mean that they did not find the information they needed or that the page takes too long to load. This affects sales because the customer does not even have an opportunity to begin the purchasing process.
You can track the bounce rate in Google Analytics and other analytics systems. It is important to monitor the overall bounce rate for the website as well as for individual pages and traffic channels. For example, the bounce rate may be high for an advertising campaign. In this case, you may need to adjust the audience or change the landing page.
To reduce the bounce rate, you should improve content quality and UX. It is important that headings and descriptions fully match users’ expectations from search results or advertising. Make your website load faster. Also check whether the website works correctly on mobile devices. Additionally, you may need to add clear calls to action and navigation to the page. If a page has a high bounce rate, it is worth checking for technical errors.
Cart abandonment rate
This metric shows how many customers added products to their cart but did not complete or pay for their purchase. According to research, the percentage of abandoned carts can reach 60–70% or even higher.
It is worth remembering that an abandoned cart is a great opportunity to bring customers back through simple actions. Your revenue depends on this metric. But how can you track it? Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce or your platform dashboard can also help. To calculate it, divide the number of users who added a product to their cart but did not purchase it by the total number of users who started the checkout process. It is also important to analyze every step of the checkout process: the number of people who reached the delivery selection stage and the number who reached the payment information stage.
To reduce the number of abandoned carts, you need to simplify the checkout process, for example by removing unnecessary steps or fields from the form. Autofill functionality and purchase incentives can also help. Use remarketing and email reminders.
It is also important to check all technical aspects. For example, review the payment page. Sometimes people do not complete a purchase because the website does not offer convenient payment methods for them. A bonus can be a strong incentive to complete a purchase. Studies have shown that 54% of customers complete their orders when they receive a discount on a product.
Conclusion: the importance of these 5 metrics
By continuously monitoring these 5 metrics, you can increase your revenue. This allows you to use methods that improve the speed and convenience of the checkout process. For example, revenue can grow through increased traffic, improved conversion rates, higher average order value, and optimized shopping carts. And any technical issues can be resolved with the help of professionals. We are ready to help you with this.
