Ecommerce Benchmarks: KPIs to Track for Online Success

By: Mary Ponder

At a glance

• The main takeaway: Ecommerce KPIs are significant metrics that provide businesses with data-driven insights on the progress of their online stores.
• Impact on your business: Regularly tracking KPIs provides guidance on how your business is performing and can help set up your business for success.
• Next steps: Aprio’s Managed Services eCommerce Team can help business owners understand what KPIs to monitor for better strategic decision-making.

Schedule a consultation

The full story:

Ecommerce KPIs are significant metrics that provide businesses with data-driven insights on the progress of their online stores. These KPIs allow business owners to identify areas for improvement, optimize marketing strategies for continuous growth, and improve overall operational efficiency.

What are the main ecommerce KPIs?

There are many KPIs that can be used to monitor and track the success of your business, but it all depends on your set goals and objectives. Remember, not all business owners share the same “big picture” when it comes to growing their business. Below, we have outlined several standard KPIs that can provide you with valuable insights and set up your business for success.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors going to your website or landing page that convert or complete a desired action. Conversion actions can be categorized in many ways, such as clicking a link on your site, completing a form or survey, adding products to an online shopping cart, signing up for an email newsletter, or subscribing to a service.

Conversion rates are calculated by simply taking the number of conversions and dividing that by the number of total ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same period of time. For example, if you had 50 conversions from 1,000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 5%, since 50 ÷ 1,000 = 5%.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value is the total worth to a business of a customer over the whole period of their relationship. It is calculated by multiplying your customers’ average purchase value, average purchase frequency, and average customer lifespan. CLV is an important metric as it costs less to keep existing customers than it does to acquire new ones, so increasing the value of your existing customers is a great way to drive growth.

The ratio between CLV and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) determines the profitability of your business. A healthy CLV:CAC ratio is at 3:1. You should avoid going lower than the recommended ration to reduce chances of your business being at risk.

Take a look at the formula below:

Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate is the percentage of existing customers who remain customers after a given period. It can help you better understand what keeps customers stay with your company and can also provide insights and opportunities to improve customer service and experience.

Average Order Value (AOV)

Average order value is an ecommerce metric that measures the average total of every order placed with a merchant over a defined period of time. To calculate your company’s average order value, simply divide total revenue by the number of orders.  

Cart Abandonment Rate

Cart abandonment rate is when a potential customer adds a product to the online shopping cart of an ecommerce site but doesn’t proceed to checkout and complete the purchase. They may abandon because they aren’t ready to buy and use their cart as more of a “wish list” as they browse and compare prices.

Add to Cart Rate

The add-to-cart rate is the percentage of visitors who place at least one item in their cart during the session. Add-to-cart rates are important to track, since they can tell you about the success of your product selection, marketing efforts, and site usability.

To calculate, take the total number of sessions where someone adds an item to the cart and divide it by the total number of sessions. 

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition is an essential ecommerce KPI that shows you the average cost to gain one new customer. The CPA calculation is calculated by dividing total marketing costs in a given time period by the number of new customers in the same time period.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is a simple ratio that divides the net profit (or loss) from an investment by its cost. The most common calculation is net income divided by the total cost of the investment, or ROI = net income / cost of investment x 100.

The bottom line

These essential ecommerce KPIs are your guides to understanding your business’s performance. They provide data-driven insights on each operational aspect of your business, from marketing to sales to customer service and experience.

Aprio’s Managed Services eCommerce Team can help with tracking KPIs while you focus on growing your business. Our team helps ensure your books are organized and can even support the core financial aspects of your business.

Related Resources/Assets/Aprio.com articles/pages

Accounting Outsourcing Services

KPIs in ecommerce: Measuring the success of online stores

Expert-Recommended eCommerce KPIs: The Essential Guide to Tracking Performance in 2023