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Ecommerce has gotten to be a very hot topic these days and there is still no “bible” for a relatively new discipline due to the immense scope and details. One of the most interesting, and most asked about, topics for eCommerce is to measure how successful of an eCommerce website is.  In this article, I will talk about some important/critical metrics for a successful eCommerce (Magento) web store and how you can utilize them as a measurement for your website time after time, so you won't be purposeless moving forward through your company's growth.

Website Related:

With Google Analytics properly set up on your Magento website, you can easily get the following data:

  • Visits
  • Unique visitors
  • Bounce rate
  • Avg pages per visit
  • Avg time spent on the site
  • Top 10 visiting sources
  • Top 10 referral sites
  • Click through rate for different links on the landing page
  • eCommerce conversion rate
HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY MEASURE YOUR ECOMMERCE WEBSITE - Google Analytics

You will need to review this data habitually.  I would recommend looking at the data at least once a week to see how the performance of your website is.

Website Usability and Usage Related:

  • Click through rate for special banner/event
  • Clicks needed for an order
  • Shopping cart abandonment rate
  • Top product pages by views

These are about the usability of your website.  A quick tip if you are looking to iterate or redesign your website is to think more before those design conversations and prepare more before the development of the website.  Once you have completed your website take advantage of social media to get feedback and after you launch the website provide the best user experiences to your customers.

Financial Related:

  • Total gross revenues
  • Gross & net profit
  • Sales per customer
  • Sales per visits
  • Cost per visitor
  • Cost of returns
  • Gross margin by product type
  • Marketing fee
  • Operating fee

The most exciting part of the Magento eCommerce will be to see your revenue from the site. These data will definitely be an important metric of your Magento eCommerce site.   A lot of this information will need to come from the accounting database of records, like Quickbooks.  You can estimate these pieces of data but you may need to take a day and sit with your accountant and get 'real' numbers.

Customer Related Metrics

  • No. of registered customers
  • No. of orders
  • Avg. sales per customer
  • No. of new customers
  • No. of returned customers
  • Top 10 customers’ location
  • No. of items per order
  • No. of abandon cart
  • Customer satisfaction
  • No. of customers signed up for newsletter

The customer-related metrics are the ones for you to better analyze your customers. Find out what the customers actually need and try to increase the satisfaction of your customers.

HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY MEASURE YOUR ECOMMERCE WEBSITE - Magento Dashboard

Marketing Related

  • Reach No. of each of the marketing activities you do (Facebook campaign, Newsletter, etc)
  • Click through rate for each of the marketing activities (Facebook campaign, newsletter, Google Ad, etc)
  • No. of the coupon/discount code redeemed
  • Customer conversion rate
  • Campaign: No. of impression vs No. of click-through rate
  • Campaign: No. of orders
  • Campaign: Avg. order value
  • Campaign: Sales conversion rate (sales/no. of visits)

The Marketing related metrics are very important for you to plan and set up campaigns for your Magento eCommerce websites.  Depending on your channels you will need to aggregate data across multiple areas such as Social Media, Youtube, email marketing, etc.

Operation Metrics:

  • Avg. order processing time
  • Avg. order delivery time
  • Rate of return orders
  • No. of packet loss

Operation metrics are the ones for you to review so you can reduce your operating cost for your eCommerce site.  While there isn't always a fine-tuned metric to cost savings by being more efficient it will raise morale and throughput which leads to the culture and the bottom line.

The above metrics will help you, your ecommerce manager, or CEO measure how successful your Magento eCommerce website is.

If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to leave comments and we’ll keep updating this article.

Take your research a step further by diving into this article: The Low Impact Manifesto: Organic Basics’ 10 Guidelines For Building Greener Websites

Related read: 10 Best Ecommerce Analytics Software for Trend Analysis

By Michael Cristancho

I'm a Digital Commerce and Experience evangelist who enjoys engaging in thought-provoking conversation and mutual exploration. I am a strong believer that learning never ends, and each day brings another opportunity to grow as an individual and professional.