17 Ecommerce Metrics Shopify Store Owners Need to Track

The best business owners know the importance of data. Metrics provide a clear picture of performance and deliver key insights that are crucial to growth.

Analyzing key ecommerce metrics tied to brand revenue, credibility, and customer base expansion means smarter, data-backed moves, and more revenue.

But which metrics should you track? Which are the most important? 
Here’s a list of the most important ecommerce metrics to track for your Shopify store so you’ll always know how your store is performing.

Let’s dive in.

Ready to save time by automating your business data? Install MESA to easily connect your system so you always have accurate data between apps.

Website Performance Metrics

You need to track certain ecommerce metrics to monitor your online store’s overall performance.

1. Website Traffic

This metric represents the volume of users who visit your online store in a given period. Website traffic is measured as “sessions” — or, according to Google, “a group of interactions that takes place within a timeframe.” 

How much traffic you receive is a measure of the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. For example, a dip in your website traffic after a campaign launch could indicate that the campaign wasn’t as successful as you hoped. You can take this information and figure out what went wrong and make improvements for your next campaign. 

While there are several ways you can drive traffic to your Shopify store through channels like social media, paid search, SEO, content marketing, and more, what’s key is driving the right traffic to your site. 
Focus on driving high-quality traffic (your ideal customer) to your site each month.

If your products exist on marketplace sites like Etsy or Ebay, this traffic is highly qualified to bring into to your branded shopping site.

2. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of users that land on your website and leave (or “bounce”) after viewing just one page. The shorter the amount of time people spend on your website, the higher your bounce rate.

There are various reasons for high bounce rates, such as poor UI/UX design, complicated or unorganized shopping processes, or a slow site speed.

To keep people browsing on your Shopify store, you can:

• Improve your website design. Ensure that your website design is attractive, easy to navigate, and most importantly, responsive on mobile devices. This is crucial since 73.1% of web designers believe non-responsive design is the top reason customers leave a site.

• Create a more personalized experience. Use live chat software and product recommendation plugins like Recommendly and Wiser to guide visitors to relevant products since 74% of users are more likely to purchase based on personalized recommendations.

• Speed up your ecommerce website. Speed is a non-negotiable in ecommerce these days. As many as 88.5% of users bounce from a site due to slow site loading. What’s more, even a 0.1 second site speed improvement in site speed will increase your conversions by 8.4% and average order value by 9.2%. 

• Streamline your shopping experience. Since 88% of buyers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience, fixing hiccups in your shopping experience is important for improving your bounce rate. 

Automation is one way to easily improve the overall customer experience. In fact, in 2020, 61% of businesses that used automation surpassed their revenue targets. With workflow automation, merchants not only save 10 to 50% of the time they spend on manual tasks but also often scale up revenue. To receive, manage, and track customer orders and improving the overall shopping experience, create workflow automations.

3. Average Session Duration

Average session duration is the average time a visitor spends on your store in a single visit (or session). This ecommerce metric helps gauge dwell time—or how long users spent on your site. 

If your store’s average session is above three minutes, your store is compelling and easy to navigate. 

A high average session duration could be as a result of:

• High-quality product images
• Relevant content to your target customers
• Compelling product descriptions
• Beautiful website design theme

4. Pages Per Session

Pages per session illustrate the number of web pages a user viewed in a single visit. 

This metric helps you gauge how interested your audience is in a certain product or page on your site. When you understand how potential customers are moving through your site, you can: 

• Implement an internal linking strategy. You can develop content and link-building structures that revolve around your high-value pages based on customer interest. Depending on your goal, you can maximize conversions by driving traffic to these pages.

• Use better calls to action. If users aren’t sure what to do after landing on a page, you could potentially lose them. It’s important to include clear, personalized calls-to-action on each page of your site to increase your conversions by as much as 202%. 

• Provide meaningful product recommendations. Knowing what interests your audience will help you create personalized product or content recommendations they’ll find useful. 

You can include your product recommendations in strategic places such as your product pages, checkout pages cart abandonment emails, product listing pages, and welcome emails (just to name a few.)

5. New vs. Returning Users

New vs. returning users analytics allow you to compare the number of new website visitors against returning users. It also indicates the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. This metric illustrates the most effective traffic channels, lead generation techniques, and marketing strategies for your ecommerce business.

For example, if a larger percentage of new users come from a traffic source, this means it’s more effective (and potentially profitable). 

Again, new users might spend more time navigating your website than returning customers. You can take advantage of this opportunity to offer incentives to new users with Shopify tools incentives tools like Smile, Growave, or ReferralCandy. 

For instance, you could offer:

• A discount off their first purchase
• A free gift with purchase. MESA has a simplified feature to help you do this

• Reward points per transaction, which they can use to shop after reaching specific numbers.
• Rewards for each new user they invite

How to View Your Website Performance Metrics

Check your Shopify store’s website performance metrics by following these steps:

1. Log in to your Shopify account
2. Navigate to the Analytics tab
3. You’ll see the sub-menu list: Dashboard, Reports, and Live Views. Check each option to track your ecommerce metrics. 

• Dashboard shows your Shopify store’s key sales, orders, and online store visitor data.
• Reports give insights into your store’s recent activities, visitors’ behavior, analyze website speed, and transaction details. 
• Live Views allows you to view the store’s activities in real-time. It also shows you where these activities are coming from location-wise.

To take your ecommerce metric analysis further, integrate Google Analytics with your Shopify store for additional tracking and analysis.

To measure website traffic, bounce rate, average session duration, page per session, and new vs. returning visitors using Google Analytics:

• Log in to Google Analytics > Reports > Audience > Overview.

You can get deeper insights into these ecommerce metrics’ analysis by logging in to GoogleAnalytics > Reports > Acquisition/Behavior.

Conversion Metrics

Driving traffic to your ecommerce website is just the first step. The next is to get those visitors to convert. Here are the conversion metrics you should be tracking.

6. Web Conversion Rate

Your Shopify conversion rate is the percentage of web visitors who took the desired actions on your online store. 

Considering the average conversion rate for ecommerce websites is 2.86%, you should keep tabs on your conversion rate to know if you’re getting the results you want. 

Conversions aren’t restricted to purchase. Some other types of conversions include:

• Opt-in to your mailing list
• Adding an item to their shopping cart
• Click an ad
• Shares of a social media post

7. Average Order Value

The average order value (AOV) is the amount a customer spends on purchases from your website. If you’re curious how your store stacks up, consider that the AOV for the ecommerce industry is about $116.

Evaluating this ecommerce metric helps you:

• Understand shopper behavior
• Develop more effective marketing solutions
• Build a better pricing structure

Here’s the formula to calculate your online store’s AOV: 

AOV = Total revenue generated ÷ The total number of orders

You can cross-sell and upsell complementary offers to boost your store’s AOV. These strategies allow your customers to get the most out of their purchases while making you more sales.

8. Cart Abandonment Rate 

Shopping cart abandonment is another essential metric to track. In March 2020 alone, Statista found that customers abandoned 88.05% of their shopping carts.

There are several things that lead to shopping cart abandonment, including:

• Shipping costs and duration. Jungle Scout found that 66% of customers expect free shipping for all their orders, and 70% would be upset if order delivery is late. Be sure to minimize shipping costs and deliver products on time. 

• Complex checkout system. A complicated checkout process could put off a potential customer resulting in cart abandonment. However, MESA’s workflow templates empower you to create a simple and streamlined checkout process. 

You don’t even need to be a major tech junkie before you streamline your store’s checkout process. With the visual workflow builder, you can create workflows to receive and track orders, shipping and fulfillment. 

• Single Payment Options. A study by Weave showed that businesses that provide multiple payment options observe an almost 30% increase in revenue.

• Slow Website Loading. Delayed load time can lead to shopping cart abandonment since a one-second delay in load time reduces page views by 11%.

Ultimately, you should strive to provide a smooth shopping experience for your customers.

Here’s the formula to calculate your shopping cart abandonment rate: 
CAR = (Total number of completed purchases ÷ Number of shopping carts customers created) × 100

9. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost is the amount you spend to acquire a customer.

Evaluating your customer acquisition cost provides an accurate look at the resources that go into getting a customer for your business. This metric helps you best decide which channels to which you should allocate your marketing budget. 

Tracking your CAC is even more critical now that the cost of acquiring new customers has increased due to Apple’s new iOS update. These data privacy changes have made it impossible for brands to target iOS users via advertising—not to mention how it limits tracking those customer analytics.

Here’s the formula to calculate your customer acquisition cost: 

CAC = Marketing costs spent to acquire customers ÷ Number of customers acquired during this period

10. Email Opt-in Rate

Email sign-up rate is the measure of new website visitors who subscribe to your email list.

The average opt-in rate across industries is 2.9%, so if you’re below this benchmark, consider several tactics for increasing your email opt-in rate:

• Create relevant lead magnets
• Use pop-ups to increase conversions
• Include sign-up bars in strategic places on your website like the footer, homepage, and sidebars
• Build and leverage social proof
• Promote your email on social media

Here’s the formula for email opt-in rate:

Email opt-in rate = (Total number of opt-ins ÷ number of signup page/form viewers) × 100

11. Email Click-Through Rate

The average email open rate across industries is 18.0% with an average email click-through rate of 2.6%. 

While it’s important to grow your email list, it’s important to prioritize email engagement. In other words, you want to create emails your subscribers actually read.

When your subscribers engage with your email, you can build relationships with them, which can eventually lead to revenue. 

So how can you tell if your subscribers are engaged readers? Email click-through rate is the percentage of email subscribers that open your email and click on hyperlinks within the email texts.  

To improve your email click-through rate, you should:

• Personalize your emails. Include your subscribers’ names in your email and speak directly to your readers using “you.” Use behavioral data to deliver personalized recommendations.

• Segment your subscribers. Organize your email list into different groups based on factors like opt-in source, interests, location, inactivity to deliver more relevant and tailored messaging. 

• Optimize your newsletter design. Use the principles of design to create visually pleasing and easy-to-read emails.

• Improve your copywriting skills. Start by making your subject line and preview texts compelling. Use calls-to-action to increase click-throughs.

Share relevant information. Stay up-to-date on your industry trends and share valuable resources your subscribers will appreciate.

12. Email Unsubscribe Rate

No matter how dedicated you are to making your subscribers happy, a few people will still unsubscribe.

According to Campaign Monitor, the average email unsubscribe rate is 0.1%. If you discover that you have a high unsubscribe rate, you’ll want to evaluate your email marketing strategy. A great way to start is to set up a survey form where users can share their reason for unsubscribing.

Customer Experience Metrics

Customer satisfaction is vital to the success of your ecommerce business. According to a report by Walker, 90% of customers will pay more for customer experience, which is why you should track metrics that capture how customers feel about your brand.

Here are the customer experience metrics to track for your ecommerce website.

13. Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate is the percentage of repeat buyers your business can maintain over a period. 

This is an important customer experience metric to watch because it allows you to better gauge your customer satisfaction with your business and products as well as the overall customer experience.

Since 81% of buyers trust recommendations from their family and friends over those from businesses, it’s a good idea to focus on improving your customer retention rate.

To do this:

• Create an excellent customer experience
• Implement loyalty programs 
• Ask and work on customer feedback
• Provide proactive support
• Give personalized recommendations

Here’s the formula for calculating customer retention rate:

Customer Retention Rate = [(Total number of customers – Number of new customers) ÷ Total number of customers before acquisition] × 100

“Customer retention rate is a great starting point to gauge the overall strength of an ecommerce business.” -Monish Datta, Growth at Candid

MESA also has a few templates to help you with customer retention along the way:

14. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value is the amount you expect an existing customer to spend on your business during their time as a customer. This ecommerce metric provides you with insights into your business such as your estimated revenue, financial viability, identification of high-value customers. 

According to Jonathan Dunnett, Founder and CEO of Enable Leaders, “I would expect customer lifetime value and conversion rates to be on the list, for sure. If a customer is only ever worth $5 and it takes you $10 to get a customer, you have a problem. If you get 1M visitors to your page and only one converts, you have another problem.”

A high CLV shows that your ecommerce brand has a happy customer base and healthy brand loyalty.

Customer lifetime value allows you to:

• Predict your revenue
• Measure your company’s quality and performance
• Create customer segments based on the value they bring to your business. This empowers you to run more effective promotions
• Foresee your business growth

Here’s the formula to calculate your customer lifetime value:

CLV = Average order value ×  Average number of purchases per year ×  Average retention time in years.

15. Net Promoter Score

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer satisfaction and brand advocacy measurement in which customers fill a survey form to rate their satisfaction and likelihood of recommending a brand.

Making sure your customers are satisfied could earn you not just repeat buyers but brand advocates. To increase customer satisfaction, be sure to:

• Measure customer satisfaction consistently
• Ask for feedback 
• Implement customer feedback
• Provide a smooth user experience. 

Satisfying your customers could also be as simple as reducing operational errors and managing orders quickly.

16. Return Rate

Shoppers returned products worth over $428 billion in 2020, which is why return rate is a major concern amongst ecommerce businesses. 

Take note of returned products: If several customers return a specific product, there could be something wrong with the product quality or functionality. 

For example, Joe could return a smartwatch to a watch store because he doesn’t like the texture or balance of the watch. That’s his preference issue. However, if five other customers return seven pieces of the same watch, it may be an issue of quality and functionality.

An effective way to reduce your return rate is to set clear expectations for your customers by implementing a generous return policy and making your product pages and descriptions extremely detailed. Here are a few MESA templates to get you started:

Revenue Metrics

One of the main goals of your ecommerce business is to drive revenue. As a result, you need to set and track certain revenue metrics to ensure your business is on the right path.

Here are the most critical revenue metrics you should evaluate:

17. Total Sales

The total sales or revenue your Shopify store generates is the amount of income you get from selling your products to customers within a period.

Reviewing the total sales you’ve had helps you understand: 

• Your customer’s buying behavior
• Your peak sales period.

This metric is helpful for noticing patterns in your customer’s shopping behavior. For instance, if your online store’s sales go up during an event or a certain day of the week, it makes sense to prepare in advance. 

Here’s the formula for calculating total sales:

Total sales/revenue = Quantity of products sold × Prices of products

Also, take time to analyze patterns in your total sales report. It could be because you sent an email campaign with an exclusive offer during this period or shared a post on social media highlighting a new product. This could be a great starting point for new campaign ideas and optimization efforts.

18. Revenue Per Traffic Source

This ecommerce metric represents the amount you generate per traffic source—like paid search, social media, and referrals. Knowing which traffic sources to invest your time and money in is a key part of smart marketing. And understanding your revenue per traffic source reveals which channels are making you the most money so you can double down.

Once you identify your most successful traffic sources, you’ll know where to focus your marketing. 

You can use Google Analytics to measure your revenue per traffic source:
Log in to Google Analytics > Reports > Acquisition > All Traffic

19. Gross Profit Margin

The gross profit margin is an ecommerce metric that differentiates your profit from your total revenue.

Gross profit margin is the amount of revenue you’re left with after subtracting the cost of goods sold (or the amount spent for production, marketing, and delivery). 

Here’s the formula for calculating your gross profit margin:

Gross Profit Margin = [(Total revenue – Cost of goods sold) ÷ Total revenue] × 100  

You can also make use of Oberlo’s gross profit calculator to calculate this quickly and accurately.

20. Net Profit Margin

Your net profit margin is similar to your gross profit margin. However, it’s a more in-depth profitability measure. Net profit margin is the percentage of net profit your online store generates.

In other words, it’s the sum of money left after accounting for outgoing and incoming cash flow like the cost of goods sold, affiliate earnings, and annual operational payments like website hosting and taxes.

Here’s how to calculate your net profit margin:

Net Profit Margin = (Total revenue – Total Cost) ÷ Total revenue

Ecommerce Metrics: What to Do Next

Now that you know the most important ecommerce metrics to track for your store, it’s time to get clear on what’s working and what’s not with your store and marketing strategy. 

We recommend you evaluate your ecommerce metrics at least once a week and at the very least every month. 

But don’t just stop at metrics. Ready to enhance your customer experience, increase website conversions, and boost revenue through ecommerce automation?