E‑commerce Metrics Every Business Owner Should Track

When you’re first starting out, it can be tempting to just focus on making sales. But if you want your business to grow, you need to start tracking key metrics from the beginning. Doing so will give you a clear picture of how your business is performing and where you need to make improvements.

E-commerce metrics are basically statistics that track how well your online store is performing. By tracking these metrics, you can identify areas where you need to make changes, and measure the success of those changes.

What are e-commerce metrics?

E-commerce metrics are performance indicators that businesses use to measure progress and success in their online sales efforts. They can cover a wide range of areas, from website traffic and conversion rates to customer satisfaction and average order value.

By tracking key metrics, businesses can identify areas where they are performing well and identify opportunities for improvement.

While every business will have different e-commerce goals, some common reports and analytics that are worth tracking. These include website traffic, conversion rate, abandoned cart rate, average order value, and customer satisfaction. By tracking these metrics, businesses can get a better understanding of their online sales performance and make changes to improve their results.

What is the difference between a KPI and a metric?

E-commerce metrics and KPIS are both marketing terms everyone should know, but a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a specific number you want to improve. For example, your goal might be to increase your website’s conversion rate by 2%. In this case, your KPI would be the conversion rate.

A metric is a measure of something. In the example above, the metric would be website traffic. It’s important to track both KPIs and metrics because they can give you different insights into your business’s performance.

For example, let’s say you want to increase your website’s conversion rate. You might look at your website traffic metric and see that you’re getting a lot of traffic, but your conversion rate is low. This could mean that your website isn’t designed well for conversions or that your product pages aren’t compelling.

On the other hand, you might look at your conversion rate metric and see that it’s high, but your website traffic is low. This could mean you must focus on driving more traffic to your site.

So, while key performance indicators are specific numbers that you want to improve, metrics are measures that can give you insights into what you need to do to improve your KPIs.

Why tracking the right metrics is essential for growth

Most online business owners check their numbers when something goes wrong, like when sales dip, traffic drops, or a campaign underperforms. But waiting for a problem to appear before looking at your data means you're always playing catch-up.

Tracking e-commerce metrics consistently gives you a clearer, more honest picture of how your business is actually doing so you can act on what the numbers are telling you before small issues become big ones.

Shifting from reactive to proactive data analysis

There's a huge difference between glancing at your dashboard after a bad week and making data review a regular habit.

When you track metrics on a set schedule, patterns start to emerge. You notice when customer behavior shifts, when a traffic source starts underperforming, or when your marketing efforts aren't delivering the return they used to. That kind of visibility lets you make smarter decisions, not just faster ones.

The goal is to build enough familiarity with your numbers that you can spot something worth investigating and respond before it costs you.

Setting benchmarks for your specific industry

Not every metric will look the same across industries, and that matters when you're evaluating your own performance. A 2% conversion rate might be strong in one category and underwhelming in another. Without benchmarks, it's hard to know whether the numbers you're seeing are something to build on or something to fix.

When you start tracking key e-commerce metrics consistently, you create your own baseline, and that's often more useful than industry averages. Your historical data tells you what's normal for your business, your audience, and your seasonal patterns.

From there, you can set realistic targets, measure progress against them, and make adjustments that are grounded in something concrete.

Key e-commerce metrics to track

There's no shortage of data available to online store owners. The challenge is knowing which numbers actually deserve your attention. Some metrics give you a direct read on how your marketing and sales efforts are performing.

Others reveal friction points in the customer experience that are quietly costing you conversions. The ones worth tracking consistently are the metrics that tell you something actionable, not just something interesting. Here's a look at the most important ones to have on your radar:

Customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total amount of money a customer will spend on your products or services throughout their relationship with your business. This key metric is important because it helps you to assess the long-term value of your customers.

How to calculate CLV?

You can try different ways to calculate CLV. Still, the most common method is to take the average order value and multiply it by the average number of purchases per customer.

Here's the formula to calculate customer lifetime value:

Customer Lifetime Value = Average Order Value x Average Number of Purchases

For example, let’s say that the average order value on your website is $100 and the average customer makes 3 purchases per year. In this case, your customer’s lifetime value would be $300.

This metric is important because it helps you to assess the long-term value of your customers. If you know that the average customer is worth $300 to your business, you can be more aggressive in your marketing and acquisition efforts.

How to improve CLV?

The most common way to improve CLV is by increasing the average order value. This can be done by upselling and cross-selling products on your website.

Another way to improve customer lifetime value is to increase the number of purchases customers make. This can be done by creating loyalty programs or running marketing campaigns that encourage customers to buy more frequently.

Customer retention rate

It’s the percentage of customers who continue to do business with you after their first purchase. This metric is important because it helps you to assess how well you’re retaining your customers.

How to measure customer retention rate?

You can calculate rates in many ways, but the easiest method is to take the number of customers at the start of a period and divide it by the number of customers at the end.

Here's the formula to measure the customer retention rate:

Customer Retention Rate = Customers at the Start of the Period / Customers at the End

For example, let’s say that you had 100 customers at the start of the year and ended with 80. In this situation, your customer retention rate would be 80%.

This metric is important because it helps you to assess how well you’re retaining your customers. If you have a high customer retention rate, you’re doing a good job of keeping your customers happy.

Why is customer retention rate important?

Some of the few reasons why the customer retention rate is so important are listed below:

• It's easier and less costly to keep existing customers than it is to acquire new ones.
• Existing customers are more likely to buy from you again.
• Existing customers are more likely to refer new customers to you.
• Existing customers are more likely to provide valuable feedback.

If you're not tracking the customer retention rate, now is the time to start. It's one of the most important metrics for e-commerce businesses and can give you insights into the health of your business.

Sales conversion rate

Sales conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who make a purchase. This is probably the most important metric for any e-commerce business, as it directly measures the success of your online store in converting visitors into paying customers.

• Some of the smart recommendations to improve your sales conversion rate include:
• Improving the design and user experience of your website
• Making sure your prices are competitive
• Offering discounts and promotions
• Improving your product descriptions
• Making it easy for customers to find what they're looking for on your website

How to calculate the sales conversion rate?

To measure your sales conversion rate, just divide the number of sales by the visitors to your website. For example, if you had 100 visitors to your website and 10 made a purchase, your sales conversion rate would be 10%.

The formula for sales conversion rate is:

Sales Conversion Rate = Number of Sales / Number of Visitors

Why is the sales conversion rate important?

Your sales conversion rate is important because it tells you how effective your website is at converting visitors into paying customers.

If you have a low sales conversion rate, it means that most people who visit your website are not buying anything from you. This could be because of several factors, such as high prices, poor product descriptions, or a confusing user interface.

Improving your sales conversion rate is one of the most effective ways to increase revenue for your business. Even a small increase in conversion rate can have a big impact on your bottom line.

What is a good sales conversion rate?

There is no magic number when it comes to the sales conversion rate. The average sales conversion rate for e-commerce websites is around 2-3%. However, the best-performing websites have conversion rates of 10% or higher.

Customer acquisition cost

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total amount you spend to bring in a single new customer. It accounts for everything from paid ads and content creation to sales team costs and software — any expense tied to converting potential customers into buyers.

Keeping a close eye on this number helps you understand whether your marketing and sales efforts are actually paying off.

How to calculate your CAC?

The formula to calculate CAC is straightforward: divide your total marketing and sales spend over a specific period by the number of customers acquired during that same time.

CAC = Total Marketing and Sales Spend ÷ Customers Acquired

For instance, if you spent $6,000 on marketing in a month and gained 100 new customers, your CAC would be $60. Once you know that number, you can compare it against your average order value and customer lifetime value to see whether your acquisition spending is sustainable.

Why is CAC a critical health indicator?

CAC is one of the most telling marketing metrics for any e-commerce store. If it keeps climbing without a corresponding increase in revenue growth, that's a signal something in your sales funnel needs attention — whether it's ad targeting, landing page performance, or the offer itself.

When CAC is low relative to what customers spend over time, your business strategy is working. When it's high, you're likely leaving money on the table.

How to lower your customer acquisition cost?

There are several ways to bring CAC down without sacrificing the quality of the customers you're bringing in. Here are a few worth prioritizing:

• Focus on retention: Investing in customer loyalty programs gives existing customers a reason to keep coming back, which means you're spending less to replace them with new ones. Repeat customers are almost always less expensive to maintain than new ones are to acquire.
• Improve your targeting: Reaching the right audience means fewer wasted impressions and clicks. Refining who you're targeting in paid campaigns can have a significant impact on what you're spending per new customer.
• Lean into organic channels: SEO and email marketing tend to have lower long-term costs than paid acquisition. Building these channels up reduces your reliance on paid spend over time.
• Test your checkout flow: Small improvements to landing pages, ad copy, or the path to purchase can increase conversion rates and bring your cost per acquisition down without increasing your budget.

Average order value

Average order value (AOV) measures how much customers typically spend in a single transaction on your e-commerce site. It's a straightforward metric, but it has a direct impact on your bottom line, and it's one of the fastest ways to grow revenue without increasing your traffic.

How to calculate AOV?

Divide your total revenue over a given period by the number of orders placed during that same time.

AOV = Total Revenue ÷ Number of Orders

For example, if your store brought in $20,000 from 400 orders last month, your AOV would be $50. Most analytics tools will surface this automatically, but it's worth knowing how the number is built so you can identify what's moving it up or down.

Why does AOV matter for profitability?

When you increase AOV, you're getting more revenue from the same number of website visitors — without spending more on acquisition. That directly improves your margins.

Tactics like product bundling, upsells at checkout, and minimum order thresholds for free shipping are all designed to nudge customers toward spending a little more per order. Even a modest increase, applied across hundreds or thousands of transactions, adds up quickly.

Shopping cart abandonment rate

Cart abandonment rate tracks the portion of website visitors who add items to their cart but leave without buying them. For most online businesses, this number is higher than expected, and it represents real revenue that's within reach.

How to measure cart abandonment?

Divide the number of completed purchases by the number of shopping carts created, subtract from 1, and multiply by 100.

Cart Abandonment Rate = (1 − (Completed Purchases ÷ Carts Created)) × 100

For example, if 500 people created a cart and 150 completed a purchase, your abandonment rate would be 70%. Tracking this consistently helps you determine whether checkout issues are getting better or worse over time.

Why do customers leave without buying?

There's rarely one single reason why customers abandon carts, and that's part of what makes it tricky to address. Shoppers might leave without completing a purchase due to:

• Unexpected costs: Shipping fees, taxes, or other charges that appear later in the checkout process can stop a purchase in its tracks. Customers who feel surprised by the final price are much more likely to walk away.
• Complicated checkout: Too many steps, required account creation, or a process that feels slow will push people to leave. Reducing friction here is one of the more reliable ways to improve customer satisfaction and recover lost sales.
• Just browsing: Some shoppers add items to their cart as a way of saving or comparing — they were never fully committed to buying. Retargeting campaigns and cart abandonment emails can help bring some of these shoppers back.
• Trust concerns: If your site doesn't look secure or professional, shoppers may hesitate to enter their payment information. Clear trust signals — like reviews, secure payment badges, and a clean design — go a long way.

Return on ad spend

Return on ad spend (ROAS) tells you how much revenue you get back for each dollar spent on marketing or advertising. It's one of the most direct ways to evaluate whether your paid campaigns are working, and it belongs in any set of basic e-commerce metrics you're tracking on a regular basis.

How to calculate ROAS

Divide the revenue earned from your ads by the total amount spent on those ads.

ROAS = Revenue from Ads ÷ Ad Spend

For example, if you spent $1,000 on a campaign and it generated $4,000 in revenue, your ROAS would be 4:1. That tells you that for every dollar you put in, you got four back.

What is a good ROAS for e-commerce?

There's no universal benchmark for ROAS. The right number depends on your margins, your business model, and what you're selling. That said, a ROAS of 4:1 is often cited as a reasonable starting point for many e-commerce businesses.

Higher-margin products can sustain a lower ROAS and still be profitable, while lower-margin products need a higher return to justify the spend. The most important thing is knowing your own numbers well enough to determine what ROAS actually means profitability for your business, and using that as your target.

Bounce rate

A "bounce" arises when someone visits your site and then leaves without taking any further action. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who visit your site and then "bounce" away again.

Why is a high bounce rate bad?

A high bounce rate indicates that people are coming to your site but not finding what they're looking for. This could be because your content is irrelevant to their needs or because they can't find their way around your site easily.

Either way, it's important to try to reduce your bounce rate if you want to improve your website's performance.

How to calculate your bounce rate?

To calculate your bounce rate, divide the number of people who visit your site and "bounce" away by the total number of people who visit your site. For example, if 100 people visit your site and 60 of them leave without taking any further action, then your bounce rate would be 60%.

Here's the formula:

Bounce rate = (Number of people who bounce away / Total number of people who visit your site) x 100

What is a good bounce rate?

There is no hard and fast rule for a "good" bounce rate. It will vary depending on your industry, business goals, and other factors. However, as a general guide by SEMRush, a higher bounce rate (above 40%) is usually considered to be bad, while a low bounce rate (between 26%-40%) is usually considered to be good.

How can I reduce my bounce rate?

You can try several ways to reduce your bounce rate, including:

• Making sure your content is relevant and useful to your target audience
• Improving the navigation and usability of your website
• Using effective calls to action to encourage people to stay on your site and take further action
• Testing different design elements to see what works best for your visitors

By tracking the bounce rate and taking steps to reduce it, you can improve the overall performance of your website.

What should you do with all this data?

Now that you know what key e-commerce metrics you should be tracking, it's time to start putting this knowledge into action. Use these metrics to track the performance of your website and identify areas where you need to improve.

For example, if your sales conversion rate is low, try testing different design elements or improving your product descriptions to see if you can boost conversions.

Remember, the key is to keep track of these metrics regularly and use the data to inform your decisions about how to improve your website. By tracking these e-commerce metrics, you can ensure that your business is on the right track to success.

If you need help getting started, or if you're not sure which metrics are most important for your business, consider partnering with Mailchimp, which has over 2 billion data points from which to garner smart recommendations.

We can help you identify the key e-commerce metrics you should be tracking and provide guidance on how to improve your website's performance. We can also add valuable insights into automation and time-saving tools for a more efficient operation.