3 Invaluable Customer Metrics to Help You Step Up Your E-Commerce Game

When someone says “shopping,” many people think of walking into a store and picking things off a shelf. But that picture is changing more rapidly than ever. U.S. consumer spending on e-commerce in Q1 2018 edged above $100 billion for the first time. That’s a 14.1% jump over last year. E-commerce has officially entrenched itself as a force to be reckoned with.

Truly understanding your customer will help retailers secure more sales consistently. For most e-commerce businesses, the CRM platform is typically your first stop for reliable customer data from multiple sources. It’s not your CRM platform or process that matters, it’s the data points you end up tracking that make the difference between coasting along and making a splash. So let’s take a peek at three critical customer metrics that no e-commerce business can afford to ignore.

1. Customer Engagement Metrics

Customer engagement data like email open rates, click-through rates, and social media likes and shares, are a critical part of understanding and tapping the right set of customers, at scale. A customer’s engagement with your brand shows how well your target audience identifies with your brand, how adeptly you’ve communicated your message, and how likely they are to patronize your brand.

A positive brand image has a waterfall effect that extends beyond just the engaged user. A positively engaged user shares word of mouth about your brand and recruits new customers for you at zero cost. Not only does strong engagement lead to multiple purchases over time, but it also means you have to spend less on promotions like coupons or discounts for an engaged customer over the long run. In a poll as part of the Lenati Loyalty Driver Modeling study, a whopping 96% of marketers agreed that customer engagement has contributed to their business performance. Engagement metrics that drive revenue from an e-commerce perspective include:

Another benefit of measuring engagement rates is that you can create laser-focused communications for highly engaged users who are more likely to promote your brand in their own circles.

2. Customer Visit Behavior

Once you start getting a reasonable level of qualified traffic, the next key step is measuring how often a customer returns to your site. that 48% of all online revenue in the U.S. comes from returning visitors. Each visit is an opportunity for a sale. Customers’ browsing and buying frequency need to be captured within each customer’s profile in your CRM system, to enable you to create personalized messaging. Messaging for a one-time customer would be very different from a customer who’s returned three or more times. 86% of online shoppers say that personalized messaging help in their purchase decision.

Let’s say Customer A visited your site three times in the last month and searched for men’s skinny denim jeans each time. You now know that this is a serious customer who’s well down the purchase funnel and would very likely convert if given just the right incentive. The solution? Send them a coupon with an abandoned cart email for the product they want.

One-time visitors who’ve abandoned carts can also be tempted to complete their transaction with hyper-personalized abandoned cart emails like the one below:

Knowing the frequency of purchase for every customer and prospect helps you build cohesive segments that look and behave similarly. You can then design targeted promotions for each customer based on their shopping behavior

3. Transactional Data

What happens in a transaction often reveals more than what happened Tracking transactional data is a critical step in identifying high-value customers and separating them from the low yield, high-cost ones. A solution like Shopify Plus offers built-in marketing automation features that automatically tags and segments your customers and uses integrated point-of-sale (POS) data to track their purchases and activity across offline and online channels like your physical store, website as well as social media.

Once you’ve built up such an omnichannel tracking capability, two key metrics to monitor within your transactional data are Average Order Value (AOV) and Margin. Shoppers spent on average 5.6% more per e-commerce visit in Q1 2018 versus Q1 2017, according to Salesforce’s Shopping Index Q1 2018. AOV for Q2 2018 was $120 per transaction. AOV helps you create future revenue projections and refine your merchandising strategy. You see this in action in the example below. makes it a point to showcase lawn mowers in a narrow price range, similar to the item a customer has already selected. Margin per customer helps you focus your marketing efforts on profitable customers.

4. When Data Becomes Revenue

With every piece of data you track, ask yourself, “What is this data going to tell me?”, “Will this information help me sell better?” and finally, “Will this insight make my customers’ experience better?” Once you have a positive and clear answer to each of these questions, dive right in and measure your way to e-commerce riches!