E-commerce Analytics: Metrics That Matter
E-commerce analytics provides the data to understand performance, identify opportunities, and make evidence-based decisions. The discipline spans acquisition analytics (how customers arrive), behaviour analytics (how they interact), conversion analytics (what drives purchase), and retention analytics (what drives repeat purchase).
Acquisition Metrics
- Traffic by channel: Organic, paid, email, direct, social, referral — volume and quality by channel
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Total marketing spend ÷ new customers acquired. Critical for understanding unit economics.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Revenue generated ÷ advertising spend. Measures paid channel efficiency.
Conversion Metrics
- Conversion rate: % of sessions resulting in a purchase. Benchmark: 1-3% for fashion; 3-5% for consumables
- Add-to-cart rate: Measures product page effectiveness
- Checkout completion rate: Measures checkout experience; high abandonment indicates checkout problems
- Average Order Value (AOV): Revenue per transaction. Increasing AOV through upsell, cross-sell, and free shipping thresholds is high-ROI.
Retention Metrics
- Repeat purchase rate: % of customers who make a second purchase within X months. Most important retention indicator.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Total expected revenue from a customer over their relationship
- Cohort analysis: Track retention by acquisition cohort — which periods, channels, and campaigns produced the most loyal customers?