I was talking to someone the other day about their online business. She was telling me how business had improved since she started marketing on the internet. When I asked her how much the internet had helped her, she couldn’t answer the question.
When it came right down to it, she really didn’t know why her revenue was growing. She knew it had, but she couldn’t identify anything specific she’d done. Nor could she tell me what was working and what wasn’t.
Like so many businesses out there, she hadn’t put any measurements in place. She wasn’t tracking how many people visited her site, how long they stayed on her site, if they requested any additional information, or if they made a purchase.
When it comes to Ecommerce and Digital Marketing, you need to put specific and relevant measurements in place.
How do you measure the success of your online store? Sales of course. But is that the only thing you should track?
Where did the sale come from? Was it related to that really cool Google Ads campaign you ran? You know the really slick one that marketing expert got you to pay for. Or, did it come from somewhere else? Maybe a great review by a previous client, or someone just bragging on Facebook about the wonderful new sweater they bought from your online store.
Without measurements, how are you going to know what to do again, and what to stop doing right now?
What should you track and measure? For starters, you might consider tracking and measuring the following:
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Shopping cart abandonment rate
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Email opt-ins (if this applies to you)
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Sales conversion rate (how many visitors to your site actually buy something)
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Digital Marketing ROI (what’s your digital marketing costing vs how much it’s bringing in)
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Revenue by traffic source (who’s sending paying customers your way and who isn’t)
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Web traffic (how many people visit your site)
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Returning customers
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Average Order Value
The above are a few examples of some of the things that are critical for you to track and measure to ensure your web store continues to grow!
