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In This Article:
What is E-commerce Performance Analytics
Importance of Speed in E-commerce SEO
Key Metrics for E-commerce Performance Analysis
Conversion Rate Optimization
Average Order Value
Customer Acquisition Cost
Customer Lifetime Value
Tools for E-commerce Performance Analytics
How Speed Affects SEO for E-commerce
Best Practices for Enhancing E-commerce Performance
E-commerce performance analytics can help an e-commerce business to better understand customer behavior and increase sales. They provide data that can help you provide an optimal user experience, refine your marketing efforts, and create effective cross-selling strategies. Read on to learn more about the benefits of e-commerce analytics.
What is E-commerce Performance Analytics
E-commerce performance analytics provide store owners with data about the store's performance, going beyond just sales and cart abandonment. They also provide metrics, aka quantifiable, measurable information, about user or customer engagement and experience, as well as operational efficiency.
Importance of Speed in E-commerce SEO
Did you know that speed is one of the most important criteria in how people are sent to your store by search engines? Not just Google, but other search engines rank e-commerce sites by speed. The faster your store and products load, the lower your bounce rate will be.
Key Metrics for E-commerce Performance Analysis
Key metrics help to identify areas for store improvement, identify strong marketing channels, and guide good customer segmentation strategies.
1. Conversion Rate Optimization
Metrics about conversion rates help you to understand how website traffic can translate to buying customers. For example, Cart to Buy rates tell you how many customers put an item in their cart and then complete a purchase.
2. Average Order Value
Average order value (AOV) can determine facts about which items are most frequently purchased and combined with other items. Combined with demographic information, AOV can help determine how effective your marketing strategies are, as well as product performance and pricing.
3. Customer Acquisition Cost
It's difficult to plan your marketing efforts without understanding your customer acquisition cost (CAC). CAC varies depending on the type of store or industry. Fashion and home goods stores may spend anywhere from $30 to $100 to acquire a customer, while the overall average CAC for all e-commerce stores is $70, according to First Page Sage.
4. Customer Lifetime Value
Also known as CLV, Customer Lifetime Value is as important a performance metric as CAC. CLV tracks how much the customer will spend over their lifetime of purchasing from your store. The average “lifespan” of a customer for e-commerce is five years, and the average CLV is $168.
These figures are averaged across all e-commerce brands and stores, but they can be much higher. For example, Starbucks' CLV is over $14,000 and their average customer lifespan is 20 years.
Tools for E-commerce Performance Analytics
Online stores can use several tools to analyze their performance and improve sales and profitability. They include:
1. Google Analytics for E-commerce
Google Analytics will track your e-commerce store's traffic, user experience, and flow of behavior across your store. It will identify metrics like cart abandonment rate and how customers are proceeding through your entire sales funnel. Advanced features in Google Analytics can provide precise, segmented data.
2. Shopify Analytics
Built-in into Shopify, the platform's analytics offer insights into your store's sales data, including average order value and sales by category and product. Shopify Analytics will also give you customer reports that can include metrics like CAC and CLV. Advanced features can link to external analysis tools and deeper analysis to help build your store's performance.
3. BigCommerce Analytics
BigCommerce Analytics provides a high-level store overview that will tell you total sales, orders, and customer value, as well as average order value (AOV). It will also provide analytics for products, conversion rates, and customer behavior. Marketing information from BigCommerce Analytics provides sales by channel, CAC, and CLV.
How Speed Affects SEO for E-commerce
As we briefly discussed, how fast your store, products, and processes perform will influence how search engines rank your store. Here are some factors that Google and other search engines track and use for search engine optimization (SEO) and ranking purposes.
1. Page Load Time and User Experience
If pages or images on your site take too long to load, it will downgrade your store's search engine rankings. Google and other search engines track page experience metrics like how long it takes the largest elements on a page, usually pictures, to load.
2. Impact on Bounce Rate
If your site takes too long to load, you'll experience a bounce rate of 60% or greater. Bounce rate means how many people visit your website, but leave because they don't see what they're interested in quickly enough. The faster your site operates, the lower your bounce rate will be. Fast sites equal longer visits by customers, as well as lower cart abandonment rates.
3. Mobile Optimization
Over half of e-commerce now takes place via mobile devices, and more and more customers are shopping using their phones every year. Customers also may choose to shop and view products using their phones, completing purchases later on their desktop or laptop computers. E-commerce stores need to have optimal navigation and usability for mobile consumers. This includes touch-friendly designs and easy-to-use checkout experiences.
Google (and other search engines) also index e-commerce sites based on mobile performance. If your site isn't optimized for mobile users, you will automatically be downgraded in search results.
Best Practices for Enhancing E-commerce Performance
Here are some of the best practices we advise to build your e-commerce store's performance:
1. Optimizing Website Speed
Optimizing the speed of your site will benefit many dimensions of store performance, from improving your search rankings to improving customer experience. Fast sites have lower bounce rates and higher sell-through rates. Users have better experiences on fast sites, and you will experience lower rates of cart abandonment and can even potentially see higher customer lifetime value (CLV).
2. Utilizing A/B Testing
A/B testing allows you to test how well different versions of product pages, landing pages, and other elements of your e-commerce store perform. You can use A/B testing to decide the effectiveness of different product page formats, calls-to-action, and social media campaigns.
3. Implementing SEO Strategies
Putting effective SEO (search engine optimization) strategies to work in your store can move your store higher in search engine result pages (SERPs). Good SEO strategies can quickly result in more customer visits, as well as long-term growth in site traffic.
4. Enhancing Mobile Responsiveness
With a significant portion of shopping done on smartphones and tablets, a mobile-friendly design will improve user experience, increase engagement, and reduce bounce rates. A seamless mobile experience can lead to higher conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction.
5. Leveraging High-Quality Product Images
High-quality images help customers make informed purchase decisions by providing a clear view of the product. Implementing zoom features, multiple image angles, and high-resolution visuals can enhance product presentation, reduce return rates, and increase customer trust in your store.
6. Streamlining Checkout Processes
A smooth e-commerce checkout process can significantly impact your store’s conversion rates. Minimize the number of steps required to complete a purchase, offer multiple payment options, and ensure that the checkout process is secure and user-friendly to reduce cart abandonment and enhance customer satisfaction.
7. Personalizing Customer Experience
Personalization can greatly enhance the shopping experience by tailoring recommendations, offers, and communications to individual customers. Use data analytics to understand customer behavior and preferences, and apply this information to create personalized experiences that can increase customer loyalty and drive repeat sales.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is E-commerce Performance Analytics?
Analytics for e-commerce offer measurable, quantifiable data about your store's performance.
How can I improve my e-commerce site's speed?
There are several ways to improve your site's speed, from selecting a high performance host or dedicated server to optimizing the images that appear on your site. Other technical strategies, like minimizing HTTP requests and minifying and deferring CSS, JavaScript, and HTML, can speed your site.
Why is speed important for SEO?
The entire structure of how search engines rank sites is based on speed and a high-quality user experience. Slow sites risk low or no visibility, low organic (unpaid) visits, and as a result, fewer customers and fewer sales.
What tools can help analyze e-commerce performance?
Google Analytics and Google Search Console provide information about visitors to your site, including data about traffic sources and user behavior. Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and others will provide analytics for store performance, marketing campaigns, and customer insights.
How do I measure conversion rates?
There's a basic math formula that will tell any store owner what their conversion rate is: the number of purchases made, divided by the number of visitors, multiplied by 100. So, if 100 people visit your store and five make a purchase, your conversion rate is 5%.
Conclusion
How your e-commerce store performs directly influences how many customers will come to the store, and how many will buy your products and services. Transform Agency has been helping e-commerce businesses perform better since 2009, and can help your web store perform at its best. Contact them today to optimize your store performance.
A seasoned product manager specializing in e-commerce, Helen excels in market analysis and strategic marketing for Magento platforms.
A seasoned product manager specializing in e-commerce, Helen excels in market analysis and strategic marketing for Magento platforms.
