New to eCommerce? Here are the 6 Website Metrics for Beginners to Track

Technology
December 15, 2021

J.D. Crabtree

Director of Marketing
at
Yaguara
J.D. is a marketing and strategy leader who is fascinated with data modeling & insight, product innovation, growth strategies, and go-to-market campaigns that take brands to the next level.

New to eCommerce? Here are the 6 Website Metrics for Beginners to Track

Whether you are starting a side hustle or are a traditional retailer venturing into eCommerce for the first time, the notion of tracking online metrics can feel like heading straight into a digital Bermuda Triangle. A flurry of industry terms are thrown at you on day one: Multi-Channel Funnels, Event-Based Tracking, Behavior Flow, Treemaps, Goal URLs, etc. The list is nauseating and infinite.

Mastering complexity, or better yet fostering simplicity, can reap major rewards for your bottom line and brain space. At Yaguara we work with eCommerce companies of all sizes who are looking to cut through the noise and focus on the results that matter most, instead of every result. Here are the six site metrics to keep your team hitting goals from the start:

Total Traffic

Traffic, the king and queen of any website, is a broad but clear metric to understand growth. Your website traffic is either growing or not growing. Simple. This metric in Yaguara makes sure your team pays attention to if there is an increase in traffic over time.

Total traffic encompasses unique and repeat website visitors—unique visitors contain your new visitors, while repeat visitors contain the visitors that keep coming back for more.

Bounce Rate

Your Bounce Rate is a percentage-based metric that will share when your lovely visitors completely leave your site, a.k.a. bounce. The lower the Bounce Rate means more engaged visitors, and high engagement is a guaranteed route to success. The higher the bounce rate means faulty design or storytelling, among other things.

Total Conversions

Google Analytics records a metric called a Conversion. This is determined when a website visitor performs a defined action anywhere on your site. In eCommerce you might think this would only be a sale, but there are several other events that should be considered a success:

- eBook downloads
- Newsletter sign-ups
- Social media shares
- Product video viewings
- Contact form submissions
- Anything else that displays serious interest

Conversion Rate

Next on the metric list is to dive a bit deeper in your Conversions. Your website’s Conversion Rate is a simple formula: Visitors divided by Conversions

As traffic increases, Conversion naturally increase, but that number can be even higher if your team keeps tinkering with the user journey and messaging for each Conversion.

New Customers Over Time

While total sales and returning customers are critical to long-term success, these metrics are impacted more by your product satisfaction and retargeting techniques, less by your website performance. A new customer means a visitor finally took the leap of faith, your team finally earned their trust. Having this raw number rise in Yaguara often means first-class growth.

Average Value of Abandoned Checkouts

What can be even more telling about your online checkout process is the value of your abandoned checkouts. Perhaps as the total amount adds up it appears aggressive towards a bank account, or the messaging doesn’t relay visitors into why certain items should be purchased together. By setting a preferred range for purchase abandonment your team can quickly recover if shoppers are becoming turned off to a rising dollar amount.

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Even the highest performing and tenured teams have to place a cap on tracking metrics and setting goals. A wise leader once stated, “If You Try To Serve Everyone In Your Business, You'll Serve No One Well”.

The same wisdom applies for your goals, and Yaguara is here to help you focus on the right ones.


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