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Your Online Performance, Measure by Measure
You are probably aware of what KPIs are from your own work, as they are used across the spectrum of industry as a way to measure success. Key Performance Indicators allow you to understand what your business is doing well and what could be improved; this is particularly important in the run up to the Christmas and New Year period, which includes both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here are 3 KPIs you can use to measure your seasonal success.
Traffic
Online traffic indicates the number of customers that are available. This is an important figure as the total number of potential sales you can achieve is almost exactly the same as the total number of visitors who view your products. Obviously, less traffic means less sales which means less revenue - doubling online traffic during the festive period can double your profit even if the other factors, conversion level and mean value of orders, remain static.
Conversion
This is a measurement of how many sales you have achieved relative to how many visitors your website attracted, giving a good indication of which strategies are, or are not, working well. You could, for instance, compare the conversion rates of two products, one of which features a product video, to see how effective that particular strategy is in the context of your service and product portfolio. Interestingly, a very high conversion rate doesn’t necessarily mean a higher number of sales e.g converting 5% of 1000 visitors is better than converting 50% of 10 visitors.
You can also use conversion rates to better optimise your marketing strategy. If, for instance, the visitors from your social media marketing channel are converted more frequently than from email advertising campaigns, it could be beneficial to focus your energy on improving email and optimising social media further by gaining a deeper insight into what is working.
Transaction
Simply calculated and offering a significant picture of the success of e-commerce websites, this is a KPI that is directly related to your profit margins which means if you raise this figure, profit is certain to rise with it. As the average value of orders increases, e-commerce websites often benefit from a reduction in costs in relation to each of these orders. The cost reductions can come in many forms, such as lowered shipping costs through bundling items.
Boosting transaction size can be achieved in several ways, from offering free shipping to promoting related products and customer reviews. Special offers and discounts, such as multiple buys, help you to upsell on each order and are of particular importance to bargain-savvy online shoppers during the festive season.