Once you’ve launched your new ecommerce store, whether this is built on Magento or Shopify, you will want to evaluate its success.
You may have implemented a full redesign, you may have worked with a CRO partner or you may have replatformed altogether to a new solution. If this is the case, you will likely need to set targets for your store to fully evaluate how successful the launch was.
Whilst you will always be measuring sales and revenue, which other targets should you set for your new ecommerce store?
#1 – Conversion rate
The most common metric that ecommerce stores measure is conversion rate and for good reason. Conversion rate is a good way to understand whether your new site is converting more visitors to customers than before.
However, many ecommerce stores don’t fully evaluate conversion rates of customer segments. What is your conversion rate across different product ranges? What is your conversion rate across different customer groups? What is your conversion rate across customer acquisition channels?
These are all areas of your conversion rate that will be useful for you when it comes to understanding the success of your new site.
#2 – Checkout abandonment rate
Another area of your site you should be measuring and setting targets for is your checkout abandonment rate. How many visitors abandon their cart without purchasing?
Your cart and checkout is one of the most important areas of your site. If a customer has reached this stage, they are invested in your brand and ready to purchase. If you have a high basket or checkout abandonment rate, you are losing out on key revenue.
It is also worth exploring which stage of the checkout is causing issues for you – is it the cart, delivery, billing or confirmation stages? Knowing this will help you fix any problems with your checkout abandonment rate.
#3 – Average order value
Another often overlooked metric is average order value. Most ecommerce stores keep an eye on average order value, but very few set this as a target when launching a new site.
You may increase this through conversion rate optimisation projects, a new reward points scheme or more effective upsell messages through the conversion rate.
If you can increase your average order value marginally, you can see huge increases in revenue that you may have missed out on before.
#4 – Pages to purchase
How streamlined is your customer journey? How many pages on average does it take for a customer to make a purchase?
This metric naturally will vary from industry to industry, but it’s a good benchmark to use when measuring how easy it is for a customer to make a purchase.
You may want a short customer journey, or you may find a longer journey is needed. Either way, set a target for this metric and work towards it if you’re looking to optimise your checkout process.
#5 – Visibility in organic search
A new site can have a huge impact on your organic search presence, for better or worse. If you haven’t worked with an SEO partner on your new site, you may see a significant drop in visits from search.
Alternatively, if you have worked with an SEO partner, you may see a huge increase because your new site is better built for search visibility.
Organic search can be one of your biggest drivers of traffic, and so it is worth setting some targets here for your new site.
#6 – New vs. returning customers
Similarly, many ecommerce stores don’t pay too much attention to the new vs. returning customers metric. When you launch a new store, this can be an interesting one to set a target for.
Good ecommerce stores will differentiate a customer journey for new or returning customers, either through the use of on-site personalisation or just through marketing efforts.
Returning customers are unexpectedly more likely to convert and more likely to spend more, and so do you have set targets for increasing this metric?
Keeping an eye on this metric and setting targets here can be useful for continued growth.
#7 – Cost per acquisition
Finally, we also wanted to share insights into cost per acquisition too. Many ecommerce stores leave this metric up to the marketing team or marketing agency. However, when you launch a new site it is crucial to keep a close eye on this metric and set targets.
A new site can significantly increase your cost per acquisition if there are on-site issues, or it can help support your marketing efforts by drastically decreasing your cost-per-acquisition too.
Do you have a set target for cost-per-acquisition during your site launch?
Set targets that are useful for you
When it comes down to measuring the success of a new store, every store is different. Every store is structured slightly differently and whichever metrics are important will vary.
However, it is important not to overlook some of the metrics mentioned here. Small incremental increases in these metrics can deliver significant results.
If you want to find out more about our post-launch ecommerce usability testing or conversion rate optimisation services, then get in touch.
