4 e-commerce metrics to analyse to make more sales

Most people hate data. I hated data and disliked analysing it even more. But it now I understand how powerful it can be, it excites me! It is one of the most important things a small business can spend a little bit of time on each week. Or at least each month, to help make more sales and grow your jewellery brand.

If you don’t know where you started or where you’ve been, it’s unlikely you’ll know where you’re going.

But with all of the data available on your website, what pieces are the most important part to the puzzle? Each website hosting platform can have slightly different terms for all these metrics but you should be able to divine what each one is fairly easily. To my mind the top four most important basic metrics to look at are; traffic, conversions, average order value and returning customer rate.

Traffic

Meaning all of the people arriving on your website. Within traffic there are multiple metrics to keep an eye on. Unique visitors focuses on individual visitors. Page views shows how many pages those individual visitors look at. Traffic sources gives you insights into where these visitors are coming from, this info is invaluable for figuring out what you need to be focusing on to get more people onto your site.

If your traffic rate is low you know you need to be working on getting more people there. This is where your Traffic sources metrics come into play. Direct traffic means people specifically searching for you. Social are generally platforms under your control like instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. Getting more active on Instagram, for example, can drive more traffic to your bio link and getting more people onto your site. When posting on Instagram don’t forget to add a Call to Action (CTA) “visit the link in my bio” or “click the link to shop”. Referral traffic is generally any visitor who comes to your site via another platform. Sometimes this can include an Instagram link platform like Linktree or Bio.site but more importantly it shows who else is mentioning you online. It could be an influencer has included you in a blog. If your referral traffic is low you know that you need to get more social and reach out to people and platforms for features.

Overall, if you think your traffic rates are low you can improve it by getting more active on social media platforms. Not just the platforms you think you should be on but the platforms you know your ideal customers are on. If you are doing a lot on socials than maybe you need to change the type of content you put out or maybe you should focus on collaborations and seeking mentions from other likeminded creators.

Conversions

The average conversion rate of e-commerce brands is truthfully very low. 2% - 3% might seem minuscule but these are the figures you should be hoping to achieve at a minimum. If your traffic rate is low but your conversion rate is at the 2% - 3% mark then you know getting more people onto your site is what you need to focus on. If your traffic is high but conversions are low than you can glean that there could be issues with the journey your site takes your customer on. Maybe there are broken links or confusing content. Your product pages might be lacking the info or images a visitor needs to be to become a customer.

Average Order Value (aov)

This number will be completely unique to your product price point but as with most things, the higher the better. Make each sale work harder than you rather than you working harder for it.

You can increase the amount each customer spends by offering extras like gift wrapping, polishing cloths or replacement earring backs to mention just a few. You could also consider offering jewellery sets. Earrings and a necklace which work well together for example. You could offer a slight discount on these bundles as a sweetener to perspective buyers, just make sure they know they are getting a better deal.

Returning Customer rate

Often overlooked but to my mind this is one of the most important metrics for small businesses. The main point of difference small businesses enjoy when compared to big business is you, and that personal touch a customer can only get from dealing with a small and passionate team who work hard for each sale. The better the experience of each customer the more likely they are to come back to you again and again and better yet refer you to someone else who will love your band.

If your returning customer rate is low, below 30%, you need to consider making some changes. Are your customers suffering a lot of breakage and needing repairs made? This will of course reduce the likely hood for them to return to you no matter how lovely you were when dealing with the issue. Is your packaging or delivery offering disappointing? No matter how clear you are about your delivery times, a long wait will frustrate a customer. Worse yet, when they do receive their package and are disappointed with the packaging it can turn someone off completely.

A lot of time an energy is spent on acquiring new customers and more followers but you shouldn’t forget about the following you already have. Using your precious mailing list to increase your returning customer rate is easy. If you have little time to spend on it, create automated emails to bring people back to your website regularly. If they have bought from you before or have signed up to your mailing list they are much more likely to spend.

I hope these points are helpful to you when analysing your website metrics. If you are in need of extra support within your business or want to dig deeper into how you should be looking at data you can always get in touch.