If you’re a business owner, you likely already know how vital ecommerce can be for your business. After all, ecommerce has dramatically changed consumer behavior, from the things we buy to our shopping habits. With that said, there are many ways to leverage the power of ecommerce, from online advertising and building a website to ensuring your warehousing and fulfillment operations are reliable and efficient. But how about analytics?
In truth, ecommerce analytics can easily slip through the cracks with all of the other responsibilities you have on your plate. Some business owners may even be intimidated by the idea of tracking data. Yet making decisions based on ecommerce analytics is crucial to staying competitive and growing your business in today’s rapidly changing consumer environment.
Ecommerce Analytics, Explained
In short, ecommerce analytics involves collecting various data associated with your business and interpreting it to make decisions that ideally improve and scale your business, leading to more sales and growth. You can use ecommerce analytics to gain valuable insights into how your company is performing, such as the demographics of your customers, the number of transactions in a given period, and other specific measurements.
Implementing ecommerce analytics into your day-to-day operations can provide your business with several practical benefits. For one, it can give you tangible feedback on your marketing efforts. Ecommerce analytics make it easy to see which campaigns are working (and which aren’t) in real time, so you can make strategic decisions on where to spend your advertising budget.
Ecommerce analytics also unlock powerful information about your customers, from how they interact with your business and the types of people who visit your ecommerce site. This data can allow your business to personalize your marketing, website, and products for your target audience. And the data can help you forecast customer demand to ensure your inventory levels are prepared. You can even determine how your pricing influences customer purchases in order to find the best price point for the most profitability.
Commonly Measured Ecommerce Analytics
While there are all kinds of data points out there, there are a handful of foundational ecommerce analytics tracked by many businesses today. If you plan to leverage ecommerce analytics in your company, it’s important to start with these measurements:
Customer Lifetime Value - your customer lifetime value (CLV) indicates the predicted total revenue a customer will generate over the duration of their involvement with your company. The higher the CLV, the better.
Audience Data - customer demographic information, such as age, location, occupation, and income can shape your marketing strategy, product offerings, and business operations.
Conversion Rate - this is the percentage of website visitors who make a purchase or sign up for something (such as an email list). Lower conversion rates can indicate that your marketing needs improvement.
Average Order Value - also known as AOV, this metric calculates the average amount a customer spends per transaction. More money spent means more revenue in your pockets.
Tips for Optimizing Your Ecommerce Analytics
Stay Organized
As you begin implementing ecommerce analytics, you may be tracking data across different platforms. If so, it’s important to compile all of your data into one accessible location. Keeping your ecommerce analytics organized ensures you don’t miss vital information, and puts your team on the same page when making decisions.
Give Your Data a Purpose
It’s one thing to compile various ecommerce analytics. It’s another to actually do something with them. Before you even start incorporating ecommerce analytics into your company, you need to come up with overall goals you’re aiming for as a business. Then you can determine the ecommerce analytics you want to track and use the data with purpose to achieve your goals.
Create Standards Over Time
As you track ecommerce analytics in your business, make sure you’re measuring data over set periods of time. As you do, you eventually want to create data standards or benchmarks for each metric. This allows you to measure the success of marketing initiatives and make business decisions based on how your ecommerce analytics compare to your established standards.
Smart Warehousing: Your Ecommerce Analytics Logistics Partner
While ecommerce analytics can make a positive impact, it’s best to embrace these metrics in every aspect of your business, including your supply chain. That’s why working with a reputable 3PL that can improve your warehouse and fulfillment operations through ecommerce analytics is so vital.
That’s where we come in. At Smart Warehousing, we’re experts at utilizing ecommerce analytics in the supply chain to help optimize your inventory, enhance your logistics, and ultimately keep up with your growing customer demand. To learn more about how we can help your ecommerce logistics thrive, request a quote today.