25 Ecommerce Metrics To Measure Store Performance

“Ecommerce isn’t the cherry on the cake, it’s the new cake” – Jean Paul Ago.

You need specific insight to access this new cake. Many ecommerce teams have access to large amounts of data, but data alone isn’t enough. Measuring personalization accuracy, processing speed, and customer retention only shows part of the picture (Statista).

That’s where ecommerce metrics come in. Ecommerce metrics are measurable numbers that track how shoppers move through your store. They follow the customer journey from the first visit to checkout and beyond. These metrics show how well your store is performing and help you identify areas to improve and grow revenue.

The caveat? You need to track the right ones and know how to interpret what they're telling you. In this guide, you’ll learn what ecommerce metrics are, why they matter, and how teams use them across acquisition, conversion, revenue, retention, and operations to spot issues, improve performance, and support long-term growth.

You’ll also see how platforms like Zipchat help connect metrics to real shopper behavior by capturing intent in real time, showing where shoppers hesitate, and revealing what pushes them to take action.

Key Takeaways

• Ecommerce metrics show how shoppers move through your store and where problems occur.
• Metrics are different from KPIs. KPIs are the most important metrics tied to business goals.
• The right metrics highlight drop-off points across traffic, product pages, and checkout.
• Ecommerce metrics explain what drives revenue, not just total sales.
• Reviewing metrics often leads to better decisions and more accurate forecasts.
• Metrics work best when analyzed together, not on their own.

What Are Ecommerce Metrics?

Ecommerce metrics are measurable data points that track how an online business performs across traffic, conversions, revenue, customer behavior, and operations. They show how shoppers interact with your store and what outcomes those interactions produce.

It’s important to distinguish metrics from KPIs. Metrics include all measurable data points available to your business. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are the specific metrics you choose to prioritize based on your goals. In short, all KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs.

Why Ecommerce Metrics Matter

Ecommerce metrics matter because they turn raw data into insight. When tracked and interpreted correctly, they help teams understand performance at every stage of the customer journey.

• Identify where customers drop off
  Metrics reveal where shoppers leave, whether it’s after landing on a product page, adding items to cart, or during checkout, so teams know exactly where to focus improvements.
• Understand what drives revenue
  Revenue doesn’t happen by accident. Ecommerce metrics help connect traffic sources, conversion behavior, and order values to actual revenue outcomes.
• Improve decision-making
  Instead of guessing, teams can use metrics to validate changes, prioritize experiments, and allocate budget more effectively across marketing, UX, and operations.
• Forecast future performance
  Historical metrics make it easier to predict demand, plan inventory, and set realistic growth targets based on trends rather than assumptions.

25 Important Ecommerce Metrics To Measure Your Store’s Performance

Ecommerce businesses generate data from dozens of tools such as analytics platforms, ad managers, CRM systems, payment providers, fulfillment software, and support desks. But raw data alone doesn’t tell you whether your store is actually performing well. Ecommerce metrics are how teams turn that data into insight.

To make them easier to understand and act on, the key ecommerce metrics that measure ecommerce success are grouped into five categories: acquisition, conversion, revenue, customer retention and satisfaction, and operations. Each group aligns with a specific part of the ecommerce journey, from attracting visitors to fulfilling orders and building long-term customer relationships.

Together, these 25 essential ecommerce metrics give teams a complete picture of online store performance and help pinpoint exactly where growth is being limited.

Acquisition Metrics

Acquisition metrics measure how effectively your ecommerce site attracts visitors and turns marketing efforts into qualified website traffic. Ecommerce teams use these metrics to evaluate channel performance, campaign efficiency, and the overall cost of bringing new shoppers to the site.

Strong acquisition metrics don’t just mean “more traffic.” They indicate whether you’re reaching the right audience at a sustainable cost and setting up the rest of the funnel for success.

1. Website Sessions

Website sessions measure the total number of visits to your ecommerce website within a given period. A session starts when a user lands on your site and ends after a period of inactivity or when they leave.

In practice, sessions indicate the overall volume of traffic your store receives. They’re often used as a top-level health metric for marketing activity and brand visibility.

Sessions are typically measured using tools like Google Analytics or GA4. Teams track trends over time rather than absolute numbers, looking for growth patterns, seasonality, or sudden drops caused by technical issues, campaign changes, or algorithm updates.

While high session counts can signal strong reach, sessions alone don’t guarantee performance. Ecommerce teams assess sessions alongside conversion metrics to determine whether traffic is qualified or simply inflating numbers without driving revenue.

2. Traffic Sources

Traffic sources break down where your website sessions are coming from, such as organic search, paid search, social media, email, referrals, or direct traffic.

This metric helps teams understand which channels are driving visitors and potential customers and how diversified their acquisition strategy is. It’s measured by categorizing sessions based on referrer data and campaign tagging (for example, UTM parameters).

In practice, traffic source analysis helps ecommerce teams:

• Identify top-performing acquisition channels
• Spot over-reliance on a single source
• Compare traffic quality across channels

For example, organic search may drive high-intent visitors with strong conversion rates, while social traffic may generate awareness but lower immediate sales. These insights guide budget allocation, content strategy, and channel optimization.

3. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) measures how often users click on a link, ad, or listing after seeing it. It’s typically expressed as a percentage.

CTR is calculated as:
Clicks ÷ Impressions × 100

In ecommerce, CTR is most commonly used for paid ads, email campaigns, and organic search listings. A high CTR suggests that your messaging, creative, or offer resonates with your audience.

Teams use CTR to assess the effectiveness of headlines, ad copy, images, calls to action, and targeting. Low CTR often signals misaligned messaging, weak value propositions, or poor audience targeting.

While CTR doesn’t measure on-site performance, it strongly influences acquisition efficiency by determining how much traffic campaigns generate from a given number of impressions.

4. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition measures how much it costs to acquire a single customer or conversion through paid marketing efforts. It’s one of the most important efficiency metrics for ecommerce growth.

CPA is calculated as:
Total ad spend ÷ Number of acquisitions

In practice, CPA helps teams understand whether campaigns are profitable and scalable. A rising CPA can indicate increased competition, ad fatigue, or declining conversion rates.

Ecommerce teams often analyze CPA by channel, campaign, or audience segment to identify where spend delivers the best return. CPA is especially powerful when evaluated alongside average order value and customer lifetime value.

5. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) measures the total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing campaigns, sales, and related expenses, not just ad spend.

CAC is calculated as:
Total acquisition costs ÷ Number of new customers acquired

Unlike CPA, CAC provides a broader, more strategic view of acquisition efficiency. It helps teams assess whether growth is sustainable over time.

Ecommerce businesses use CAC to:

• Evaluate long-term marketing efficiency
• Compare acquisition costs to customer lifetime value
• Inform pricing, retention, and investment decisions

Understanding customer acquisition cost is critical for scaling without eroding margins.

Conversion Metrics

Conversion metrics measure how effectively your ecommerce store turns visitors into customers. They focus on on-site behavior, revealing where shoppers engage, hesitate, or abandon the buying process.

Teams use conversion metrics to diagnose funnel friction, optimize user experience, and test improvements such as faster checkout flows, better product pages, or interactive tools like live chat and guided shopping.

6. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, most commonly making a purchase.

Conversion rate is calculated as:
Conversions ÷ Total visitors × 100

In practice, this metric shows how well your store persuades visitors to buy. A low conversion rate may indicate issues with product pages, pricing, trust signals, or checkout usability.

Teams often segment conversion rate by traffic source, device type, or landing page to uncover specific problem areas. Improving conversion rate is often one of the fastest ways to increase revenue without increasing traffic.

7. Add-to-Cart Rate

Add-to-cart rate measures the percentage of visitors who add at least one product to their cart.

It’s calculated as:
Add-to-cart actions ÷ Total sessions × 100

This metric reflects product page effectiveness. High add-to-cart rates suggest strong product-market fit, clear value propositions, and compelling pricing or visuals.

Low add-to-cart rates can point to issues like unclear product benefits, lack of reviews, confusing variants, or unexpected costs.

Teams use this metric to assess product page optimization and merchandising strategy.

8. Checkout Completion Rate

Checkout completion rate measures the percentage of users who start checkout and successfully complete their purchase.

It’s calculated as:
Completed checkouts ÷ Checkout starts × 100

This metric highlights how smooth and trustworthy your checkout experience is. Low completion rates often stem from friction such as forced account creation, long forms, limited payment options, or unexpected shipping costs.

Ecommerce teams use this metric to identify checkout bottlenecks and test improvements like guest checkout, progress indicators, or clearer pricing.

9. Cart Abandonment Rate

Cart abandonment rate measures the percentage of shoppers who add items to their cart but leave without completing the purchase.

It’s calculated as:
(Carts created – Purchases completed) ÷ Carts created × 100

High shopping cart abandonment rate is common in ecommerce, but it’s also one of the biggest opportunities for improvement.

Teams analyze this metric to uncover friction points such as shipping costs, checkout complexity, or trust concerns. Recovery strategies often include abandoned cart emails, retargeting ads, or real-time assistance via chat.

10. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page.

In ecommerce, bounce rate often reflects landing page relevance, page load speed, or content quality. High bounce rates can indicate mismatched traffic sources or poor first impressions.

Teams use bounce rate to assess whether landing pages meet visitor expectations and guide optimization of messaging, visuals, and page performance.

Revenue Metrics

Revenue metrics focus on the financial outcomes of ecommerce activity. They help teams understand how effectively traffic and conversions translate into income and profitability.

These metrics are essential for evaluating growth quality, not just growth volume.

11. Average Order Value (AOV)

Average order value measures the average amount spent per order.

AOV is calculated as:
Total revenue ÷ Number of orders

In practice, average order value helps teams understand purchasing behavior and identify upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

Increasing AOV allows businesses to generate more revenue without increasing traffic, making it a key lever for profitability.

12. Revenue Per Visitor (RPV)

Revenue per visitor measures how much revenue each website visitor generates on average.

It’s calculated as:
Total revenue ÷ Total visitors

Revenue per visitor combines conversion rate and AOV into a single metric, making it useful for comparing channel performance and evaluating UX improvements.

13. Total Revenue

Total revenue measures the gross income generated from total sales over a given period.

While it’s a high-level metric, teams use total revenue to track overall growth trends, seasonality, and campaign impact. On its own, it doesn’t explain why performance changed, but it provides essential context for deeper analysis.

14. Gross Margin

Gross margin measures the percentage of revenue remaining after deducting the cost of goods sold (COGS).

It’s calculated as:
(Revenue – COGS) ÷ Revenue × 100

Gross margin helps teams assess product profitability and pricing strategy. High revenue with low margins can mask underlying financial risk.

15. Return and Refund Rate

Return and refund rate measures the percentage of orders that are returned or refunded.

High rates often indicate issues with product quality, sizing, descriptions, or customer expectations. Teams use this metric to improve merchandising accuracy and reduce operational costs.

Customer Retention and Satisfaction Metrics

These key metrics measure how well ecommerce businesses retain existing customers and meet their expectations over time. Retention metrics are critical because repeat customers often spend more and cost less to acquire.

16. Repeat Purchase Rate

Repeat purchase rate measures the percentage of customers who make more than one purchase.

It’s calculated as:
Returning customers ÷ Total customers × 100

This metric indicates loyalty and long-term value potential. Teams use it to assess retention strategies, email marketing, and loyalty programs.

17. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value estimates the total revenue a customer generates over their relationship with your business.

Customer lifetime value helps teams understand how much they can afford to spend on acquisition and retention while remaining profitable.

18. LTV:CAC Ratio

The LTV:CAC ratio compares customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost.

A healthy LTV:CAC ratio indicates sustainable growth. Teams use this ratio to evaluate marketing efficiency and scaling readiness.

19. Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate measures the percentage of customers who continue purchasing over a specific period.

It highlights how well a brand maintains relationships beyond the first sale and informs long-term growth strategies.

20. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Customer satisfaction score measures how satisfied customers are with their experience, usually through surveys.

Customer satisfaction score helps teams assess service quality, identify pain points, and improve post-purchase experiences.

Operational Metrics

Operational metrics measure how efficiently most ecommerce businesses fulfill orders and support customers. These metrics directly impact customer satisfaction, costs, and scalability.

21. Order Fulfillment Time

Order fulfillment time measures how long it takes to process and ship an order after it’s placed.

Faster fulfillment generally leads to higher satisfaction and fewer support inquiries.

22. Inventory Turnover Rate

Inventory turnover rate measures how often inventory is sold and replaced over a given period.

It helps teams balance stock availability with holding costs and avoid overstocking or stockouts.

23. Order Accuracy Rate

Order accuracy rate measures the percentage of orders shipped without errors.

High accuracy reduces returns, support tickets, and operational costs.

24. Average Delivery Time

Average delivery time measures how long orders take to reach customers.

It directly influences customer expectations, reviews, and repeat purchases.

25. Support Response Time

Support response time measures how quickly customer inquiries are answered.

Shorter response times improve satisfaction, trust, and retention, especially during checkout or post-purchase issues.

How Ecommerce Teams Use Metrics To Improve Performance

Ecommerce teams don’t look at metrics in isolation. They map them to the customer journey to understand where shoppers engage, where they hesitate, and where they drop off. A funnel-style view makes this clearer:

• Acquisition stage: Website sessions, traffic sources, CTR, CPA, CAC
• Conversion stage: Conversion rate, add-to-cart rate, checkout completion rate, cart abandonment rate
• Revenue stage: Average order value, revenue per visitor, total revenue, gross margin
• Retention stage: Repeat purchase rate, customer lifetime value, retention rate, CSAT
• Operations stage: Fulfillment time, delivery time, order accuracy, support response time

By layering metrics this way, teams can spot problems faster. For example, high traffic with a low conversion rate often points to issues on the site, not poor marketing. A strong conversion rate paired with a low average order value may suggest missed upsell or cross-sell opportunities. Healthy sales combined with rising return rates can signal deeper problems with product quality or customer expectations.

When used together, ecommerce metrics help teams test changes, set priorities, and confirm whether improvements are actually working. Over time, this leads to higher conversion rates, better use of marketing spend, and stronger customer lifetime value.

Reviewing the Most Important Ecommerce Metrics Over Time

Not all metrics need to be reviewed on the same schedule. How often you review a metric depends on how quickly it changes and the type of decision it supports.

Daily or weekly reviews work best for fast-moving metrics like website sessions, conversion rate, cart abandonment, and support response time. These metrics help teams respond quickly to campaigns, technical issues, or user experience problems.

Monthly or quarterly reviews are better for long-term metrics such as customer lifetime value, retention rate, gross margin, and the LTV:CAC ratio. These metrics change slowly and are more useful for planning, budgeting, and forecasting growth.

The key is consistency. Tracking ecommerce metrics over time, rather than reacting to one-off changes, helps teams spot trends, ignore noise, and make better decisions.

Conclusion

Ecommerce metrics give teams a clear view of store performance across acquisition, conversion, revenue, retention, and operations. They show how shoppers move through the funnel, where friction exists, and what drives sustainable growth.

It’s important to understand that ecommerce metrics are not the same as KPIs. Metrics provide insight into performance, while KPIs are the specific metrics teams focus on based on their goals. These goals might include improving conversion rates, lowering acquisition costs, or increasing customer lifetime value.

By tracking the right metrics, reviewing them regularly, and aligning them with clear objectives, ecommerce teams can replace guesswork with informed decisions.

Want to go deeper? Learn how to turn ecommerce metrics into actionable KPIs that drive real growth.

Ecommerce Metrics FAQs

1. What is the difference between ecommerce metrics and ecommerce KPIs?

Ecommerce metrics are all the measurable data points that show how your store is performing. These include sessions, conversion rate, average order value, and return rate. They provide visibility across traffic, sales, customer behavior, and operations.

Ecommerce KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are the metrics you choose to prioritize based on your goals. For example, a fast-growing store may focus on customer acquisition cost and conversion rate. A more established brand may prioritize retention rate and customer lifetime value. In simple terms, all KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs.

2. How many ecommerce metrics should I track regularly?

There’s no single correct number, but most ecommerce teams actively track 10 to 15 core metrics. Tracking too many vanity metrics can create confusion and slow down decisions.

A good approach is to:

• Monitor a small set of KPIs daily or weekly
• Review supporting metrics monthly or quarterly
• Shift focus as business goals change

For example, acquisition metrics matter most during growth campaigns, while retention and operational metrics become more important as order volume increases.

3. Which ecommerce metrics have the biggest impact on revenue growth?

Revenue growth is rarely driven by one metric alone. However, conversion rate, average order value, and customer lifetime value often have the biggest impact. Improving these metrics increases revenue without needing more traffic.

These metrics work best when supported by efficient acquisition and a smooth shopping experience. Teams that combine performance tracking with real-time customer support and guided shopping often see better conversions, lower abandonment, and higher lifetime value.

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