E-Commerce Metrics to Track During This Black Friday + Cyber Monday Sale

Here’s a story about two imaginary friends –

Rick and Paul are two online sellers operating from Houston. Even though they handle similar products, the way they conduct business is hugely different. Rick goes by his instincts and is often driven by emotions. Whereas Paul takes a more calculated approach; he uses data and numbers to make business decisions.

Who do you think will come out on top this BFCM season?

The vast majority of online sellers are either Ricks or Pauls. Some make decisions based on their instincts, while some rely on data. But when the market competition is at an all-time high and with this year’s BFCM promising to be the biggest sales event of all time, going by your instincts alone might land you in some serious trouble.

Once the sales madness kicks off at Thursday midnight, your online store will be flooded with customers. And, if your instincts are wrong, there is no way back for you. By the time you realize where you went wrong, your competitors would have swooped away all your potential customers.

That is the nature of the BFCM sales. It is high-octane and unforgiving; you need to be well prepared to tackle it head-on. And the best approach is to use key eCommerce metrics to collect various forms of real-time data and devise strategies around them. Here are some of the top eCommerce metrics that you can track this BFCM season.

Cart Abandonment Rate (CAR)

The cart abandonment rate is one of the most critical metrics that you need to track during BFCM. When a shopping cart has been abandoned, it is a classic example of ‘almost there, but didn’t happen.’

The customers were interested. They selected the product, added it to the cart, and suddenly they changed their mind. It could be due to a number of reasons, like finding a better deal somewhere else or facing some form of inconvenience during the checkout. And, to find out the exact cause, you will first need to analyze your cart abandonment rate.

Cart abandonment is an icky issue for online sellers. Due to the heightened online traffic, it might be daunting to analyze it during the holiday season. But in the long run, it will help you by delivering key information on the customer’s shopping behavior.

And, if your online store is facing an increased cart abandonment rate, you need to fix the issue immediately. You must also take the necessary steps to welcome customers back by reminding them that they left products in the cart using customized emails or mobile app notifications.

The formula to measure CAR is –

On-site search terms

On-site search terms are the keywords that the customers enter into your website's search box. It generates a search result page using the keyword or the combination of keywords entered into the search box. By analyzing these search terms or keywords, you can understand what the customers are looking for.

By understanding the customer preferences, you can put together patterns and form trends based on them. It will indicate which products to stock up before the sale is on. Also, you must monitor the changes during the sale and adapt accordingly. For example, suppose you find out that a specific product category is gaining huge on-site search volume during your BFCM sale period, then you must act quickly and put together special promotional deals for it in order to draw more customers to the product.

Repeat purchase probability

Customer retention is an essential factor that defines success for online sellers. And, in a highly competitive BFCM season, if you can retain customers, it is priceless. By analyzing the repeat purchase probability, you can understand the likelihood of customers returning to your store for another purchase during the same event.

Repeat purchase probability also gives insights into customer loyalty, and it can help you frame sales strategies during the BFCM sale period. If your repeat purchase probability is low, you need to rethink your strategy and find out why customers aren't triggered to purchase more. Create attractive offers, provide free shipping options, engage with your customers consistently, and keep your repeat purchase probability as high as possible.

The formula for calculating repeat purchase probability is –

Bounce Rate

After rigorous marketing campaigns and advertisements, you finally entice the customers to your website or online store. But instead of engaging and purchasing products, they leave your website after viewing only one page. Bounce rate represents the biggest problem all sellers face during BFCM, and by tracking it, you will understand why users aren’t responding to your sale.

By knowing where the users are leaving your website, you can nail down the problem and find a solution for it. Bounce rate from different landing pages will also give you crucial data as far as your site’s user experience and interface performance is concerned. So, it is vital to ensure that your website’s bounce rate is always kept minimal.

The formula for calculating bounce rate is –

Summary

As the BFCM weekend approaches, it is quite natural for sellers to get caught up in the frenzy of creating perfect marketing campaigns, managing deliverables, monitoring inventory, and pulling off social media stunts. But you must also find time to understand your goals and decide which metrics to use for measuring the progress or success.

The eCommerce metrics that we have mentioned above will help lay a foundation for your BFCM sale and provide a platform for all your other activities. Unless you are still thinking of solely relying on your instincts like Rick and reacting to situations as they come by, put some extra effort and devise your sales strategies around these metrics.

And if you still haven’t set up your eCommerce store, then fret not; we’ve got you covered. Build your eCommerce mobile app in hours and go live way before the BFCM season begins. Beat your competition and reap the benefits of early mover’s advantage. To know more about Vajro, contact us now.