21 ecommerce metrics and KPIs to track for your online store

Published Monday 8 June 2026

Table of contents

• What are ecommerce metrics and KPIs?
• What's the difference between metrics and KPIs?
• Key ecommerce metrics to track
• How often should you check ecommerce metrics?
• What's the most important KPI or metric to pay attention to?
• Ecommerce metrics benchmarks
• How ecommerce metrics can help your cash flow and forecasting
• Track your ecommerce metrics with Xero
• FAQs on ecommerce metrics

Key takeaways

• Use ecommerce metrics to measure your online store's performance, and choose KPIs to track progress towards specific business goals.
• Track around 21 core metrics across sales, customer behaviour, traffic, marketing, and operations to get a complete picture of how your store is performing.
• Check your metrics on a structured schedule: review traffic and conversion data weekly, analyse customer and marketing metrics monthly, and assess profitability and retention quarterly.
• Connect your ecommerce platform to accounting software like Xero to turn metric insights into reliable cash flow forecasts and smarter spending decisions.

What are ecommerce metrics and KPIs?

Ecommerce metrics are data points that measure activity in your online store and business. They help you understand what's happening across sales, marketing, and operations.

For example, your sales conversion rate tells you how many visitors make a purchase in your ecommerce business. Your average order value shows how much each customer spends per transaction. These numbers give you a factual baseline for decision-making.

Ecommerce KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are the metrics you choose to measure progress towards a specific goal. If your conversion rate sits at 2% and you want more sales from existing traffic, you might set a KPI of reaching 3% within the next quarter.

You can find ecommerce metrics through your ecommerce platform's built-in analytics dashboard. Setting up Google Analytics 4 gives you a broader range of data on customer behaviour, traffic sources, and on-site activity.

What's the difference between metrics and KPIs?

Metrics and KPIs are related but serve different purposes. Understanding the distinction helps you focus your tracking efforts on what actually drives results.

Ecommerce metrics are lower-level indicators used when looking at day-to-day operations. You might monitor social media reach, impressions, and engagement to understand how your marketing is performing. These are all useful data points, but they're not necessarily critical to your store's success on their own.

KPIs use metrics as building blocks to create wider business strategies, usually over a set period. For example, you might choose the total number of sales generated through social media over one month as your ecommerce KPI. That single number ties your social media activity to a specific business goal.

In short, every KPI is a metric, but not every metric is a KPI. The metrics you promote to KPI status depend on your business goals and what you're trying to achieve right now.

Key ecommerce metrics to track

There are roughly 21 core ecommerce metrics worth tracking across your business. Organising them into categories makes it easier to spot patterns and take action. Here's a breakdown by area.

Sales and conversion metrics

These metrics tell you how effectively your store turns visitors into paying customers and how much they spend.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action on your site. Most often, that action is purchasing a product, but it can also mean signing up for a newsletter or filling in a contact form.

The formula for calculating conversion rate (CVR) is:

Total number of conversions / total number of visitors x 100 = conversion rate

For example, if 2,000 people visit your store in one day and 40 of them purchase a product, your conversion rate is 2%. According to Shopify, the average ecommerce conversion rate sits between 2.5% and 3%.

Your conversion rate tells you how much traffic you need to hit your revenue targets. If it's below average, look at your product pages, checkout flow, and site speed for improvement opportunities.

Average order value (AOV)

Average order value shows you how much customers spend per transaction. It's one of the simplest ways to understand purchasing behaviour.

You can calculate AOV using this formula:

Total order revenue / number of orders = average order value

If your total order revenue for April is $10,000 and you had 200 orders, your AOV is $50. You can use AOV to guide your sales strategy. For example, setting a minimum spend for free shipping or creating product bundles can encourage larger orders.

AOV varies based on product type and business model. A low AOV may not be a problem if you have a large customer base and high order volume. Always assess AOV alongside other metrics for a true picture.

Revenue per visitor (RPV)

Revenue per visitor combines your conversion rate and average order value into a single metric. It tells you how much revenue each visitor generates on average, whether or not they make a purchase.

The formula is:

Total revenue / total number of visitors = revenue per visitor

If your store earns $5,000 from 10,000 visitors in a week, your RPV is $0.50. RPV is useful because it accounts for both traffic quality and conversion efficiency in one number.

A rising RPV means your store is getting better at turning traffic into revenue. If RPV drops while traffic increases, it may signal that you're attracting lower-quality visitors.

Customer metrics

Customer metrics help you understand how much it costs to acquire buyers, how long they stay, and how much they're worth over time.

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value shows how much revenue you can expect from a single customer over the length of time they purchase from you.

The formula for calculating CLV is:

Average order value (AOV) x average number of purchases = customer lifetime value

Using the earlier AOV example of $50, if the average customer makes 15 purchases, the CLV is $750. When you understand individual customer value, you can set a realistic acquisition and retention budget.

If you're spending $800 to acquire each customer but they only generate $750, you need to rethink your strategy. Either reduce acquisition costs or find ways to increase repeat purchases.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost tells you exactly how much it costs to land a new customer. Before someone purchases from your store, they might check your social media, view a Google ad, and read a blog post. All of these activities cost money.

The formula is:

Cost of sales and marketing / new customers acquired (in a set period) = customer acquisition cost

If you spend $5,000 on sales and marketing over 6 months and gain 50 new customers, your CAC is $100 per customer. Compare your CAC to your CLV to check whether your spending is sustainable.

Customer retention rate

Customer retention rate measures the percentage of customers who return to make another purchase within a set period. It's a direct indicator of customer satisfaction and product-market fit.

The formula is:

(Customers at end of period - new customers acquired) / customers at start of period x 100 = customer retention rate

If you start a quarter with 500 customers, acquire 100 new ones, and end with 520, your retention rate is 84%. A high retention rate means you're keeping customers coming back, which is typically cheaper than acquiring new ones.

Churn rate

Churn rate is the inverse of retention rate. It measures the percentage of customers who stop buying from you within a set period. This metric is especially relevant for subscription-based ecommerce businesses.

The formula is:

Customers lost during a period / customers at the start of that period x 100 = churn rate

If you start the month with 200 subscribers and lose 10, your churn rate is 5%. A rising churn rate signals that something needs attention, whether that's product quality, pricing, or the customer experience.

Shopping and checkout metrics

These metrics focus on what happens between adding an item to the cart and completing a purchase.

Shopping cart abandonment rate

Shopping cart abandonment rate shows you the percentage of customers who add items to their cart but leave without completing a purchase. According to the Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate across industries is roughly 70%.

The formula is:

1 - (total completed purchases / total carts created) x 100 = cart abandonment rate

If your rate is significantly above 70%, look at common causes: unexpected shipping costs, a complicated checkout process, or limited payment options. Small changes to your checkout flow can make a meaningful difference.

Add-to-cart rate

Add-to-cart rate measures the percentage of visitors who add at least one item to their shopping cart. It sits between page views and purchases in your conversion funnel.

The formula is:

Sessions with an add-to-cart action / total sessions x 100 = add-to-cart rate

A healthy add-to-cart rate typically falls between 3% and 5% for most ecommerce stores. If your add-to-cart rate is low but your traffic is strong, it may suggest issues with product pages, pricing, or product imagery.

Website and traffic metrics

Traffic metrics tell you how people find your store, what they do when they arrive, and how your content performs across channels.

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. It's a useful signal for page quality and relevance.

If visitors are landing on your homepage or a product page and leaving straight away, it could mean your content isn't matching their expectations. Check your page load speed, headline clarity, and whether your landing pages align with your ad or search result copy.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate measures the percentage of people who click on your content after seeing it. This applies to search results, ads, emails, and social media posts.

A high CTR means your headlines, descriptions, and creative are compelling enough to drive action. Benchmarks vary by channel: social media advertising typically sees a CTR around 1%, while the average Google Ads search CTR is approximately 6.5% according to LocaliQ.

To improve your CTR, focus on clear, benefit-driven copy and strong calls to action. Test different headlines and descriptions to see what resonates with your audience.

Impressions

Impressions represent the number of times your content is displayed on a search engine results page, website, or social media feed. An impression counts each time your content appears, whether or not anyone engages with it.

Impressions on their own don't tell you much. Pair them with CTR and engagement data to understand whether your content is being seen and acted on.

Reach

Reach and impressions are similar, but there's an important distinction. A single person could see your content multiple times, creating multiple impressions. Reach counts only the number of unique viewers.

Low reach could suggest your content distribution needs work. Consider broadening your targeting, posting at different times, or testing new platforms to get your products in front of more people.

Engagement

Engagement tells you how much your audience interacts with your content through clicks, likes, comments, and shares. A good engagement rate for paid ads means people are clicking through. A good engagement rate for social media means people are liking, commenting on, and sharing your posts.

You can find your engagement rate for specific profiles in the analytics section of each social media platform. Track engagement over time to identify which content types and topics resonate most with your audience.

Store sessions by traffic source

Understanding how customers find your store helps you decide where to focus your marketing budget. You might discover that organic search drives most of your revenue while social media accounts for very little, despite significant investment.

If a particular traffic source underperforms, consider adjusting your strategy for that channel. Alternatively, double down on the sources that already convert well.

Store sessions by device type and location

Your customers' device types and locations can have a big impact on how they shop with you. If most of your customers browse on mobile but your store isn't optimised for smaller screens, you could be losing sales.

Location data also affects your marketing timing and messaging. If your target market is in a different time zone, posting time-restricted offers during your local business hours means your key customers could miss them. Check the device and location analytics in your ecommerce platform regularly.

Marketing metrics

Marketing metrics help you evaluate whether your paid and organic efforts are generating a worthwhile return.

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Return on ad spend measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. It's one of the most direct ways to assess whether your paid campaigns are profitable.

The formula is:

Revenue from ads / cost of ads = ROAS

If you spend $1,000 on a Google Ads campaign and it generates $4,000 in revenue, your ROAS is 4:1. A ROAS above 4:1 is generally considered strong for ecommerce, though this varies by industry and margin.

If your ROAS is low, review your ad targeting, creative, and landing pages. Small improvements in any of these areas can significantly boost your return.

Email marketing metrics

Email remains one of the highest-ROI marketing channels for ecommerce. The key metrics to track are open rate, click-through rate, and list growth rate.

Open rate tells you how many recipients opened your email. CTR shows how many clicked a link inside it. List growth rate measures how quickly your subscriber base is expanding. Together, these metrics reveal whether your email strategy is reaching the right people with the right message.

If your open rates are declining, test your subject lines and send times. If CTR is low, review your email content, layout, and calls to action.

Inventory and operations metrics

These metrics focus on what happens behind the scenes: stock management, returns, and profitability.

Month-end inventory

Tracking your month-end inventory helps you plan stock levels more efficiently. If you consistently have excess inventory at the end of every month, you may be over-purchasing. If you're running low before month-end, you might need to adjust your purchasing schedule.

Some businesses experience seasonality, so tracking this metric over a full year helps you predict annual stock requirements and avoid cash flow crunches from over-ordering.

Refund and return rate

Refunds and returns are a natural part of ecommerce. Until a product arrives, customers can't be completely certain it's the right fit.

If your return rate feels unusually high, it could signal low product quality, customer dissatisfaction, or inaccurate product listings. Make sure your product descriptions are detailed and accurate, use high-quality photos, and include a size guide where relevant.

Gross margin

Gross margin measures the percentage of revenue left after subtracting the cost of goods sold. It's a fundamental profitability metric that tells you whether your pricing and sourcing strategy is sustainable.

The formula is:

(Revenue - cost of goods sold) / revenue x 100 = gross margin

If your store generates $50,000 in revenue and the cost of goods sold is $30,000, your gross margin is 40%. Track gross margin by product category to identify which items contribute most to your bottom line.

How often should you check ecommerce metrics?

Your ecommerce store runs around the clock, which means your metrics are always changing. Rather than checking everything daily, a structured schedule helps you focus on the right data at the right time.

Here's a practical framework for tracking frequency:

• Check site uptime, order volume, and active ad campaign performance daily, especially after launching something new
• Review traffic sources, conversion rate, bounce rate, and CTR weekly to catch trends early
• Analyse AOV, CAC, cart abandonment rate, email marketing performance, ROAS, and inventory levels monthly to inform your strategy
• Assess CLV, customer retention rate, churn rate, gross margin, and overall profitability quarterly to guide long-term planning

It's fine to check metrics more frequently after a new product launch, marketing campaign, or website refresh. But for a reliable view of how your store is performing overall, monthly and quarterly reviews give you the most useful averages.

What's the most important KPI or metric to pay attention to?

All businesses need to make sales. So your conversion rate, average order value, and customer lifetime value will always be critical KPIs that tell you how your store is performing.

But the most important ecommerce metrics for your business depend on what type of store you run and what you're trying to achieve right now.

If you're just getting started with an online business, you might focus on conversion rate to make sure you're turning traffic into sales. If you're trying to reach a new target market, you might prioritise diversifying your traffic sources so you're not relying on a single channel.

For established stores, profitability metrics like gross margin and ROAS become more important. And if you run a subscription model, churn rate and customer retention rate deserve close attention.

Ecommerce metrics benchmarks

Benchmarks give you a reference point for evaluating your store's performance. Keep in mind that these figures vary by industry, product type, and business model, so treat them as guidelines rather than targets.

Here are some widely cited ecommerce benchmarks:

• Aim for a conversion rate between 2.5% and 3%, the average across ecommerce (Shopify)
• Expect a cart abandonment rate around 70%, the global average (Baymard Institute)
• Target a Google Ads search CTR near 6.5%, the cross-industry benchmark (LocaliQ)
• Benchmark social media advertising CTR at approximately 1% (Statista)
• Look for an add-to-cart rate between 3% and 5% as a healthy range
• Target a ROAS of 4:1 or higher for strong ecommerce performance
• Maintain a customer retention rate between 20% and 30% for most ecommerce businesses

Compare your own numbers to these benchmarks, but focus on your trends over time. Consistent improvement in your own metrics matters more than hitting an industry average.

How ecommerce metrics can help your cash flow and forecasting

Ecommerce metrics tell you where to spend, what to spend on, and when to spend it. By tracking customers' journeys from discovering your business to purchasing your products, you can learn how to find customers, close sales, and increase order values.

Tracking your ecommerce metrics also supports healthy cash flow. Knowing the right time to spend and the right time to save is central to managing cash flow well. With reliable metrics and KPIs, you can invest in marketing, stock, and operations in a way that complements your revenue cycle.

Xero's accounting software for ecommerce and online businesses integrates with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify. Transactions and inventory are synchronised in Xero, so your cash flow reports and projections stay up to date and reliable.

You can also use Xero to track expenses by category, reconcile bank transactions automatically, and generate profit and loss reports that factor in your cost of goods sold. This makes it straightforward to connect your ecommerce metrics to your actual financial position. For more support, check out Xero's ecommerce tips and guides for small businesses.

Track your ecommerce metrics with Xero

Tracking ecommerce metrics is only useful if you can act on what the data tells you. When your ecommerce platform is connected to your accounting software, you get a complete view of how your store's performance translates into real financial outcomes.

Xero brings your sales, expenses, and inventory data together in one place. You can see how your conversion rates and order values affect your cash flow, set budgets based on reliable data, and spot trends before they become problems. Get one month free.

FAQs on ecommerce metrics

Here are answers to common questions about tracking and using ecommerce metrics for your online store.

What is a good ecommerce conversion rate?

A good ecommerce conversion rate typically falls between 2.5% and 3%, according to Shopify. However, rates vary significantly by industry, product type, and traffic source. Focus on improving your own conversion rate over time rather than chasing a single benchmark number.

How do you calculate customer lifetime value?

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is calculated by multiplying your average order value by the average number of purchases a customer makes over their relationship with your store. For example, if your AOV is $50 and the average customer makes 15 purchases, your CLV is $750. This figure helps you set realistic budgets for customer acquisition and retention.

What is a good cart abandonment rate?

The average cart abandonment rate across industries is roughly 70%, according to the Baymard Institute. If your rate is significantly higher than that, it may point to issues with unexpected shipping costs, a complicated checkout process, or limited payment options. Testing changes to your checkout flow is the most effective way to reduce abandonment.

How often should you track ecommerce metrics?

A structured schedule works best. Review traffic and conversion data weekly, analyse customer acquisition, marketing performance, and inventory monthly, and assess profitability and retention metrics quarterly. You can check more frequently after launching a new campaign or product, but monthly and quarterly reviews give you the most reliable averages.

What is the difference between ecommerce metrics and KPIs?

Ecommerce metrics are data points that measure activity in your online store, such as bounce rate or impressions. KPIs are the specific metrics you choose to track against a business goal. For example, your social media reach is a metric, but the total sales generated through social media in a month could be a KPI. Every KPI is a metric, but not every metric is a KPI.