Undoubtedly, the e-commerce world has become increasingly competitive in recent years. With so many buying options available, it’s vital for businesses today to use appropriate e-commerce metrics to measure their performance and market share.
That way, brands can gain valuable information for constantly optimizing their online sales strategy.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the main considerations around the most important e-commerce metrics they should analyze, as well as the type of tools indispensable for this task.
E-commerce metrics: The challenge of increasing market share
Just like in traditional sales channels, market share is vital for e-commerce. In particular, as a highly dynamic channel, an increase in market share is more than essential.
This entails designing online marketing strategies not only to improve brand perception or provide a good user experience, but also to increase sales, increase market share, and gain better positioning against the competition.
To do so, marketing professionals in charge of coordinating digital channels should focus on creating solid strategies that enable growing their e-commerce metrics effectively and efficiently.
Complications within the aim of increasing market share
As we know, online sales channels have somewhat challenged the aim of increasing market share since they represent a different environment than traditional channels. Faced with different rules and behaviors, companies are forced to constantly adapt to a new environment.
They also face the emergence of new buyer profiles, both existing and potential. This leads them to invest more and more resources to increase their chances of success.
All this makes optimizing e-commerce metrics in the online environment a challenge requiring specific strategies, since they can vary drastically depending on the category or family of products and/or services to be promoted.
Therefore, it’s essential to understand the distinctive features of this type of sales channel. Indeed, this is the only way to leverage its opportunities.
Tools to boost market share in digital channels
In light of this context, marketing directors definitely need the right solutions to boost their digital market share. In addition to e-commerce metrics, there are other tools that can help companies improve their position in the market.
Notably, these include:
- Development of an effective e-commerce platform
- A good positioning strategy for retailers and existing sites
- Having competitive market information (high-quality data that provides a true picture of the competition and consumers)
- Effective online communication or advertising strategies that encourage sales conversions
All these tools, together with the right e-commerce metrics, can prove to be the “perfect combo” for a winning digital strategy. Let’s see which metrics are the most recommended to monitor.
Essential e-commerce metrics for a marketing director
Sales volume
This metric allows analyzing the performance of all your own brands and the competition’s brands in the digital market, providing an overall picture of sales trends.
By monitoring sales volume, marketing directors can identify patterns and opportunities for improving their business strategy for online channels.
Performance analysis
Analyzing the performance of e-commerce platforms can help anticipate various problems or needs. For example, it can help you react quickly to different situations, such as changes in competition, in demand, or in online consumer behavior.
E-commerce metrics: Availability and assortment
The availability and assortment of products and their presentations are fundamental aspects not only in traditional channels but also in e-commerce.
In the online world, it’s important to ensure products shown in photos are actually in stock, to avoid creating a poor user experience. Who hasn’t fallen in love with a product, and, in the end, it turns out to be out of stock?
That’s why it’s important to effectively manage assortment and make sure the e-commerce webpage is linked to actual product holding. Then, you can ensure the optimal presence of products that positively impact e-commerce metrics.
Other e-commerce metrics you should consider
Purchase funnel
The purchase funnel is similar to a model that represents the process a potential customer follows. This begins when a user accesses an e-commerce site until they potentially make a purchase or abandon the process.
The advantage of purchase funnel and e-commerce metrics in the online world is that they can be measured more accurately than in traditional channels, especially because data such as product views, product selection, shopping carts, and final transactions are recorded.
This data helps to better understand consumers’ intention or motivation to buy—even more so when this analysis is coupled with measurement of advertising effectiveness in digital campaigns. We’ll explain this aspect below.
Campaign effectiveness
Today, we know it’s possible to identify how ads influence digital purchasing processes. Conversions can be measured in a much more effective and quantifiable way.
This allows businesspeople and advertisers to better understand their advertising campaigns’ return on investment, fostering more informed decision-making on future budget allocation.
The risk of not monitoring e-commerce metrics
While the vast majority of companies today are aware of the importance of constantly measuring key indicators, some still underestimate monitoring e-commerce metrics.
However, this only means they miss out on the opportunities offered by this constantly growing channel, leading to a high opportunity cost in the short and medium term by brushing aside the most dynamic commercial channel in recent years.
In a nutshell, ignoring e-commerce metrics can contribute to a potential loss of sales.
Netquest: Your partner for increasing e-commerce market share
For over 20 years, at Netquest, we’ve focused on guaranteeing the highest quality data so that brands can better understand their digital buyers and develop high-impact strategies that make them stand out from their competition.
Our “Symphony of Data” offers a 360° snapshot of the consumer by combining different types of data, such as:
Digital behavior (behavioral data)
This data helps identify patterns in profiled audiences’ actual behavior.
Don’t miss it: Three benefits of behavioral data to obtain high-quality data
Netrica
Our customized e-commerce solution, Netrica, provides competitive e-commerce intelligence. It is segmented by different industries and shopper profiles and complemented with online audience measurement indicators.
Digital Shopper Monitor
Our new solution is designed especially for customer experience and marketing teams, as well as any team that wants to learn about customer satisfaction in e-commerce.
Do you want to learn how to boost your digital market share with our solutions? Drop us a line! See why thousands of brands around the world consider us one of the most trusted data providers in the industry.