When it comes to running an online business, it’s not enough to just sell, especially if growth is your main priority. Keeping tabs on your e-commerce performance can help you understand where your customers are coming from, how often they shop, and why exactly they may (or may not!) be returning. To get these answers, brands need to know which e-commerce metrics to track.

In this blog, we’ve narrowed down 10 key e-commerce metrics that are critical for the long-term success of your business. Learn how to leverage these numbers to stop guessing and start making data-backed business decisions that drive sustainable growth.

What are E-commerce Performance Metrics?

E-commerce performance metrics, also referred to as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), are quantifiable data used to measure the success of your online store’s various functions. This covers everything from marketing and sales to logistics and customer service.

Unlike basic raw numbers (like total sales or website visitors), a KPI is a ratio or rate that provides context, allowing you to compare your performance over time, against competitors or against your own goals. They translate your business activities into objective scores that tell you exactly what is working and what needs to be fixed.

Why Tracking E-commerce KPIs is Important

Tracking the right KPIs will guide you in the right direction for strategic e-commerce growth. Here’s why these figures matter:

Forecast and Budget for Growth

By tracking metrics like customer lifetime value (CLV) and customer acquisition cost (CAC), you can accurately forecast your future revenue and know exactly how much you can afford to spend on growth initiatives. For example, if your CLV is $500 and your CAC is $50, you know you have $450 to spend on retention or further acquisition efforts before losing money.

Rapidly Diagnose Problems

A drop in conversion rate or a spike in cart abandonment immediately tells you where the friction is in your customer journey, allowing for rapid A/B testing and targeted fixes. A 20% cart abandonment rate can indicate that you should immediately test a simpler checkout flow or disclose shipping costs earlier in the process.

Optimize Spending

KPIs like return on ad spend (ROAS) ensure every dollar spent on marketing is effective. They prevent you from wasting budget on channels that bring low-value or non-converting traffic. Let’s say Campaign A returns $400 in sales for a $100 spend, while Campaign B returns only $100, this means you should shift all budget from B to A to maximize immediate profit.

Improve Operational Efficiency

Metrics like the refund and return rate directly highlight issues in your product quality or supply chain (WMS/OMS processes). A rising return rate due to “wrong size” prompts you to immediately improve your product descriptions and size guides to reduce logistical waste.

10 E-commerce Performance Metrics to Track in 2026

We’ve compiled 10 key metrics for e-commerce that are worth tracking, so you can better analyze your data from initial awareness to long-term loyalty.

1. Website Traffic Growth

While the raw number of visitors (sessions) is your fundamental input, traffic growth is the KPI that tells you if your marketing and content efforts are actually driving expansion. Tracking this ensures you are not plateauing and that your marketing budget is yielding consistent results, which is essential for scaling.

How to calculate: (Current Month Sessions – Prior Month Sessions) / Prior Month Sessions x 100

2. Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page. Lowering this rate ensures more people stay long enough to shop, directly boosting your conversion potential, as a high rate indicates site issues or relevance mismatches.

How to calculate: Number of Single-Page Sessions / Total Number of Sessions x 100

3. Conversion Rate

The conversion rate (CR) refers to the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, typically making a purchase. A small increase in CR can generate significant revenue from your existing traffic without additional marketing spend, making it a critical predictor of efficiency and growth.

How to calculate: Number of Completed Purchases / Total Number of Sessions x 100

4. Cart Abandonment Rate

Cart abandonment rates show the percentage of shoppers who add items to their cart but leave before completing the purchase. This represents “almost-revenue,” and reducing this rate offers the fastest, most profitable revenue lift by eliminating checkout friction.

How to calculate: Number of Uncompleted Purchases / Number of Created Carts x 100

5. Average Order Value

By measuring the average order value (AOV), you get the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order. Increasing AOV directly boosts total revenue and profitability per transaction without increasing customer acquisition costs, allowing you to scale faster.

How to calculate: Total Revenue / Total Number of Orders

6. Refund and Return Rate

The percentage of orders that result in a customer requesting a refund or returning a product is called the refund and return rate. A low, stable rate indicates high product quality and accurate descriptions, which saves on logistics costs and preserves customer trust for future purchases.

How to calculate: Total Number of Returns / Total Number of Orders Placed x 100

7. Customer Acquisition Cost

The customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total cost (marketing, advertising, sales salaries) required to acquire one new paying customer. A low or decreasing CAC is the ultimate sign of marketing efficiency, proving that your growth is scalable and sustainable.

How to calculate: Total Marketing and Sales Expenses / Number of New Customers Acquired

8. Customer Retention Rate

The customer retention rate is the percentage of customers who made a purchase at the start of a period and bought again by the end. Retained customers cost less to serve and often spend more, providing the stable, predictable revenue base necessary for long-term growth.

How to calculate: [(Customers at End of Period – New Customers Acquired) / Customers at Start of Period] x 100

9. Customer Lifetime Value 

Customer lifetime value (CVL) tells you the total revenue a single customer is expected to generate throughout their relationship with your business. A high CLV is the most strategic growth metric, as it justifies higher acquisition spending and validates your customer loyalty efforts.

How to calculate: Average Order Value × Purchase Frequency × Customer Lifespan

10. Net Promoter Score

The net promoter score (NPS) measures customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your brand. A high NPS directly predicts organic, word-of-mouth growth and low customer churn, which is the most profitable form of customer acquisition.

How to calculate: % Promoters (Score 9-10) – % Detractors (Score 0-6)

How to Analyse Your E-commerce KPIs

How do we turn these numbers into an actual strategy? Begin by understanding the implications behind these e-commerce KPIs with these best practices:

Establish a Performance Baseline

Calculate your average metric values for the last 6 to 12 months. This is your “normal” state. Without a clear baseline, you cannot objectively determine if a change (e.g., a new marketing campaign or website redesign) has been a success or a failure.

Focus on Rolling Trends

A single good day is not a trend. Always look at rolling averages (7-day, 30-day, or quarterly) to smooth out volatility. Are key metrics trending consistently up or down over multiple months? This long-term perspective reveals genuine shifts in customer behavior or market conditions.

Identify the Weakest Link

Start at the top of the funnel. If traffic is flat, no amount of conversion rate optimization will help. If your conversion rate is low, spending more on traffic will just waste money. Address the KPI that is currently restricting your growth before moving to the next.

Balance the Metrics

Always look at the relationship between your cost metrics (like CAC or return rate) and your value metrics (like CLV or AOV). A healthy business maintains a profitable balance where the money you generate from a customer significantly exceeds the money it costs to acquire and serve them.

E-commerce KPI Benchmarks by Industry

Benchmarks can vary widely by factors like price, purchase frequency, and product category. However, here are industry-specific benchmarks for one of the most important metrics, the conversion rate, so you can see how your business stacks up [1] :

Industry	Average conversion rate (2025)
Food and beverage	6.02%
Beauty and personal care	4.89%
Fashion and apparel	3.13%
Consumer goods	2.89%
Home and furniture	1.46%
Luxury and jewelry	0.95%

Rates are highest in categories like food and beverage and beauty and personal care because these products are often low-cost, high-frequency necessities, leading to faster decisions and higher customer loyalty. On the flip side, pricier, high-consideration industries such as home and furniture, and luxury and jewelry, see the lowest CR. This is due to the customer’s high investment and the greater need for trust before a purchase is made.

Tools You Can Use to Measure E-commerce Performance

• Web analytics: Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides the foundation for tracking web traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates.
• Built-in platform analytics: This is the core engine where transactions happen. Common tools include:
  Shopify: Known for its ease of use and all-in-one suite, it provides built-in dashboards for sales, AOV, and basic customer behavior.
  WooCommerce: Offers deep customizability and is great for calculating complex cost components, as it integrates tightly with many ERP/Financial systems.
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software: Tools like HubSpot or Salesforce track CLV, retention rates, and manage NPS surveys.
• Fulfillment and operations systems: These backend systems are critical for accurate cost and fulfillment metrics.
  Order Management System (OMS): An OMS centralizes order data from all channels (website, marketplaces) so you get the accurate, unified data needed to calculate true AOV, refund rate, and the cost components of CAC.
  Warehouse Management System (WMS): A WMS helps optimize warehousing, directly impacting the logistics costs, which are a component of CAC and affect customer satisfaction (and thus NPS).

How Anchanto Helps Brands Improve Their E-commerce KPIs

Anchanto provides integrated SaaS solutions that streamline e-commerce operations, helping brands sell smarter and scale globally.

Improve AOV and Conversion Rate

By connecting your inventory across your sales channels, we help you prevent overselling and cancelled orders, ensuring every product displayed is actually available. This reliability builds trust and reduces friction, improving the user experience and increasing conversions.

Reduce CAC and Refund Rate

By streamlining post-purchase logistics, including automated returns processing, you minimize handling costs (reducing the ‘Cost to Serve’ component of CAC) and rapidly process refunds, which boosts customer satisfaction and encourages repeat purchases.

Maximize CLV and Retention

Our unified OMS and multi-channel solutions ensure a seamless fulfillment experience across all sales channels. This consistent, excellent service is the foundation of high customer retention and ultimately, a higher CLV.

Conclusion

To drive sustainable e-commerce growth, businesses need to make measured, calculated improvements. By proactively tracking the moment a visitor lands on your site to their lifetime value, you gain the clarity needed to make data-driven decisions that will predict and fuel your success in the competitive online selling environment.

Ready to turn your operational data into actionable growth strategies? Get in touch with us today.

FAQs

What are the most important e-commerce performance metrics?

The most important e-commerce performance metrics are typically considered to be the conversion rate and customer lifetime value (CLV). Conversion rate measures your funnel’s efficiency (i.e., how effectively you turn traffic into customers), while CLV measures the long-term profitability of your customer base. This determines the sustainable limits for all your marketing spend and growth efforts.

How do I know if my e-commerce KPIs are good?

Your KPIs are good if they show consistent improvement month-over-month. While comparing against industry benchmarks provides context, the best measure is whether you are consistently outperforming your own historical results.

Which e-commerce metrics improve profitability the most?

The three metrics that most directly impact profitability are:

• Average order value (AOV): Increases revenue without increasing acquisition cost.
• Customer retention rate: Reduces the need to spend on expensive new customer acquisition.
• Refund and return rate: Reduces the costly overhead of reverse logistics.

What tools should I use to track e-commerce KPIs?

For the most comprehensive data, you can use a combination of:

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4): For website behavior metrics (traffic, bounce, conversion).
• CRM: For customer relationship metrics (CLV, retention, NPS).
• OMS/WMS: For operational and cost metrics (AOV, refund rate, CAC components).

Which KPIs matter most for omnichannel brands?

For omnichannel brands, data unification is most important. KPIs like CLV and the customer retention rate will reveal the true value of serving a customer across multiple channels (e.g., both online and in-store). If a customer who shops both channels has a significantly higher CLV than a single-channel customer, you know your omnichannel strategy is working and should be prioritized.

References:

[1] Marketing.dynamicyield.com – The average eCommerce conversion rate globally is 2.9%