Dean DeCarlo, President and Founder of Mission Disrupt

Increasing online sales does not automatically require an increase in the marketing budget.

ECommerce companies often miss hidden revenue opportunities that are easily available. Implementing strategies to take advantage of these opportunities can lead to new company sales, by analyzing the most impactful metrics that organically increase product performance.

Conversion Rate Optimization is the practice of utilizing data analytics to run tests and increase onsite performance without increasing ad budget. Google analytics provides crucial first metrics to start with, before blindly testing new assets or applying content. 

Landing Page Metrics

Conversions Rate: Ratio of customers that purchase vs. customers that visit a website. This crucial benchmark of performance provides insight into how changes directly impact landing page performance. For example, 1,000 users convert at a rate of 3%, which translates to 30 paying customers. If new changes are made to the landing page that results in a conversion rate of 4%, 10 more customers per 1,000 users will visit the website. Measuring conversion directly provides data on the adjusted changes showing an increase or decrease in performance.

Product Performance Metrics

Cart-To-Detail Rate: A metric that is often overlooked when measuring individual performance. This percentage includes data on users that have added a product to the cart after viewing the product page. If the Cart-To-Detail Rate is lower than average, immediately consider what may be causing it. Example issues include a sub-par product title, a bug, or product benefits that could be missing from the description, which is meant to convince a user to purchase. Focus on the actual products instead of the average to find the attributes contributing to the higher Cart-To-Detail Rate.

Buy-To-Detail Rate: Once the issues identified in the Cart-To-Detail Rate are fixed, the Buy-To-Detail Rate can be used as the ultimate benchmark of increased performance. Remember, even a 1% increase could result in a variety of lump sums in sales. If the data is displaying a decrease in performance, analyze the Check-Out-Behavior metrics.

Check-Out-Behavior Metrics: These metrics need to be checked on a weekly basis to ensure the eCommerce website performance is firing correctly across all six cylinders. Drops in performance can indicate cart issues that need to be addressed immediately. Problems such as slow loading times, lack of quick payment options (Venmo, Apple, Google Pay), or long fill-out times on customer forms, are all contributing factors that affect these metrics.

Billing & Shipping Drop Off: The percent of users that leave a website from the Billing and Shipping page. Understand what is causing the users to leave. For example, causes might include a lack of shipping options, broken discount codes, and forms without autofill for addresses. Focus on creating a fast and easy user experience.

Payment Drop Off: Indicates the users that leave a website during the payment input. A high drop-off percentage indicates that payment options need to be evaluated. The majority of users browsing online consists of mobile users. One-touch payment options such as Venmo, Apple, or Google Pay, are crucial in today’s digital age. 

Review Drop Off: The last stage before the user confirms a purchase. The ratio will remain low if billing, shipping, and payment drop-off issues are tackled. Check that the pricing and discounts are clear and the submit order button is within view, to ensure users are aware they need to confirm the order.

Increasing product performance can be a tedious process, but the rewards are well worth it. These metrics can be used as the basis of your conversion rate optimization metrics and the additional recommendations can be analyzed in the order presented to make this a manageable process. Check out Dean DeCarlo’s Youtube series Impact Analytics Series. Visit: Missiondisrupt.com