Core Metrics Your Agency Needs To Focus On
1. Website traffic rates: You’ll want to identify the traffic sources that make you money, sources that cost you money, and the sources that lead to increased conversion rates over time. If the traffic you receive generates interest from qualified customers, your source is good. If your agency continues to use CRO procedures, you should be able to increase your traffic at a lower cost over time.
2. Email opt-ins: Email marketing is still one of the most valuable marketing channels you can use, producing an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. Building an email list means you’re converting paid or earned media to owned media. Your agency should be focused on building email as a marketing channel, using it to stabilize your cash flow and revenue.
3. Sales conversion rates: The average eCommerce conversion rate is 2 to 4.9 percent . Your agency, with consistent testing, should be able to increase your conversion rates year-over-year. Your agency should also be tracking both micro and macro conversion rates.
4. Average order values: This tracks the dollar amount spent by your customers each time an order is placed on your website. Your agency should be able to provide you with concrete steps you can take to increase your average order values (and customer lifetime values) over time. They should help you create upsell, down-sell, and cross-sell opportunities. You should always have a list of tactics you can use to increase your average order values.
5. Return rates: Returns cost eCommerce companies more than $550 billion. While brick and mortar return rates average around 8 to 10 percent, eCommerce return rates are more than double at 20 percent or more. Your agency should be able to help you lower your return rates. This is tough to do because 41 percent of customers buy products with the intention of returning some or all of their items.
6. Ecommerce churn rate: Churn measures customer attrition; this is a problem for ecommerce. How do you measure churn rates if your customer never cancels? Your agency should be able to use metrics like repeat purchase rate or time between orders to calculate your churn rate and provide you with a plan to reduce churn in the future.
The eCommerce agency you choose should be able to provide you with clear answers about each of these. It should be clear that they have these characteristics and the ability to produce the results you need.
At Vogon Agency we help you reach your marketing objectives by focussing on the right metrics! If you would love to know more, just send us a message.