By the new year, managers will be taking stock and trying to measure how successful the holiday season was. The rapidly changing digital infrastructure means the measure of success this holiday season have changed. eCommerce is leading this new digital shift. This means metrics normally reserved for eCommerce. have essentially gone mainstream. This is especially true for the retail sectors. However, this year shows it has gone far beyond. Primarily, this shows how far eCommerce has come and what lies ahead for the future. So what are these key measures of success? DigiCommerce thinks they are the following. Marketing effectiveness, customer service, inventory, shopping fulfillment and returns. Companies who scored higher likely would be happiest at the end of the holidays.
Marketing effectiveness
Most businesses engage in marketing activities prior to and during the holidays. This is one of the more basic ways to test the success of those marketing efforts on the online store. Some companies look it through a ration of marketing dollars to revenue. In essence, digital ads to digital sales. Testing marketing efforts can be difficult because of the nature of marketing. Other factors can easily betray a good online marketing campaign. However, a ratio of digital ads to digital sales tells a clear picture all things being considered.
Regardless, there are many other metrics that give managers a full picture. Raw web traffic number accompanied by stats on traffic sources. Organics sources, direct visitors, referrals and social for example. Also new and returning visitor stats give a fuller picture. You can dig deeper looking at bounce rates, exit rates, page views, most visited page and average section duration. This allows manger to be more analytical with their assessments. Platforms like BigCommerce are quite good with this.
Inventory performance
This is another key indicator for numerous reasons. Firstly repeat customers are an indication of the standard of inventory management and fulfillment. In essence, retailers presumably stock items they believe will sell. This validates strategy and the eCommerce operation. Especially during the holiday season. Importantly, companies must make sure inventory time and fulfillment is as short as possible. This inventory time get shorter when retailers have good relationship with suppliers and when sourcing the right products for the customer base.
Buying larger product volumes and attracting more suppliers are another key inventory indicator of the success online stores this holidays. The larger the demand the more means managers will have to engage with more or larger suppliers as they scale up. The lower price is a benefit of these. This is one of the unspoken benefits of a well integrated digital infrastructure. DigiCommerce ensure its customers get the value for money on eCommerce investment.
Database growth
Arguably one of the most overlooked portions is the growth of the database. The type of data collected and the growth of the database over the holiday season is an overlooked measure of the success of the holidays. It basically gives an idea of what works and doesn’t. And give the tools to tackle the issues. Which is the data itself. The rate of database growth is a pure indication of growth even regardless of growth in revenue. It makes the digital operation more robust for future times of unpredictable changes in traffic.
In conclusion, it is important for companies to find the most relevant measure for their digital operations. There is an exhaustive list of metrics. However, the important thing is for managers to be reflective and analytical in how they deploy eCommerce. This approach improves the entire digital operation in the long run. eCommerce is allowed to be more responsive.