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Measuring store performance - a compendium of knowledge, key tips

Measuring store performance - a compendium of knowledge, key tips

Measuring store performance - a compendium of knowledge, key tips

Effective development of any business relies on precise measurement of results. Interestingly, studies and surveys indicate that eCommerce marketers often feel underprepared in this area. In this article, we will outline four key measurement issues and trends, and present solutions to help you maximize the potential of your technology suite and marketing applications.

table of contents:

What is a KPI?

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are an important tool for assessing effectiveness. They are specific measures to determine whether an organization, project or activity is meeting its goals and expectations. They can apply to a variety of business areas, such as sales, customer service, production, marketing or finance. With KPIs, businesses can track progress toward goals, make informed business decisions and improve performance. It's a key tool for monitoring performance and taking accurate action.

How to conduct a performance evaluation using KPIs? Measuring these indicators is a key step in monitoring performance and improving business strategies. Here are some basic steps in this process:

  1. Draw up a business action plan - The first step is to formulate the goals you want to achieve. These goals should be in line with your company's long-term strategy and mission, and be measurable, realistic and achievable within a certain time frame.
  2. Choose the right KPIs - Select KPIs that directly reflect the achievement of specific business goals. It is important to select those metrics that can be easily monitored and updated in real time.
  3. Define expected results - For each KPI, set specific targets, or levels of performance you would like to achieve. These targets should be clearly defined and understood by all stakeholders.
  4. Choose the right analytics tools - Choose analytics tools that allow you to effectively measure and monitor your chosen KPIs. For e-commerce, Google Analytics 4 is often the tool of choice to accurately track key metrics for online stores.
  5. Analyze results and take action - Regularly analyze KPI results to identify areas for improvement and areas of success. Based on these analyses, take appropriate actions to optimize operations and achieve business goals.

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Annoying lack of skills

Marketing teams in the eCommerce industry need a variety of data sets to effectively monitor online store performance. Unfortunately, the tools providing this data often operate in isolation, preventing marketers from getting a complete picture of performance. This leads to the problems that analysts have identified:

  • According to Responsify, as many as 89% of marketers consider improving the ability to measure and analyze the impact of marketing activities a top priority.
  • Only 58% of marketers say they regularly achieve their marketing goals, according to data from Responsify.
  • Only 29% of marketers report that getting results from their automated campaigns is seamless and delay-free, according to data from VentureBeat.
  • Gartner forecasts indicate that by 2025, data-driven stories (data stories) will become the most popular way to use analytics, with as many as 75% of these stories generated automatically, rather than by data analysts.

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4 statistics that show the importance of measuring results

Immediate action must be taken to address these issues and challenges. In this article, we discuss in more detail the research behind the aforementioned statistics, outline their key aspects from a marketer's perspective and, just as importantly, provide tips for future-proofing marketing efforts.

The top priority for 89% of marketers is to improve their ability to measure and analyze the impact of marketing activities.

Acquiring data analytics is not a challenge. The key aspect, often overlooked, is the ability to draw conclusions and proactively use the data collected to take proactive initiatives.

Study

The 2017 Demand Gen survey report, “Increased Impact Raises the Bar on Attribution, Reporting and Measurement,” found that 89% of marketers rank improving their ability to measure and analyze the impact of marketing efforts as their top priority. In the previous 2016 survey, “Leveraging Multichannel Marketing and Data as Key Drivers of Growth,” only 61% of respondents identified improving this metric as their top priority.

Meaning

Understanding the impact of marketing activities on earned revenue has been a key part of marketers' work for a long time. However, despite the availability of many measurement tools, there is still a strong need for improvement. This demonstrates the need for a single, consistent source of reliable information to accurately assess the effectiveness of marketing activities.

How do you make your marketing efforts future-proof?

This can be accomplished with a feature that integrates store performance data in a similar way to how Customer Data Platform collects and integrates all customer data into one consistent 360-degree customer profile. This allows marketers to easily access information such as transaction value, number of products purchased and average order value. Providing analytical data on contacts and visits, and providing a centralized view of KPIs is also an important feature. But what really enables ongoing business control is the ability to attribute revenue at the highest level, both for individual channels and tools. This analysis will clearly identify which channels are most effective and which need to be improved or abandoned. This is what we call Omnichannel Growth Intelligence.

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Only 58% of marketers said they usually successfully achieve their marketing goals

Study

According to the Marketing Strategy Trends Report, which was conducted by CoSchedule in 2022, it reveals the effectiveness of marketers in the global market. There are many factors and reasons that can explain this state of affairs, but looking at the above statistics, one wonders what makes so many marketers successful on a regular basis.

Meaning

The lack of comprehensive insight into the effectiveness of one's own operations is a challenge for marketers. While some strategies may yield immediate results, most of the effects go unnoticed due to the lack of proper analytical tools. This leads to confusion and uncertainty among marketers.

How do you make your marketing efforts future-proof?

Implementing an effective solution would require real-time, accessible non-stop monitoring of the online store's performance. This approach would make it possible:

  • Immediately locate areas of intense activity.
  • Identification of key performance indicators.
  • In-depth analysis of the eCommerce environment.
  • Effectively improve work processes, flexibly redirect resources and make more informed strategic decisions.

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Only 29% of marketers said they were getting results from automated campaigns without problems or delays

Study

In 2015, researchers at VentureBeat set out to investigate what underlies such a low percentage of companies using marketing automation tools. In their latest report on marketing automation, they discovered that companies using these tools are seeing significant increases in leads, conversions and revenue. With such promising results, why are only 5% of companies using them?

Meaning

Unfortunately, implementing such tools can be cumbersome. Data from eCommerce platforms and marketing software often don't overlap, creating gaps in understanding customer behavior and actions. Without comprehensive, real-time data, companies lack a complete picture, making it difficult to make smart decisions. To bridge these gaps and get more comprehensive analysis, marketers often turn to tools like Google Tag Manager, which is a popular choice. However, Digital Marketing Platforms are becoming increasingly popular because they not only measure the number of visits to a site, but also parameters such as open rate (OR), click-through rate (CTR), offline transactions and more. These differences become especially apparent with the free version of Google Analytics.

How do you make your marketing efforts future-proof?

Using graphical data visualization from the eCommerce platform and marketing software reduces the gap between the two systems and minimizes the risk of errors when linking store events. As a result, you gain full control over your operations with 24/7 access to real-time data. This more comprehensive insight into your store's operations enables you to make better decisions and optimize your marketing strategies, resulting in a greater return on investment.

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By 2025, data stories will be the most common use of analytics, with 75% of them generated automatically rather than created by data analysts.

Study

According to Gartner's predictions, data storytelling will become a common way to process data analytics by 2025. What's more, up to 75% of data-driven stories will be generated automatically through augmented intelligence and machine learning, instead of being created by data analysts.

James Richardson, research director at Gartner, spoke on the topic at a virtual conference hosted by Narrative Science, a provider of data-driven storytelling tools, on February 24, 2021. He stressed that “The move to higher levels of analytics automation and away from the dominant legacy self-service model is inevitable.” Richardson also noted that “The self-service and visual paradigm that currently prevails in business analytics has its limitations. It is only as good as an individual's ability to serve himself.”

Meaning

What is really key for marketers? According to Gartner, you're probably not using analytics enough. According to their findings, “By various estimates, only about 30% of employees in most companies use analytics tools as part of their daily work. Despite advances in augmented intelligence and vendors' efforts to make these tools easier to use to make analytics more accessible to a wider range of users, this percentage has not changed significantly.”

How do you make your marketing efforts future-proof?

Clearly illustrated data is only a prelude to real storytelling using data. It's a step toward making information understandable to those outside the analytics field, accessible on a daily basis, instantly and anytime.

So let's take all kinds of data, types and sources mentioned in this article and present them in a clear, easy to digest way, creating an almost perfect graphic presentation for eCommerce. Almost, because in order to achieve full perfection, you need to take a few steps towards storytelling with data.

Take, for example, the construction of loyalty. This concept seems too complex for simple on-screen representation. However, if we treat it as an outcome of key KPIs, we can easily visualize and monitor it in real time. Combined with omnichannel revenue attribution and other data, we can proactively work on building customer loyalty and forming customer relationships, live and in real time.

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Data analysis and performance measurement - summary


The problem is becoming more apparent as more and more agencies are involved in data analysis and interpretation of results. In terms of efficiency, data-driven decision-making is becoming a key element, but the overabundance and dispersion of data are becoming more of a hindrance than a help.

Data storytelling will soon be in the hands of the average marketer. What we need now is a solution that:

  • provides consistent, relevant performance information,
  • allows instant, continuous access around the clock,
  • presents data in a way that all company employees can understand,
  • enables tracking and improving even the smallest data, such as multi-channel revenue attribution or the effects of loyalty-building programs.

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