How can you tell if your online store is a success? It seems like a simple—and above all, logical—question, but it’s not uncommon to see companies only scratch the surface when evaluating their online store’s performance. To begin with, the success of an eCommerce business also depends on expectations, which is why it’s important to manage them properly among different members of the team.

There’s no perfect formula for measuring the success of an eCommerce store, because it depends on various factors (some subjective) related to the uniqueness of each company and its people. To illustrate this, if we reduce the matter to its simplest form, we might start by asking ourselves what “success” actually means… and we’d quickly find a wide range of opinions, with many nuances, even in a conversation with just a few colleagues.

That said, there are two key aspects that can help in any case, which—as we’ll see—allow you to evaluate a project that could be extremely significant for a company.

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Goals

There’s no way around it: having a clear goal is essential to eCommerce success—and it’s the only way to know whether you’ve achieved it. Having a goal means, first and foremost, knowing why you want an online store, who’s going to use it, and what they can find there.

As always, goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), so simply saying “sell more” shouldn’t count. Of course, increasing sales can be one of the main goals—but for it to be a “smart” goal, it needs a why, a how much, and a by when, along with relevance and realism. And don’t forget: goals can (and should) change over time, so they need to be reviewed periodically.

Goals must also be specific to the company in question. Just because a competitor uses a website to boost sales is not reason enough to embark on this rewarding but challenging journey.

eCommerce goals should be closely tied to overall business objectives, and generally align with the following main areas:

• Increase revenue (through cross-selling, volume-based revenue, etc.)
• Reduce costs (by improving customer service, cutting administrative errors, etc.)
• Improve process efficiency (with instant information availability, freeing up sales reps’ time, etc.)
• Brand positioning (improving online visibility, increasing branded content, etc.)
• Increase customer retention (through promotional strategies, purchase incentives, etc.)

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Metrics

Achieving your eCommerce goals requires planning and the execution of various actions over time. These steps can either bring you closer to your goal (in which case, keep going) or take you further away (in which case, adjust them). How do you know which direction you’re heading? That’s right—with evaluations and metrics.

Metrics must be tied to your goals, as they measure performance in relation to them. Based on common eCommerce objectives, here are some possible metrics:

• Sales growth in the channel, conversion rate increase, higher average order value, etc.
• Cost reduction in fixed expenses, per-order costs, error rate per order, etc.
• Efficiency gains such as shorter sales cycles, fewer sales calls, reduced error corrections, etc.
• Brand positioning metrics like more collected email addresses, more customers, more social media followers, more backlinks to the website, etc.
• Customer retention metrics like increased site visits, longer browsing time, repeat orders, more inquiries, etc.

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Have you considered adding eCommerce capabilities to solve other needs in your business?