One of the simplest metrics that you can use to benchmark your eCommerce website is the dollar value of a visit. Often this metric is called “Revenue Per Visit,” but I just find that it feels better if you put the $ sign in front of it. It’s an emotional thing. If your currency is not called a dollar, then insert your symbol here…
$ Per Visit = Number of Website Visits / $ Total Website Sales
If the number is high, then just concentrate on getting more traffic. If it’s low, then start asking questions about things like:
- Order process conversion rates
- The average number of items sold on orders
- Your pricing
- The pages where most people abandon the order process.
There are many places to look for ways to improve you $ per visit.
You should also look at this metric across the different sources of traffic. For example, look at the $ per visitor from Google organic searches as opposed to Google Adwords.
Dollars Per Visit is also extremely useful for setting bid limits in Google Adwords and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising campaigns. For instance, if you know that you margin is 50% and your $ per visit is $1.50, then bidding over 70c a click will lose you money. Be sure to monitor this specifically for your Adwords and PPC traffic as it is sure to vary with different traffic sources.
Related posts:
- How to measure your eCommerce Website
- eCommerce Websites – What do you need to maximise conversion rates?
- eCommerce Website Search – 10 rules to better search results and higher eCommerce conversion rates
- eCommerce Websites – How to handle eCommerce problems and save your customers
- Copywriting – A thousand words is worth a picture
About Mark Standeven