Question · Growth strategy
What metrics should a small ecommerce business track?
Asked by a founder running growth experiments · Answered by Nathan Frater ·
The short answer
As few as possible. For most stores that's conversion rate, average order value, total revenue against traffic, and solid tracking on your paid ads.
My question is always how simple can you make it. I know businesses doing serious monthly revenue whose only reporting tool is the Shopify dashboard. If that’s enough for them, it’s probably enough for you to start with.
The one I wouldn’t skimp on is tracking for your paid ads. If that’s off, every decision you make about ad spend is built on bad numbers.
Put the energy you save into how you judge each change you make. When you try something new, decide what number it should move, check it, then make a call. Keep it, iterate on it, or kill it.
Automate the data pulls wherever you can. Copying numbers into a spreadsheet by hand every week is time you could spend on the next test.