Your product page is a gateway.
It’s a way for you to engage with your customers and encourage them to take the final plunge.
When you optimize your product page really well, they can assess your brand for what it truly offers.
Metrics like conversion rate, click-through rate, and average order value all give you an overview of how likely it is that your business will succeed.
Most brands track these typical key metrics and don’t go much further.
But what about something deeper?
If you’ve been in the eCommerce game for a while, you’re likely looking to understand how you can continually improve every aspect of your business.
These 7 unconventional product page metrics help you do just that.
7 Unconventional eCommerce Metrics That Make All the Difference
1. New Customer Growth Rate
The New Customer Growth Rate is the rate at which a company acquires and grows new customers.
It measures the difference between the number of customers in one period and the number in the consequent period.
The other way to do this is to calculate how new customers have grown across the period (typically with revenue).
This would tally the value at which they began and the value at which they ended over the calculation period.
To track more precisely:
Analyze on a monthly basis.
It’ll help you account for seasonal or periodic fluctuations that may creep in.
It’ll also help you see which contributing factors like content, support, offers etc. are causing dips or highs.
Observe growth rate and absolute change in parallel.
As your brand grows and figures get higher, you may see a decline in your growth rate percentage figure.
This happens because the important variables keep changing.
For example, 40 new customers to a base of 100 totals 40% but 40 new customers to a base of 400 add to only 10%.
This can even happen on a month-on-month basis.
In this instance, you need to be more mindful of the absolute value than the percentage.
For example, if the first month brought in a fresh revenue of $5000 and over the second month it went up to $9500, there’s still improvement.
💡 Conversion Tips
Track your existing buyer personas
Break down your audience into smaller chunks, personalize the sales and marketing experience for each one, and track returns from each buyer group.
Be easily “Google-able"
Whether that’s through paid ads, organic search, Maps, or even Google My Business, it’s important to ensure you’re available across the realm.
As Dan Laufer, CEO, RentLingo put it “If you're not easily searchable, it's hard for customers to find you.”
Try to get featured on the Google Featured Snippet.
Run re-engagement in fresh ways
While some common re-engagement ideas include coupons, promotions, giveaways, and cross-sell nudges, you may also want to look into strategies that take users by surprise.
Gamification, for one, can create instant connect.
A better brand narrative too can (re)generate interest.
Or even identifying gaps in the conversion funnel.
2. Feature Usage
Feature usage is a lot like heatmaps—and we'd say it's a key eCommerce metric many businesses miss out on tracking.
It evaluates and offers insight into where your users click and pause on a page, click on a feature etc.
While there are several different use cases of Feature Usage, the most popular ones look into:
- Percentage of feature users against the overall number of users
- And the average number of uses per day
To track more precisely:
Get into the user’s mind
Understand what your customers are doing right before they use that feature.
And also what other features they’re using in conjunction to the one you’re testing.
Track the flow of “events"
An event flow tells a story of how your users are using a feature. It shows you how different groups of users take different paths in their journey through your pages.
This will help you determine how to get more users to engage with a feature—and also optimize the event flow they’re already on.
Establish behavioral cohorts
Behavioral cohorts create segments out of people performing similar actions.
This helps you locate potential churners as well as high-value users.
As a result, you’ll be able to build tailored strategies to meet their intent and encourage them to continue engaging.
Measure the feature effect on conversions
For example, if customers are clicking on a particular category more, are they going in and buying products from that category?
You can do this by tracking conversions for specific actions.
💡 Conversion Tips
Introduce push notifications
By automating these to appear at particular time points, you can let your customers know when it’s time to use the Feature (something that works as a reminder for them too).
Here’s a cool example you can refer to:
Want more? Check out 18 Push Notification Templates for eCommerce (& great Examples)
Place “nudges” at key touchpoints
For example, Patagonia has placed this CSR nudge to pop up when users are browsing through their product pages.
When used well, such nudges can even enhance user experience and brand loyalty over time.
Fun fact: You can set up great emails at every stage of the shopper’s journey with Engage.
3. Product Affinities
Product Affinity highlights the products people are very likely to purchase together after viewing a specific product.
Why is it important?
- Offers a data-backed approach to upsell, cross-sell, and down-sell nudges
- Helps you identify which products would be best bundled together
- Offers insights into building Categories & Collections on the store
- Increases the average order value (when done right)
Here’s how to calculate:
To track more precisely:
Understand Market Basket Analysis
Market Basket Analysis tries to understand how products purchased together can predict the purchase of another product.
It analyzes shopping habits by examining the items customers purchase in one transaction.
How to run Market Basket Analysis? Here’s a handy guide.
Understand how Product Affinity impacts customer experience
Product affinity helps reinforce the natural connection between two or more products, for example, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
It helps with personalized product recommendations, such as in the example below by Thrive.
It can also help a business decide which products to feature together under a deal.
💡 Conversion Tips
Use discounted upsells in the mini cart
Alternatively, do what Chubbies does—the brand introduces a pop-up right after add-to-cart and before the shopper can view the mini or full cart page.
Keep reading: 17 Surefire ways to upsell in eCommerce & increase average order value
Name the bundle from your customer’s perspective
In the example below, you’re already interested in what they’re offering just by the way they’ve named their bundles.
Keep reading: 10 product bundling examples that convert (& 10 proven ideas)
4. Micro to Macro Conversion Rate
One of the eCommerce metrics that businesses often don't leverage is micro to macro conversion rate.
Micro conversions are small, incremental steps that users take to complete a larger conversion action.
Macro conversions, on the other hand, point at the larger end goal.
In eCommerce, if a micro conversion is a visitor signing up for your newsletter, a macro conversion is where they make a purchase using the discount you mailed them.
The Micro to Macro Conversion Rate helps us understand which micro conversions are most important to the bottom line.
To track more precisely:
Chase micro conversions with the “highest returns”
Identify which content topics are bringing the most attention in a particular period.
If it’s white apparel in the month of May, having a Labor Day sale would be a great idea to build on it.
Also focus on the opt-ins that make most visitors sign-up—it means something about them was super compelling.
Here’s an example from Aashford:
Watch session recordings
Session recordings can help you see why customers aren’t moving past a specific micro conversion.
Often, data from session recordings reveal how you can optimize a micro conversion better.
How do you watch session recordings? By connecting an external API to your registered customer database.
You can also create specific filters to track user behavior for one particular user or even groups of users.
Keep reading: Data beyond Heatmaps — that top eCommerce brands track
💡Conversion Tips
Understand & minimize causes behind friction
Your micro converting points won’t convince the user of a macro conversion if they cause friction.
It can be something as simple as a repeated form submission failure because the user isn’t able to understand what they’re typing wrong.
Or even a social sharing button that won’t work as expected.
Place relevant CTAs across touchpoints in the customer journey
For example, if you notice blogs are giving you good results, place CTAs to associated product pages in them.
5. Funnel Exploration
While Funnel Exploration is more a tool than a key eCommerce metric, it can help you study:
- The path visitors take to complete a task
- Touchpoints that are & aren’t working well
- Dropout rates at each stage
- Touchpoints where users are abandoning the journey
To track more precisely:
Understand conversion pathways
If the conversion path is short, it means that you have done an effective job of gaining their attention and guiding them down the funnel.
For example, lead generation, eCommerce purchases, or newsletter signups are all valid conversion pathways.
The idea is to track these in a way that eventually every touchpoint has a relevant conversion strategy.
Understand early, mid & late touchpoints
Attributing full success to the last click before a conversion happened, is now long gone.
With GA4 coming in, you’ll have to look at touchpoints that figure along the way to final conversion.
Early touchpoints typically get 25% attribution credit, middle ones get 50% and the late ones also get 25%.
Why this is important is because touchpoints that are closer to a conversion naturally get more credit.
So let’s say, a shopper clicked a paid ad 8 days before they actually bought a product, the attribution to this touchpoint would be 50% less.
💡Conversion Tips
Handle objections early
When you look into customer concerns towards the start of the sales cycle, you can smoothen their transition from a prospect to a buyer.
Some ways you can do that are:
By enabling decision-making.
By showcasing social proof at important junctures.
By addressing privacy concerns and de-risking purchases.
Check out: 10 scientific hacks to overcome customer objections in eCommerce
Set up well-timed remarketing campaigns
It’s important to continually optimize your remarketing campaigns to hit different groups of customers at the lifecycle stage they’re in.
For the best results, you’d like to update your marketing database on a 7 - 14 day basis, continually removing customers who have crossed that particular stage.
As your customers’ journeys progress so should your messaging.
In the following examples, the first email is clearly to a membership card holder who’s been inactive for a shorter while than the customer in the second email.
Looking for ways to improve your product page? Check out this detailed product page guide containing examples, best practices, templates, and more.
6. Content Compliance
82%.
When customers search for product and category-related information, 82% of the time they’re met with eCommerce content.
Having quality content on your website is GREAT. Having content that complies with Google’s algorithm? Even better.
Here’s why:
- Helps Google quickly skim through your content to highlight the best stuff
- Helps you maximize conversions through digital retailers
- Ensures all digital channels are in sync
PLUS, 35% of customer journeys begin on Google.
To track more precisely:
Know your Merchant Center guidelines (especially for ads)
If you follow their guidelines and comply with their requirements, Google will help make it easier for your customers to find you.
Here’s what they look like:
- You need to use an official language (Google has a list for your reference)
- You can only promote products that are available for direct purchase
- You need to collect user data responsibly and be upfront about return & refund
- You need to claim your URL and have your website meet specific requirements
You can continue reading about this on the Google Onboarding Guide here.
Especially since the revised Google AdWords policy, more and more advertisers have had to be mindful of these guidelines.
Ensure your data meets product data specifications
Product data specifications are a set of guidelines Google prescribes to all brands that are using its platform.
This is for ads, free listings, as well as Buy on Google.
Google uses this data to ensure it’s matched to the right queries.
Stuff like:
- Product SKU
- Verified domain name
- Links to the images used
- Distinguished title for each product
- Accurate description of the products, without promotional copy
PLUS, Google has a fixed process you can follow. You can read more about it here.
Do check out: 5 Things That Harm eCommerce Domain Reputation (+ 10 Ways To Recover It)
💡Conversion Tips
Optimize content for Google properties
The most popular content placements on Google are:
- Google Search
- Google Images
- Google Lens
- Google Shopping
- Google My Business
- Google Maps
Each one has its own set of regulations and optimizing your content to fit these is the best way to ensure maximum reach.
Google has shared a detailed list of specifications here.
Develop content that matches customer needs
In fact, having more content that serves different customer needs encourages Google to feature your brand across touchpoints.
Here’s a list you can look into building today:
- Company story
- Special offers
- Product reviews
- Product catalog
- Live streams
- Educational opportunities
- Customer service touchpoints
Dive into the categories and understand the exact regulations Google holds for each one.
Check out: Gated content: 8 do’s & don’ts that eCommerce founders must know
7. Net Promoter Score
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a key eCommerce metric that suggests how likely people who interact with your brand, recommend it to their social circles.
It is generally used as a survey.
SourceIf you ask your customers: “On a scale from 0 – 10, how likely is it that you would recommend us to someone else?”, based on the response, you would need to categorize them into:
NPS Detractors don’t hold your brand in very high regard and would likely never recommend your brand.
NPS Passives have a neutral standing with your brand and would recommend your brand if needed, but not if they have to go out of their way.
NPS Promoters strongly support your brand and would be most likely to recommend it to their peers.
The true NPS Score is the value of %Promoters - %Detractors.
This score can further be viewed on a scale of -100 to +100.
This can further be broken down industry wise.
SourceTo track more precisely:
Make a note of how NPS is progressing
Every time you determine your NPS score, it’s likely that you would also be receiving feedback on how to improve this score.
By periodically checking in and analyzing your NPS, you can determine whether or not there are any opportunities to improve your business.
Over time, trends will tell you which areas to potentially improve— be it product improvements, sales strategy, or customer service.
Analyze the “root cause”
Conducting a Root Cause Analysis offers an analytical approach to improving your Net Promoter Score.
By digging deeper, you’ll be able to assess whether it is a category or specific use case that’s causing detractors to be unhappy or whether there’s a larger systemic problem.
You’ll also be able to understand why Promoters are so content and how you can reinforce that behavior.
💡Conversion Tips
Act on customer feedback
By planning personal interviews, group discussions, and additional surveys, you can assess the true determinants of your score—top things customers liked, top areas that need improvement, the departments that brought dis/satisfaction, etc.
We love what Mention did to close the loop. First, they sent NPS surveys with a unique traceable link through which they tracked unique customer responses.
They also built custom emails for each of the three categories.
To the promoters they sent a discounted upgrade, to the passives they sent a free demo for their product.
With the detractors, they simply sent a thank you email and asked them how they can improve.
The result? They reduced churn rate by half.
Dissect the feedback from Detractors
The best way to deal with your critical feedback? Head on.
Here’s proof from a fellow eCommerce business owner:
Thank detractors for being honest—honest feedback (even if it’s negative) goes a long way in helping you improve.
Then, ask them for ways in which you can improve as a brand. It may be helpful to run a text and sentiment analysis here.
You can also use this feedback for larger organizational goals and KPIs.
Finally, thank the detractors for their time and offer them an incentive.
Recommended reading:
The only 10 metrics eCommerce founders should track
5 stages of an eCommerce conversion funnel (+ways to improve each step)
45 Proven Ways To Increase Product Page Conversions
Final words
Especially when it comes to your product page, metrics give you a chance to understand what’s happening in an analytical format.
Sometimes, it’s important to get to the very depth of that. These 7 unconventional eCommerce metrics help you do just that.
However, 98% of visitors to an eCommerce site still drop off without buying anything.
Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.
And this is the problem Convertcart solves.
We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.
How we can help you:
Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.
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