Why read this? : We look at how to set up and use an e-Commerce dashboard. Learn how to store, analyse and share your online selling data. Plus, learn the decisions it drives with our case study example. Read this to learn how to use your e-Commerce dashboard to improve performance.
Part of managing an online store is tracking how it’s doing. Your profit and loss shows the sales, costs and profits. But you’ll need to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for other functions too.
For example, you’ll want to track :-
- marketing activities like the impact of your advertising and media.
- customer experience areas, especially data from your website.
- order to delivery data from your supply chain and customer service teams.
Your post-launch review will cover some of this. But you’ll need to set up an e-Commerce dashboard to track these over time.
This shows how your store’s doing against its KPIs. What’s going well, and where you’ve got issues. It’s regularly updated with data and comments and shared with relevant people. What measures go into your e-Commerce dashboard depends on the context of your business. But to set one up, you’ll need to cover as a minimum :-
- storing, analysing and sharing data.
- the dashboard owner and audience.
- how the dashboard drives decision-making.
Storing, analysing and sharing data
First, you have to work out where to store your e-Commerce dashboard data. Then, how you’ll analyse and share it.
Storing data usually means a spreadsheet (Excel or Numbers). That’s also where you do the analysis. Then you share this analysis in a presentation report. (Powerpoint or Keynote). The report makes the data easy to understand and communicates insights and actions.
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are great for numerical and quantitative types of data.
No surprise that there are a lot of numbers in e-Commerce. You use spreadsheets to organise this data, do calculations and run analyses.
For example, that could be as simple as summing up your monthly sales. Or as complex as running a regression analysis on which customer experience factors influence sales the most.
But spreadsheets can quickly become complex if you’ve lots of data to manage. Clear labelling and organisation of the data is vital. Even with that though, many people still find spreadsheets visually off-putting. They can be hard to navigate, especially if it’s someone else’s spreadsheet. Qualitative data and commentary can get lost among all the numbers.
Presentations
To share your dashboard, you turn it into a presentation-based report. This makes it easier to tell a story about the data, using for example :-
- clear visuals like charts, tables and diagrams.
- a logical sequence with added commentary and highlighted text.
- a simple one-page overview slide.
Presentation-style reports of your e-Commerce dashboard break mass amounts of data into simpler, more meaningful chunks. (See our design psychology article for more on this).
The downside is you can’t dig into the data if you have questions. You have to go back to the spreadsheet for that. Presentations usually take more time to put together too. You can speed things up by linking the data spreadsheet and presentation together so you can refresh the data automatically. But you still have to manually add comments and check the visuals.
That takes time.
Automated e-Commerce dashboards
More advanced stores use automated dashboard tools. These speed up the process.
The most well-known is Salesforce’s Marketing Intelligence (formerly known as Datorama). Companies like Google, Adobe and Oracle also offer similar tools. However, you usually need to buy their marketing technology to access them.
These automated dashboards use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to connect different data sources.
These are pieces of code which sit between programs to allow easy sharing of data. APIs mean your dashboard can pull data from many sources automatically. This saves you a lot of time and effort.
For example, say your e-Commerce dashboard sources data from your :-
- SAP system for sales numbers.
- CRM system for customer data.
- website analytics for online data.
- digital media and social media accounts for online advertising.
It’s a lot of work to collect information from each of these sources and manually input it into your e-Commerce dashboard. With an automated system, you set it up once. Then the next time, you just hit refresh.
These automated dashboards also often come with sophisticated analytical and data visualisation tools. Some even offer Artificial Intelligence (AI) analysis of the data. It highlights trends and makes automated suggestions about what might be important.
There are also tools like Tableau which help with data visualisation. They make it easier to present the data, so you understand it faster. That means you find better, quicker answers.
The e-Commerce dashboard owner and audience
Once you work out “how” your e-Commerce dashboard will work, then you have to decide “who” is going to do the work. Who’s going to own it, and who’s going to use it to make decisions?
In a small business, that might be you. But usually, you’d hire an analyst, or outsource it to an agency.
The e-Commerce dashboard owner is responsible for making sure it’s produced and sent out at the right time. They manage who it goes to, fix any issues, and check it for accuracy and clarity.
The e-Commerce dashboard does 2 jobs for its audience. It’s an information update on progress. And it’s a catalyst for decision-making.
Decision-making takes priority. You should know what decisions you have to make to manage your store. Everyone involved in making those decisions from different functions should have access to the e-Commerce dashboard. In simple terms, you do more of the things which work well and less of those which don’t. But you also have to work out who’s responsible for decisions and actions in each area.
How the e-Commerce dashboard drives decision-making
Usually, there’s a weekly or monthly performance review meeting. Key decision makers review the latest e-Commerce dashboard results and decide on actions.
When there’s an issue, you try to diagnose why it happened. You ask questions and investigate to gather more information.
Was it a competitor action, for example? A change in customer needs? A problem in the customer experience process?
Once you diagnose the cause, you ask the e-Commerce team to generate ideas and use their expertise to recommend how to fix the problem. They also need to tell you how long it’ll take, and how much it’ll cost.
It’s helpful to plan for likely issues. Some issues have obvious owners. For example, advertising issues go to the marketing team. High bounce rates to your website team. And delivery complaints to supply chain and customer service. Knowing these things could happen helps you prepare for them.
You also have to set out how decision-making works. How much authority do teams have? When do you need to set up a cross-functional team to fix an issue? What happens when teams disagree? The more you agree this upfront, the less time you waste fixing issues later.
Case Study - example e-Commerce dashboard
All good in theory. But you only really learn the value of an e-Commerce dashboard when you start to use a real one.
Real numbers bring it to life. They show you how many visitors you have. How much they spend. And the impact of your activities.
What your e-Commerce dashboard looks like depends on your business context. But for this article, we’ll look at this example from an old D2C project.
This e-Commerce dashboard covered :-
- campaigns.
- platforms.
- operations.
- sales.
Campaigns
Most online store campaigns prioritise digital media in the media plans.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
Targeted reach
First, digital media channels can be very targeted. You can identify specific online shopper segments based on their demographics and behaviours.
For example, you can target on gender, age or location. Or on specific sites they visit or other products they buy.
That means your digital media reach is more efficient. There’s less wastage compared to traditional channels.
You also have more control over where and when these customers see your advertising.
For example, you can place adverts on sites where customers are researching the category. Or in response to relevant search terms. You can place adverts on specific days of the week or times of the day. Times when you know shoppers are most likely to be buying.
Engagement and call to action
Digital media is also good at driving engagement. There’s an immediate and clear call to action. Customers can click to visit the store website.
That interaction works in all digital formats – display adverts, boosted social posts and SEO.
If shoppers are ready to buy, digital media makes it easier for them to do so.
With social media, you can also interact with the customer via comments and enquiries.
Test and learn
The last benefit of digital media is you can run a test-and-learn approach. You spend a little on many different versions of an advert at the start of a campaign (the test). Then you invest more in the adverts which perform the best (the learn).
It’s fairly quick, cheap and easy to create digital adverts (compared to traditional adverts). You can easily test different headlines or different end frames, for example. And you see the results quickly. You learn fast what works and what doesn’t. Which video, image or copy drives the most visits and sales. It’s fast customer feedback which helps you optimise the customer experience.
Example reach and engagement KPIs
There are many ways to measure your digital media campaign, but these should always include measures of reach and engagement.
Our example used impressions and Click Through Rate (CTR). Impressions are how many times the advert was shown to people online. That’s reach. And Click Through Rate is how many people clicked on the advert. That’s engagement.
Which measures you use depends on your objectives.
There can be limits to how useful these are. Impressions don’t tell you how many people actually noticed the advert, for example. Just that they were exposed to it online.
Click Through Rate at least shows an actual response to the advertising. However, as per our online store business model guide, Click-Through-Rates are often low (less than 2%). These low numbers may well freak out your finance team. It sounds like you waste a lot of money.
And remember it usually takes repeated viewings of an advert to make a customer want to buy. Those unclicked viewings might well lead to a sale at a later point. But you can’t measure this. You can only track when they click. So, you have to take care when you interpret this data. It may not be giving you a true view of your media performance.
Working with campaign data
You should set KPIs and targets when you brief the agency that runs your digital media.
Ask them to report on performance during and after each campaign they run.
If you use channels like Facebook Ads or Google Ads, you can access that campaign data yourself.
You have instant access to live data about how your advertising is performing in these channels. You can quickly adjust your spend if you need to.
In addition, with adverts which run on social media, you should also measure responses to these posts. Likes, shares, comments, re-posts and re-tweets, for example. Those are all measures of customers engaging with your advertising.
Platforms
Google Analytics is the usual choice to track what happens on websites. (See our digital data guide for more on Google Analytics).
It gives you a good base level of data to track how your online store website is doing.
In an e-Commerce dashboard, you’d typically measure the number of visitors to your website. And how many of those convert to a sale. Like the CTR% on digital media, this number is likely to be low – on average benchmark around only 2 -3%.
On your website, you may have more specific measures you track separately like :-
- bounce rate – how many people leave without interacting with the site.
- time on site and number of pages visited.
- visits to specific pages e.g. product pages.
Customer Feedback - Net Promoter Score
Any customer feedback measures you capture should also go on your e-Commerce dashboard. For example, Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a common measure of customer satisfaction.
With NPS, you ask, “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend (your brand) to a friend?”.
The answers are collated and scored. All scores of 8 and above (promoters) get a score of +1. All scores between 5 and 7 (neutrals) score a 0. And, all scores 4 and below (detractors) score a -1. The model assumes only promoters will praise your brand. Neutrals will say nothing. And detractors will be openly critical of your brand.
Your overall Net Promoter Score is the total number of promoters less the total number of detractors, expressed as a percentage. A high NPS is clearly better. It means customers like what you’re doing and are likely to tell others about it.
Social media platforms
In this example, we didn’t include any social media “pull” KPIs. They weren’t relevant for this store. But we have used them on other e-Commerce dashboards.
For example, measuring the total number of followers or likes for pages and posts. If you include organic content, you can have KPIs relevant to response rates. For example, how many comments, shares, re-tweets and so on?
If you share content on YouTube, you can include relevant video metrics like views and shares.
You wouldn’t report on every social metric. You only cover those with the biggest impact on sales in your e-Commerce dashboard.
Operations
In our example, we included operational measures in our e-Commerce dashboard. These showed how the order to delivery process was performing.
You may not have access to this type of data if you outsource it. Through marketplaces, print on demand or dropshipping, for example.
But, if you run a full D2C business, you’ll have direct access to payment and delivery data. You use this to measure the operational side of your store.
Some common operational KPIs include :-
Delivered In Full On Time (DIFOT)
Delivered In Full On Time (DIFOT) is a commonly used measure in supply chain teams. It shows you the percentage of products delivered in the right quantity and at the right time. Typically, most businesses would aim for 95%+. In some businesses, DIFOT can be 99%+.
Returns
The level of returns is another important KPI which should go on your e-Commerce dashboard. Every returned delivery adds cost. You have to keep a close eye on this. High return rates often mean problems with either the sales offer or the delivery. You need to investigate if returns start to rise.
In categories like online fashion, for example, returns will be higher. That’s because shoppers can’t try the products before they buy. So fashion e-Commerce stores have to make returns easy for customers.
Returns are a pain for customers and for you. That’s why you track them in your e-Commerce dashboard to keep them as low as you can.
Complaints
Your customer service team handle complaints. Complaint levels tell you how happy (or unhappy) customers are about their experience.
You want to avoid them, but it’s almost impossible to have no complaints.
Someone, somewhere will always have an issue. It’s human nature to complain.
Use your dashboard to alert you if complaints rise above expected levels.
Maybe there’s an issue with a specific part of your customer experience? The quicker you identify where the problem is, the quicker you can fix it.
Fraud and chargebacks
Fraud and chargebacks are another cost that’ll hit your profit and loss in your online store business model. That’s where people use stolen or forged credit card details and you need to refund customers. Again, you want to keep these low.
Track the rates on your dashboard. Check hackers and fraudsters aren’t deliberately targeting your site. You may need to adjust settings in your payment gateway to reduce your risk of fraud. For example, blocking customers who repeatedly claim refunds.
Sales
Your dashboard should show how your total sales compare to your forecast and target. But it should also break down the performance of key categories or products which sit underneath the total.
Look for the best and worst performers. Analyse why products over- or under-perform. Relate them to the other measures in your e-Commerce dashboard.
For example, maybe some media campaigns work better than others? Or, a particular sales promotion or price discount is more effective?
Add comments to explain how your activities affected sales.
Compare sales during low-activity periods and high-activity periods. The low activity periods give you a sales baseline. You can attribute the extra sales you get during high-activity periods to your activities.
Try also to cover external factors which impact sales. For example, competitor advertising and sales promotions. Check their websites and social media activity. Keep notes on what they do and when they do it. Look out for their customer comments which might tell you where they shop online, and what they buy.
Make sure you add comments to your e-Commerce dashboard on these external factors too.
Conclusion - using your e-Commerce dashboard
You wouldn’t drive your car without a dashboard. You wouldn’t know how fast you were going or if something was wrong.
By the same measure, you need a dashboard to drive your e-Commerce store too.
It shows how much you’re selling and where you may have issues.
It gives you the information you need to make the right decisions to move your store forward.
Which measures you include in your e-Commerce dashboard depends on the nature of your business. But there are some common priorities.
For example, you need key financial measures from your profit and loss in the e-Commerce dashboard. But also measures of the actions which drive them. Your digital media which attracts visitors. Your CRM activity which drives loyalty. Key operational measures around payments and delivery costs. These KPIs help you make marketing decisions and prioritise actions. They help you keep your store on track.
Check out our managing an online store guide for more on how the dashboard fits in with other e-Commerce processes. Or get in touch, if you need help with your own e-Commerce dashboard.
Photo credits
Engine warning light : Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
Marketing Dashboard : Photo by Carlos Muza on Unsplash
Woman presenting on stage : Photo by Product School on Unsplash
Business meeting : Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash
Woman looking at phone in dark room : Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash
Google Analytics : Photo by Edho Pratama on Unsplash
Packages inside a courier van : Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash
Counting cash : Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
