Perspectives & Intervals: How Do I Build Up a Business Mectrics Systems?

Normally, people differentiate between data which is called-up on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Ideally, this means that there are no more than 15 central key metrics left over which have to be looked at every day. It makes no sense to determine 80 metrics, just because it is technically possible.

We show you how a business metrics system can be structured and what metrics to pull-up when.

Example of Basic Fundamental Metrics

• Bounce rate
• Number of orders (shown per channel)
• Purchase break-off rate
• Cost per purchase
• Cost per customer (longterm and new customers respectively)
• Cost-turnover ratio
• Returns rate
• Session length per customer/per user
• Daily turnover
• Shopping cart (shown per channel)

Defining Perspectives

It is also a good idea to define perspectives on the basis of Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard Schema, which subdivides different metrics into areas.

Possible Perspective:

• Financial perspectives: financial indicators
• Customer perspectives: customer service metrics
• Marketing perspectives: online marketing metrics
• Front end perspectives: metrics on e-commerce system
• Internal processes perspectives: process quality and speed metrics
• Learning and development perspectives: employee satisfaction, loyalty and productivity

Call-Up Intervals:

• Daily short term report: The daily overview should provide a quick look at the most important key data on shop metrics and marketing campaigns. Even a seamlessly functioning online shop should be readable. The previous year’s figures for instance, should be there as a reference point.
• Weekly report: Apart from shop figures, the weekly report should provide a detailed view of sales metrics. In this way, problems can be identified early on.
• Monthly report: The monthly report should look at the most important metrics perspectives, to that actions and recommendations can be made from it. Here the focus is not on quick orientation, but a comprehensive overview which puts all figures in context. It is also important to differentiate between contract/order entry and turnover, and the to keep the returns rate and contribution margins in mind.This includes business development as well as the assortment structure, logistics indicators (e.g. sent packages) and customers.