Did you know during the last Holiday season (Nov 1 – Dec 23, 2009) online retailers sold $27 billion in products and services? That’s $354,000 transacted a minute.

Today, E-commerce is a growing energy in our global economy despite economic challenges each country roles in and out of as we work on the kinks.  As users become more comfortable with purchasing online, you can expect business to conform to the consumer’s desires thus increasing competition.  With that said, the measuring stick for e-commerce is slightly different than the measuring stick for your brick and mortar store.  So you ask, how do I measure my success on my e-commerce website?

Answer: Key Performance Indicators aka KPI’s. Below is a list of some common key performance indicators that are important for measuring success on your e-commerce website.  I recommend that you consider using some of these methods to track your success.  Of course, key performance indicators will vary with your strategic intent.

Reality is each business is different and you should consider some of these KPI’s into your conversion funnel.

• Conversion Rate: is the ratio of converting casual views into a purchase.
• Average Order Value/Size: is the sum of revenue generated / the number of orders taken.
• Add/View Items in Cart: is the ratio of visitors with product in their cart / purchasers that have closed the sale. (cart abandonment)
• Percent New Visitors: the number of potential new customers landing on your site each month.
• Ratio of New to Returning Visitors: the ratio of new to previously acquired visitors as well as a measure of customer loyalty and repeat online business.
• Customer Life-Time Value: the likelihood that satisfied customers will tell their friends resulting in an increase in online/offline sales. This is more intangible and may be difficult to track.
• New Account Signups: how much time and money are these new account signups spending on your site?

• Page Conversions (Aka Page “Stickiness”): the likelihood of successfully retaining a visitor who arrives at a key landing page.

With years of  developing and managing direct marketing campaigns, I’ve had my share of working with companies that are so called the best at providing me with a good service. When you’re sending massive blasts, it counts to have a reliable company. Here are today’s top email marketing service companies and a short pro and con about them.

This is not to say that traditional marketing methodologies don’t come into play when preparing your marketing plan. It’s a realization that needs to be played with the fundamentals or traditional marketing methods. A great fixation about Marketing 2.0 is that you can supplement this strategy in many of your traditional marketing channels.

The reasoning behind this blog is simple.  ”Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.” In other words marketing is essential to any businesses forward growth.  This is why it’s important to do your due diligence and research multiple sources; so that when you’re ready to implement your marketing plan you’ll have piercingly clear information to work with.  We all don’t experience the same talents or motivation yet can learn principals from others experiences. From there you have the choice to manage your situation based on other situations.