When evaluating digital commerce platforms, it’s important to establish baseline metrics around your customers, sales, and capacity. Setting these benchmarks will support another aspect of your business case – defining success metrics and key performance indicators.
Step 4 – Outline success metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)
Success isn’t defined by time, costs, or how many new gadgets you can bolt onto your existing infrastructure. It is measured by how your company meets customer expectations and how you evolve to continually exceed them. When you focus on creating value for your customers, you will, in turn, deliver to your stakeholders.
To ensure the new commerce platform will help you achieve your objectives, make sure you have set and agreed upon KPIs to measure success.
Start by creating score cards for:
- Customer acquisition rates
- Average lifetime value of customers
- Customer attrition rate
- Customer experience index
- Brand sentiment analysis / brand value
- Net change in sales
These are just a few examples of metrics that demand attention from across the organization. When building your business case, consider how much growth you anticipate from customers and order volumes over the next two to three years. You can establish a solid hypothesis using existing trends and baseline data to help you evaluate platforms and corresponding infrastructure that will scale for your needs.
Learn more about preparing a business case for your eCommerce project – and the necessary elements to include – in our latest guide, Best Practices for Choosing a Commerce Platform, Part 1.
