What are the key KPIs for a great checkout?
Cart abandonment is a huge issue in subscription commerce. Unlike physical stores, there’s very little to stop a potential subscriber from changing their mind at the last possible second. That’s why we think it’s essential for all subscription commerce businesses to have a follow-up process to chase those lost sales.
4 key checkout KPIs
If you’re struggling to keep your carts on the right side of the stats, here are the key KPIs we recommend keeping track of and why we rate them so highly.
Abandoned cart rate
It should go without saying, but your biggest KPI to track is your cart abandonment rate. This is your earliest warning sign that your checkout process is doing something wrong.
Make sure to take note of which stages in the checkout process are most affected. It’s good to focus on recovery, but again, we’re looking for weak links in the chain so we can stop the cart from being abandoned in the first place.
Make sure to check out our previous post on cart abandonment to learn more!
Payment authorisation failures
Despite the common “please check with your payment provider” messages (which is typically vague for security reasons), failed payments in ecommerce and subscription commerce can happen for various reasons.
For example, if most payments fail because of insufficient funds, you can rethink how your system retries the payment. Maybe look at a reduced price for the first month if your first-time subscribers are struggling, or consider setting up automated messaging around changing payment methods for long-term subscribers.
It’s important to remember that not all failures are due to a subscriber’s lack of funds. It may be a problem with your payment portal or a security issue. You need to explore every option to ensure there aren’t any obstacles in the subscriber’s way.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate should be on every business’s list of KPIs to track. This tracks how many visitors to your site actually make a purchase, similar to how you would measure how many people come into a brick-and-mortar store versus how many walk out with a purchase. Tracking conversion rate offers insight into a massive range of factors, especially when you dig deeper into which stage the subscriber stops their purchasing journey.
Your conversion rate can be affected by almost any part of the user experience, from your homepage to the checkout stage. Marketing, pricing, and what you’re doing differently from your competitors are key factors in maintaining a healthy conversion rate.
For example, don’t overlook your website design. There’s so much to be said for a fast, smooth design, especially when every second your site takes to load increases the chance of a potential subscriber closing the tab and looking elsewhere.
Subscriber acquisition cost
Usually referred to as “customer acquisition cost”, this KPI measures how much money you’re sinking into winning over your future subscribers. To work this out, you would divide your sales marketing budget by the number of new subscribers you gained during a specific timeframe.
Not only does this KPI help you see if your marketing efforts are working, it helps you understand the customer journey and can be used to plan future marketing efforts with real figures to back up your decisions.
Build the best subscription business with Limio
Looking for more great tips and insights like this post? Be sure to keep coming back to the Limio blog. And for those looking to go even further with their subscription commerce offerings, we’re just a click away. Get in touch today!
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