The 12 Ecommerce Metrics Worth Tracking Weekly

Dashboards fail when they show everything. These twelve metrics each map to a specific decision, so when a number moves you know what to do.

Profit Metrics

1. Net Margin %

Net profit ÷ revenue. The number that determines whether the business works. Track after all fees and ad spend.

2. Contribution Margin Per Unit

Selling price minus all variable costs. Tells you how much each sale contributes to fixed costs. If this is negative, volume makes things worse.

3. Break-Even Volume

Fixed costs ÷ contribution margin per unit. How many units you must sell before making anything.

Advertising Metrics

4. ACoS

Ad spend ÷ ad-attributed revenue. Compare against your break-even ACoS, not against an industry benchmark.

5. ROAS

The inverse of ACoS: revenue ÷ ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means $4 back per $1 spent. Whether that is good depends entirely on your margin.

6. TACoS

Total ad spend ÷ total revenue (not just ad-attributed). This is the honest measure of advertising burden, because it includes organic sales.

Use the ACoS Calculator and ROAS Calculator to keep these straight.

Inventory Metrics

7. Sell-Through Rate

Units sold ÷ units received. Drives IPI and storage limits.

8. Days of Inventory on Hand

Inventory units ÷ average daily sales. Your early warning for cash problems.

9. Stockout Rate

Days out of stock ÷ total selling days. Every stockout day is lost rank you pay to rebuild.

The Sell-Through Rate Calculator and Reorder Point Calculator cover these.

Customer Metrics

10. Return Rate

Returns ÷ orders. Directly reduces effective margin.

11. Average Order Value

Revenue ÷ orders. Raising AOV is usually cheaper than raising conversion.

12. Repeat Purchase Rate

Customers with 2+ orders ÷ total customers. The cheapest growth available — no acquisition cost.

The AOV Calculator and Return Rate Calculator handle these.

How to Actually Use This

Pick one metric per category as your primary, and review the rest only when the primary moves. Twelve numbers reviewed weekly is noise; four numbers reviewed weekly plus eight for diagnosis is a system.

Set thresholds in advance:

• Net margin below 15% → review pricing
• TACoS above break-even ACoS → cut spend
• Days on hand above 90 → stop reordering
• Return rate above 10% → fix the listing

Pre-committed thresholds remove emotion from the decision.

The value of a metric is not that it is accurate. It is that you have already decided what you will do when it moves.