In order to achieve optimal business objectives, increase turnover, and expand traffic on its site, a Magento e-commerce must define certain web performance indicators or KPIs beforehand. Measuring the performance of your Magento site allows you to judge the quality of the user experience and the success of your online store. The analysis of the web performance of a merchant site must take into account consumer behavior. The objective? To understand the technical and marketing obstacles that your e-commerce poses to its visitors on the one hand and their relationship to your purchase funnel. In order to help you see things clearly, we offer you an overall view of the webperf indicators to follow to successfully audit your online business.
What is a webperf indicator?
A key performance indicator or KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is used to measure the quality of a project, a process, a website, etc. In the case of a Magento e-commerce, defining and monitoring your KPIs regularly allows you to:
- capture data about your e-store visitors;
- distinguish what works from what is problematic in user interfaces;
- adjust your decision-making based on real data.
The metrics to analyze when monitoring the performance of an e-commerce based on the Magento CMS can be obtained through the reports on enhanced e-commerce from Google Analytics and the monitoring of Core Web Vitals issued by Google to improve the accessibility of websites on mobile or desktop. Core Web Vitals constitute the KPIs: LCP (loading time), FID (measures interactivity) and CLS (quantifies visual stability). Finally, taking an interest in natural referencing (SEO) and the quality of the content offered to website visitors is also crucial.
Audience analysis in Google Analytics and configuration of Magento CMS
Google Analytics provides aggregate information about behavior from its e-commerce reports. These metrics are:
- the total number of pages visited;
- views or visits per page;
- the average time spent on a given page;
- the words searched by your visitors;
- the bounce rate.
The bounce rate is an important quality indicator that reveals the relationship that Internet users have with a given page. This rate measures the rate of visitors who left your website without browsing other pages. However, the goal for an e-commerce site is for mobile users and Internet users to browse several pages in order to go through several stages of the sales funnel.
In addition, the “audience behavior” section of Google Analytics offers the possibility of knowing the queries or keywords that bring the most traffic. This data can be used within the Magento administration panel to define which page to display for a given query (marketing section of the Magento administration panel). Thus, you link a popular query to a given product or a web page that seems to you to correspond best to this keyword. Finally, offering optimized (SEO) and quality content can greatly improve the time spent on a web page of your site.
Analysis of purchasing behavior and catalog management under Magento
Once you have ensured that the bounce rate is reduced, it is time to look at the behavior of visitors who surf multiple pages of your e-commerce. What you need to know is that an Internet user who stays on your site may not buy or fill a cart and may not proceed to payment (abandonment). The goal is to analyze the product categories affected by abandonment, cancellation or, on the contrary, purchases. Other metrics are also worth looking at, such as the number of products sold per cart or the average value of a cart.
The Google Analytics interface provides valuable information on this subject by giving the number of sessions corresponding to each stage of the sales funnel : “No purchase activity”, “No addition to cart”, “Abandoned cart”, “Cancelled payment”. Analysis based on products and product categories can help you better target web pages that need improvement or, on the contrary, those that have the highest conversion rates (purchases). By improvement, we mean: reduced loading time, creation of optimized content (SEO friendly), visible and relevant Call To Action (CTA or calls to action), for example.
Finally, this information gives you the opportunity to better manage your product inventory and avoid potential stockouts or overstocking. Via the Magento administration interface you will be able (based on the indicators mentioned above) to better think about your users’ experience by:
- informing of the arrival of a new product;
- notifying when a product arrives that was out of stock;
- etc.
Monitoring a Magento website
Analysis via Google Analytics provides a lot of information about a website’s audience but is insufficient. Noting that a bounce rate is high using Google’s tool does not explain its cause or origin. Website monitoring is used to address more technical issues such as:
- web page loading times;
- the Speed Index;
- TTFB (Time to First Byte);
- the Time To Interactive;
- the weight of the files and images uploaded;
- website availability rate;
- blocking requests.
Aligning with the Web Core Vitals proposals (Google’s UX and performance indicators) allows you to meet the criteria mentioned above. Core Web Vitals metrics include mobile compatibility (e.g. responsive design), secure browsing (HTTPS, SSL certificate). There are three essential web signals that are being added in 2021.
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) which measures the time it takes for the main elements of a page to be displayed. Google recommends an LCP of less than 2.5 seconds.
- First Input Delay (FID) which evaluates the interactivity of a site’s web pages. This is done by considering the browser’s response time after the user’s first interaction. Google recommends a FID below 100 ms.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a visual stability indicator. It measures the changes a user experiences while on a given page. A good CLS score has a value less than 0.1.
Tools for this kind of analysis (GTMetrix, Dareboost, PageSpeed Insight, etc.), although accessible, require the help of development experts to improve e-commerce performance.
In conclusion, implementing a strategy for monitoring your e-commerce performance indicators, focused on your users’ experience, gives you factual knowledge of its strengths and weaknesses. Each piece of information provided by the metrics can be converted into a specific action within your Magento administration panel or at the level of your web pages and product sheets. The indicators monitored can be subject to logistics, marketing or IT development analyses. You can also choose to be supported by agencies specializing in Magento e-commerce audits to better understand these indicators and implement appropriate actions to better meet the needs of your customers and ultimately increase your conversion rate and sales.
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