Analytics for E-commerce: Track What Matters

You can't optimize what you don't measure. E-commerce analytics tell you what's working, what's not, and where to focus your efforts. The right analytics setup pays for itself many times over.

Why E-commerce Needs Special Analytics

• Track revenue - Not just pageviews
• Product performance - What sells, what doesn't
• Customer journey - Full funnel visibility
• Attribution - Which channels drive sales
• Privacy compliance - GDPR-friendly tracking

Best Analytics Tools for E-commerce

1. Matomo

Matomo is the leading open source analytics with full e-commerce support.

E-commerce Features:

• Revenue tracking
• Product performance
• Shopping cart analysis
• Abandoned carts
• Customer lifetime value
• Custom dimensions

Pricing: Free (self-hosted) or $19/month per site

Best for: Stores needing detailed e-commerce tracking

2. Plausible

Plausible offers simple, privacy-first analytics with goal tracking.

E-commerce Features:

• Revenue goals
• Conversion tracking
• Funnel analysis
• Custom events
• Simple dashboard

Pricing: $9/month for 10K pageviews

Best for: Stores wanting simplicity

3. Umami

Umami is lightweight and privacy-focused.

E-commerce Features:

• Event tracking
• Custom properties
• Real-time data
• API access

Pricing: Free (self-hosted)

Best for: Technical stores on a budget

Essential E-commerce Metrics

Revenue Metrics

• Total revenue - Overall sales
• Average order value - Revenue per order
• Revenue per visitor - Efficiency metric
• Revenue by product - Best sellers
• Revenue by source - Channel performance

Conversion Metrics

• Conversion rate - Visitors to customers
• Add-to-cart rate - Product interest
• Cart abandonment rate - Lost sales
• Checkout completion - Friction points

Customer Metrics

• New vs returning - Customer loyalty
• Customer lifetime value - Long-term value
• Purchase frequency - Repeat rate
• Time to second purchase - Retention

Product Metrics

• Product views - Interest level
• Add-to-cart rate - Purchase intent
• Conversion by product - Performance
• Revenue by category - Category success

Setting Up E-commerce Tracking

Matomo E-commerce Setup

1. Install Matomo
2. Enable e-commerce tracking
3. Add tracking code:

// Track product view
_paq.push(['setEcommerceView',
  productSKU,
  productName,
  categoryName,
  price
]);

// Track add to cart
_paq.push(['addEcommerceItem',
  productSKU,
  productName,
  categoryName,
  price,
  quantity
]);

// Track purchase
_paq.push(['trackEcommerceOrder',
  orderID,
  grandTotal,
  subTotal,
  tax,
  shipping,
  discount
]);

Plausible Goal Setup

1. Create revenue goal
2. Add event tracking:

plausible('Purchase', {
  revenue: {
    amount: orderTotal,
    currency: 'USD'
  }
});

E-commerce Funnel Analysis

Standard Funnel

1. Homepage - Entry point
2. Category page - Browse products
3. Product page - View details
4. Add to cart - Intent to buy
5. Checkout - Start purchase
6. Purchase - Complete sale

Analyzing Drop-offs

Typical conversion rates:

• Homepage → Category: 60%
• Category → Product: 40%
• Product → Cart: 15%
• Cart → Checkout: 70%
• Checkout → Purchase: 70%

Overall conversion: 2-3%

Optimization Priority

Focus on biggest losses:

1. Product → Cart (85% loss)
2. Cart → Checkout (30% loss)
3. Checkout → Purchase (30% loss)

Product Performance Analysis

Top Performers

• Highest revenue products
• Best conversion rates
• Most viewed products
• Highest margins

Underperformers

• Low conversion despite views
• High cart abandonment
• Negative reviews
• Pricing issues

Actions

• Promote top performers
• Improve underperformers
• Bundle products
• Adjust pricing

Traffic Source Analysis

Channel Performance

Organic Search:

• Long-term investment
• High-intent traffic
• Best conversion rates

Paid Ads:

• Immediate results
• Scalable
• Track ROAS carefully

Social Media:

• Brand awareness
• Lower conversion
• Good for retargeting

Email:

• Highest ROI
• Engaged audience
• Best repeat purchases

Direct:

• Brand strength
• Loyal customers
• High conversion

Attribution

Track full customer journey:

• First touch attribution
• Last touch attribution
• Multi-touch attribution
• Time decay model

Customer Behavior Insights

Segmentation

By Value:

• VIP customers (top 20%)
• Regular customers
• One-time buyers
• Window shoppers

By Behavior:

• Frequent buyers
• Seasonal buyers
• Discount seekers
• Full-price buyers

By Product:

• Category preferences
• Brand preferences
• Price sensitivity

Cohort Analysis

Track customer groups over time:

• Retention by cohort
• Lifetime value by cohort
• Purchase frequency
• Churn rate

Real-Time Monitoring

What to Watch

Sales:

• Current day revenue
• Orders per hour
• Average order value
• Top products

Traffic:

• Active visitors
• Traffic sources
• Popular pages
• Geographic location

Issues:

• Error rates
• Cart abandonment spikes
• Checkout failures
• Page load times

Alerts

Set up notifications for:

• Revenue milestones
• Traffic spikes
• Conversion drops
• Error increases

Privacy-First Analytics

Why It Matters

• Legal compliance - GDPR, CCPA
• Customer trust - Respect privacy
• No cookie banners - Better UX
• Faster loading - Lightweight scripts

Best Practices

• Use server-side tracking
• Anonymize IP addresses
• No personal data collection
• Respect Do Not Track
• Clear privacy policy

Reporting

Daily Dashboard

• Yesterday's revenue
• Conversion rate
• Top products
• Traffic sources
• Issues/alerts

Weekly Report

• Week-over-week growth
• Channel performance
• Product trends
• Customer insights
• Action items

Monthly Analysis

• Month-over-month comparison
• Seasonal trends
• Customer cohorts
• Strategic insights
• Quarterly planning

Integration with Other Tools

Connect analytics with:

• E-commerce platform - Shopify, WooCommerce
• Email marketing - Track campaign ROI
• CRM - Customer data
• Advertising - ROAS tracking
• Inventory - Stock optimization

Common Mistakes

❌ Tracking everything - Focus on what matters ❌ No goals set - Define success metrics ❌ Ignoring mobile - 60% of traffic ❌ Not segmenting - Averages hide insights ❌ No action - Data without action is useless

Implementation Checklist

• [ ] Choose analytics platform
• [ ] Install tracking code
• [ ] Set up e-commerce tracking
• [ ] Configure goals
• [ ] Create funnels
• [ ] Set up dashboards
• [ ] Configure alerts
• [ ] Train team
• [ ] Regular review schedule

Next Steps

1. Install Matomo or Plausible
2. Set up e-commerce tracking
3. Create your funnel
4. Monitor for 1 week
5. Identify optimization opportunities

Conclusion

E-commerce analytics transform guesswork into data-driven decisions. With tools like Matomo and Plausible, you get enterprise-level insights at minimal cost.

Start tracking today, analyze your funnel, and systematically optimize every step of the customer journey.

Explore more analytics tools or e-commerce solutions.