Measuring store performance

The situation

Think of an illustrative Bengaluru brand selling phone accessories. Monthly sales have grown steadily, and the founders feel good about it. Then the accountant points out that the bank balance has barely moved. When they look closer, more orders are cash on delivery, more of those come back, and a discount that ran all quarter has eaten the margin on the bestsellers.

Revenue is the number everyone watches, and it is a poor guide on its own. A small set of numbers, read together every month, tells you far more.

The six numbers

1. Conversion rate

The share of store visits that end in an order. Orders divided by sessions, for the same period.

It tells you how well the store turns interest into sales. Low conversion with healthy traffic usually points to the product page (photos, price, size information), the checkout (surprise shipping charges, missing payment methods), or trust (no returns policy, no contact details). Compare by device, since most Indian shoppers browse on phones.

You need visit numbers for this from your analytics tool, set up after consent where your cookie banner requires it.

2. Average order value (AOV)

Revenue divided by number of orders, for the same period. Decide once whether you count it before or after discounts and GST, and keep to that.

AOV matters because many costs, such as shipping and packing, are per order. A higher AOV spreads them further. Bundles, a sensible free shipping threshold and "complete the look" suggestions are common ways to raise it. Our guide on designing shipping rates covers the threshold.

3. Repeat purchase rate

The share of customers in a period who have ordered more than once. Count customers, then count how many of them have two or more orders.

Repeat buyers cost far less to win than new ones. A low repeat rate can mean the product disappoints, the delivery experience is poor, or you simply never ask them back. Look at it by the month of first purchase, so a busy sale month does not hide a trend.

4. RTO rate

Return to origin: parcels that never reach the buyer and come back to you. RTO orders divided by shipped orders. Split it by payment method, since cash on delivery orders usually come back far more often than prepaid ones.

RTO costs shipping both ways, packaging and stock out of sale. Use the RTO loss calculator to put a rupee figure on it, and our guide on keeping RTO in check for ways to bring it down.

5. Return rate

Delivered orders that the buyer sends back. Returned orders divided by delivered orders. Track the reason for every return: wrong size, damaged, looks different from the photo, changed mind.

The reasons point to fixes. Size returns call for a better size chart. "Looks different" calls for better photos. Damage calls for better packing. A clear returns and refund policy helps too.

6. Contribution margin per order

What an average order leaves you after the costs that come with it. Start with the order's revenue after discounts, excluding GST. Then subtract:

• Cost of the goods.
• Payment gateway fees.
• Shipping and packing.
• A share of RTO and return costs.
• Marketing spend per order, if you want a stricter view.

This is the number that told the Bengaluru founders what was going on. Sales were up and contribution per order was falling. Work it out by product category and by payment method. Confirm how you treat GST and costs with your CA.

Reading them together

Each number alone can mislead. A discount can raise conversion and AOV while contribution falls. Cutting COD can lower RTO and also lower conversion. Look at all six side by side each month, and when one moves, check what happened to the others.

A simple monthly sheet works well. Put the six numbers in rows, and three columns beside them: this month, last month, and the same month last year. Add one line of notes for anything unusual: a sale, a courier change, a new product range.

Where the numbers come from

On ShopenUp, basic sales and inventory reports are native in the admin: orders, revenue, products sold, payment methods and stock. Export them for your monthly table. Visit data comes from your analytics tool, and costs come from courier and gateway statements and your accounts. See reports for what the admin shows.

Advanced dashboards, which pull these sources together and show all six numbers by category, channel or payment method without spreadsheet work, are built for you when you need them. Most stores do well with a monthly spreadsheet for the first year.

Limits

Numbers describe what happened. They rarely say why. When a number moves, read customer messages, look at return reasons and check the product pages before you act. Small stores also see a lot of noise month to month, so look for trends over a quarter before making big changes.

There are no universal benchmarks worth trusting. Compare your store with itself over time.

Checklist

• One definition written down for each of the six numbers.
• Analytics set up, respecting consent.
• RTO and returns tracked with reasons.
• Contribution per order worked out by category and payment method.
• A monthly table with notes, reviewed with whoever runs the store.

If you want to see how your costs stack up first, try the store cost calculator, or talk to us about a dashboard.