Ways to Accept Payments
Cross-Border Payments
Payment Optimization
Payment Types & Currencies
Fraud Prevention
Chargeback Management
Compliance
Payment Analytics & Reporting
Accounts Receivable Automation
Subscriptions & Recurring Billing
Invoice Payments
Virtual Terminal
Sandbox
Production
If the decision-makers of your business were gathered around a conference table and one of them (channeling James Barksdale) said…
“If we have data on payments, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”
…which way would things go?
Having data surrounding payments is important—eCommerce reporting can help you optimize your payment process to capture more sales, both by identifying components of the process that are failing and by telling you more about your customers. Even though the value of payment data would probably go undisputed by most gateways, they usually fall short in providing it in a meaningful way. To start, here are five eCommerce KPIs your gateway should be providing. Click To Tweet
5 Critical eCommerce KPIs
Most payment gateways provide basic eCommerce metrics but miss those that could truly make an impact on sales. Tracked continuously, the following five key eCommerce metrics will help optimize your payment process:
- Payment conversion rate—Knowing how many transactions on the whole were declined can help you start to understand the reasons behind those declines, especially when paired with the information in the next two eCommerce KPIs.
- Conversion rate by bank—If you notice that multiple declines are associated with a specific bank you can resolve the situation before it impacts more sales.
- Conversion rate by payment method and card type—It’s hard to know for sure if the payment methods you offer are the reason for a decline, but it can be helpful to compare your conversion rate on different payment methods.
- Checkout abandonment rate—Comparing your checkout abandonment rate to product page abandonment numbers could help diagnose at what point in the buying process the problem lies—is it at checkout, or much earlier in the buying process?
- Landing page optimization rate—Your landing page “bounce rate” reveals how many people visit your landing page and leave without filling out a form. If this number is high, it means you need to do more digging to find out why. It could be anything from slow page load times, to asking for too much information, to an unappealing landing page design.
Want more eCommerce KPIs that can help you measure your way to success? Download this free eBook for seven more important KPIs you should be tracking.
Other eCommerce Reporting Must-Haves
It’s not just about eCommerce KPIs; it’s also about how your gateway lets you access the data. Some give you a daily file listing sales, refunds, chargebacks, and account activity in an Excel file. Then it’s up to you to crunch the numbers for analysis. Others might have the specific data points you’re looking for, but require some technical expertise in SQL (or another programming language) to extract them.
Neither of these is helpful to eCommerce businesses that need meaningful data quickly.
To make sure your gateway gives you easy access to valuable data, look for more than one reporting option. For example:
- Can you easily view reports that include the data you want? It should be as simple as logging into an online console, choosing the information you want to see, and downloading a report.
- Can you download the report into Excel (or another format)? You may want to turn the data into a chart or do some additional calculations with it and then share it with a group. Your gateway should make it easy to do so.
- Can you easily pull the data into your existing business systems? If your business already uses Oracle, Microsoft, or another reporting product for financial analysis, make sure there’s a way to import your payment information into your existing business intelligence system. Manually downloading a report and inserting data into those systems is time-consuming; a better, faster solution for importing into other systems is a reporting API.
Get A Higher Level Of eCommerce Reporting With BlueSnap
BlueSnap has a range of reporting options to help eCommerce businesses understand their payment data. Our reports cover everything from high-level summaries of account activity to in-depth analytical points like chargeback ratios and conversion rates. We also offer cleanse reports, which can help identify where you are getting higher-than-normal rates of declines due to fraud, chargebacks, and refunds. Plus, our mobile reporting app gives you everywhere access to payment data, so you can stay on top of things from any mobile device.
To find out more about BlueSnap payment analytics, visit our website or get in touch.
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