DTC Commerce experience to turn conversion into the customers you own
Whether you’re scaling or troubleshooting, you need numbers that speak the truth. But not every metric deserves your attention.
This playbook gives you the 100 most important KPIs in DTC eCommerce. Just the numbers that help you understand what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs your attention.
Built for visionary CXOs, eCommerce leads, marketers, and product teams, this playbook is your pocket guide to monitor, diagnose, and fix your DTC eCommerce performance whenever you need it.
We have grouped all KPIs into 5 practical categories so you can jump to what’s urgent for you.
| KPI Categories | Who should care |
|---|---|
| Business & strategy | Founders, CXOs, growth heads |
| Marketing & acquisition | CMOs, media buyers, content & growth teams |
| Sales & conversion | Store managers, revenue teams |
| Customer experience & retention | CRM, CX, loyalty heads |
| Operations & fulfillment | Ops heads, supply chain teams |
These 100 KPIs will give you a clear view of your DTC eCommerce, front to back.
The numbers that speak in the boardroom.
When someone asks, “How’s the business doing?” - these are your go-to answers.
See if your campaigns are converting attention and traffic into buyers and repeat buyers.
It’s about how much it costs to acquire each customer, and whether your spend is delivering real returns.
What happens once people land on your store?
From how many people add to the cart, to how many actually checkout, this section helps you spot leaks in the funnel, test what’s working, and increase revenue without increasing ad spend.
What happens after the purchase?
Because the real game begins after checkout when customers decide if they’ll come back or not.It's either win-win (loyalty) or regret.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) = Avg. score from customer feedback after an interaction
Net Promoter Score (NPS) = % Promoters – % Detractors
Customer Effort Score (CES) = How much effort it takes to get support or resolve an issue
Repeat Purchase Rate (%) = Returning Customers ÷ Total Customers × 100
Customer Retention Rate (%) = ((End Customers – New Customers) ÷ Starting Customers) × 100
Churn Rate = Lost Customers ÷ Total Customers (over a set period)
LTV (Customer Lifetime Value) = AOV × Purchase Frequency × Customer Lifespan
LTV: CAC Ratio = Are you earning more than you're spending to acquire?
Product Review Score (Avg.) = Weighted average of product reviews
Referral Rate = % of customers who refer others
Customer Complaints per 100 Orders = Gauge how often things go wrong
Support Ticket Volume = Total tickets raised by customers
First Response Time = Time to respond to a customer ticket
Resolution Time (Avg.) = Time taken to solve the issue completely
Return Rate (%) = Orders returned ÷ Orders placed × 100
What happens behind the scenes to deliver the promise?
From the warehouse shelf to the doorstep, these KPIs show how well your orders are packed, shipped, and delivered.
Order Fulfillment Time (Avg.) = Time taken from order placement to shipment
Delivery Time (Avg.) = Time from order placed to doorstep
On-Time Delivery Rate (%) = Orders delivered on or before the promised date ÷ Total Orders
Fulfillment Accuracy Rate (%) = Orders shipped without errors ÷ Total Orders × 100
Order Accuracy Rate (%) = Orders received correctly by customers ÷ Total Orders
Backorder Rate (%) = Out-of-stock orders ÷ Total Orders
Inventory Turnover = COGS ÷ Avg. Inventory
Inventory Accuracy (%) = System count vs physical stock count
Return Handling Time (Avg.) = Days taken to process returns
Damaged Order Rate (%) = Orders arriving damaged ÷ Total Orders × 100
Warehouse Picking Accuracy (%) = Correct items picked ÷ Total picks × 100
Shipping Cost per Order = Total shipping cost ÷ Total Orders
Return Rate (%) = Repeated here for its ops impact
Order Cancellations (%) = Canceled Orders ÷ Total Orders
Packaging Accuracy (%) = Right item, right box, right branding, every time
If you track nothing else, make sure these 10 stay on your dashboard at all times.
1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
What you spend to win a new customer.= Total marketing spend ÷ # of new customers acquiredIf CAC keeps climbing and your LTV stays flat, you're just burning cash.
2. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
How much a customer is worth over time.= AOV × Purchase frequency × Customer lifespanYour LTV is the one number that shows if your brand can grow and last long-term.
3. Average Order Value (AOV)
The average spend per order.= Total revenue ÷ Number of ordersA low AOV can quietly kill ROAS, even with good traffic.
4. Conversion Rate
How many visitors turn into buyers?= (Orders ÷ Total visitors) × 100This is about your store’s first impression score, keep improving it.
5. Cart Abandonment Rate
The percentage of carts that don’t convert.= (Abandoned carts ÷ Initiated carts) × 100A leaky checkout can lose you more money than a bad ad.
6. Return Rate
How much of your sold product comes back?= (Returned orders ÷ Total orders) × 100High returns often point to product-market misfit, size issues, or quality gaps.
7. Repeat Purchase Rate
How many customers come back for more?= (Repeat customers ÷ Total customers) × 100A healthy repeat purchase rate is the foundation of sustainable growth.
8. Net Profit Margin
What you actually keep after everything else.= (Net profit ÷ Net revenue) × 100Revenue means nothing without a margin that scales.
9. Fulfillment Time
How long does it take to ship and deliver?= Average time from order to deliverySlow fulfillment kills experience, trust, and repeat sales.
10. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
How much do you make per $1 spent on ads?= Revenue from ads ÷ Ad spendROAS shows if your ads are paying off. 2x or more is a good sign for most DTC brands.
Not all metrics need daily attention. Some scream for your attention every Monday and need quick check-ins. Others need time to show the full picture.
Set up role-specific reporting dashboards on your commerce systems, because not everyone needs to spend time solving everything.
Pulse check every week
Check fast-moving numbers like website traffic, ad impressions, and social media activity. These help you stay on top of what’s happening now.
Bi-weekly reviews
Look at things like Average Order Value (AOV), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and cart abandonment. These need a bit more time to settle, but help you catch patterns.
Monthly metrics
Things that need more data like email open rate, add-to-cart behavior, or engagement across channels are better viewed monthly.
Deep dives every quarter
Look at the big picture with strategic metrics like Lifetime Value (LTV), subscription growth, long-term retention. These show if your brand is actually growing.
Your teams are probably tracking some of these KPIs. But you don’t need to guess anymore.
Especially the 10 non-negotiable KPIs we highlighted, are the must-watch metrics. If you're short on time or attention, start there. They’ll give you the clearest signals on how your DTC business is doing across acquisition, conversion, retention, and fulfillment.
So bookmark and share it with your team.
Sometimes, all it takes to grow or fall behind is knowing which numbers to watch.
In case you want to explore how we build DTC eCommerce experiences at Openthrive, don’t hesitate to start your free discovery process with our team.