Jordan

Getting right into this,

There's a lot of metrics in business. EBTIDA, EBTIA, EBT, CLV (I'll touch on CLV a lot here), and all the others haha...
However, I'm here to highlight a few I personally rely on in every interaction a customer.

I think in early stages, most are looking at their visitor counts, sales amounts, and conversion rates.
While those are all very important, across the board, from start to success, if you're in the "small business" section, let's say less than $10K MRR, want you to look more into CLV (Customer Lifetime Value, how much a customer is buying, how often), Average Order Volume, and then Inbound traffic / bounce rate.

Alrighty, so, this first metric will take you up and to the right.
Customer Lifetime Value

So the math explanation is essentially;
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Average Order Volume × Purchase Frequency × Customer Lifespan = Customer Lifetime Value.
For example, ($40 x 3 x 2 = X)

Explaining it in normal terms;

Let’s say, an Average Order Value =s $40 on average,
The customer orders 3 times per year
They stay active customers for 2 years
Then, the Customer Lifetime Value is
$240
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Now, why is CLV important?
The difference of a 1 time customer paying $40, vs a customer who buys 4 times a year is what I would personally call "Business wealth building", and it's kind of a stupid term, it's not a real term (I don't think), but essentially it's an amazing way to build up revenue & value as a brand.

There's a massive, massive company that has been around since the 1960s, and the only way I know this is that it was my first job but I recall them telling us during training "90% of customers come in 1 time a year.... black Friday", and that was somewhat the whole reason why I got into all of this, it was how much time I spent thinking about that. Like okay you're saying this corp does $40B per year and 90% of the customers are 1 time customers? That's insane. That's so insane that maybe a gimmick to get us hooked into trying to build good relationships to build CLV. But anyways..

A customer buying once is good... a customer buying once a quarter is great.. a customer buying once a month is absolutely incredible.
The more often a customer buys, the lifetime value increases quickly, and if you can get customers on a subscription system, you're in it to win it.

Another thing about CLV that I just have to mention, is that it’s not just about getting them to buy more, but also about the kind of relationship you’re building with them. Because if they’re coming back consistently, it means they trust you, they know what they're getting, they know value what you're offering them, which makes all the difference when it comes to brand loyalty, and brand loyalty goes far in this game for sure.

So moving away from CLV, let me talk about  Average Order Volume,
Now I know "Jordan, who really cares about AOV if I'm making sales?"
Yeah, no, I get it, however, I also believe that if you can pump up that AOV some type of way, even if it's $10 per order and you have 100 orders, thats a cool stack.

By increasing AOV, you're maximizing the value of each customer who walks through your virtual door, which helps grow your business in a sustainable way. Think about it: a customer who buys $40 worth of products is good, but if you can get them to spend $100, $150, or more per order, that’s a massive boost to your bottom line with little additional effort. The key to increasing AOV lies in smart strategies like bundling, upselling, and offering limited-time deals that entice customers to add more to their cart. When you have higher AOV, it means you’re getting more out of each transaction, improving overall profitability and reducing your reliance on increasing traffic to hit your revenue goals. AOV isn’t just a number; it’s a powerful tool for scaling your brand without having to go back to the drawing board for new customer acquisition.
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Getting just a little more in depth about AOV, I'm not talking like adding small things at checkout that increases a customer's cart, like that shipping insurance shit you see, no. I'm talking about having a great "Products others bought too", selling a product that goes great with another product, making bundles for discounts, and things alike.

Remember, increasing AOV isn't about tricking customers into spending more—it's about enhancing their shopping experience by showing them products they genuinely might want or need. When done right, your customers get more value, and your business grows without having to constantly chase new traffic. I've found that implementing a solid AOV strategy can be the difference between an  store that's just surviving and one that's truly thriving. The brands that consistently outperform in this space are the ones viewing each transaction as an opportunity to better serve their customers while strategically increasing cart values. Start testing these strategies today, track your results religiously, and watch how even small improvements in AOV can transform your bottom line over time.


Lastly

Carter

First off, that was an incredible dialog by Jordan, that's what the heck I'm talking about here at ShopSuccessors.
Okay, so allow me to bring you ideally to your next stage here.

I'm also a CLV nut job, I'm always like "How can we get people on the month to month subscription bases and how can we cut shipping costs" hahaha, it's almost the first metric I consider when looking into a store, but since Jordan covered that so well, I'll move away from it.

I'm going to talk about Gross Profit Margin (GPM, is that even a abbreviation?? Anyways..), Repeat Purchase Rate, Average Order Value, and then lastly but not least by any means, Cart Abandonment.

With Gross profit Margin, essentially, you're looking for a sweet spot, where you actually have cash to reinvest in your business, paid ads, content, team, all that. I see brands start at 40% GPM and think they're crushing it, then run paid ads and suddenly they're barely breaking even. For most e-commerce, you're looking at 50-70% GPM if you want to scale sustainably. GPM varies wild by category though, selling $5 t-shirts is different than supplements or digital products where you should be closer to 70%. Track it and ask yourself: do I have enough cushion to actually run this business? If not, something's gotta give, either your costs or your pricing.

Repeat Purchase Rate is honestly one of the most slept on metrics I see. Brands obsess over customer acquisition but then completely ignore whether those customers come back. If your repeat rate is low, you're basically on a treadmill, constantly chasing new people just to stay afloat. I've worked with stores doing millions in revenue but their repeat rate was brutal, like 2-5%. The moment they started actually caring about bringing customers back, everything changed. I mean legit, you could double or quadruple your sales just by getting repeat buyers.  Your repeat customers are infinitely cheaper to convert and way more profitable long term, so focus on what actually brings them back, better order confirmation emails, a rewards system, genuine appreciation in your messaging.

Average Order Value is the leverage nobody talks about enough. You can have tons of traffic and a solid conversion rate but if your AOV is trash, you're working way harder than you need to. Increasing AOV by even 20% is way easier than increasing conversion rate by 20%, so test your bundles, test your upsells, test your post-purchase offers. A customer who buys one item for $50 versus a customer who buys three items for $150 is completely different for your business. The second one funds your ads, pays your team, and actually makes scaling realistic, but don't push unnecessary stuff just to inflate the number because that kills your repeat rate.

Cart Abandonment is where most stores are losing money and realize it. but most have a really challenging time getting it under wrap. You're driving traffic, you're getting people to your store, they're adding stuff to their cart, and then they're leaving, that's literally money walking out the door. The average cart abandonment rate is around 70%, some of that is people just browsing, but a lot of it is friction in your checkout or people getting cold feet. I cut a store's checkout from 13 clicks down to 7 and it moved the needle instantly, remove unnecessary fields, remove confusing copy, remove surprise costs at the end like shipping that wasn't clear upfront. Pre-fill what you can, make your copy crystal clear, show your shipping costs early, and honestly a simple abandoned cart email sequence can recover a solid chunk of that lost revenue.

And I know it's somewhat all a ramble, but it all is really equally important to be able to segment out each of them, understand how they correlate, and be able to leverage them for better results.
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