Important KPIs to monitor to perform on the Digital Shelf

In today's hyper-competitive environment, it is challenging for businesses to maintain optimal performance on the Digital Shelf due to elements such as constant price variations, evolutions in the quality of product information, or loss of rankings in search engine results pages…

To meet these challenges, businesses must determine KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and monitor them over time to have a good overall view¹ of their performance on the Digital Shelf.

Discover the principal KPIs to monitor to ensure that you perform well on the Digital Shelf.

The importance of monitoring KPIs

KPI (Key Performance Indicators) are used to assess the overall efficiency of a « task accomplished » to reach an objective.

In a business, each department monitors specific KPIs related to their activities (Marketing, SEO, sales…). There are numerous benefits² to monitoring these elements including gauging progress, improving decision making, or speeding up the identification of pain points…

KPI No. 1: Website traffic

Website traffic is an essential KPI to ensure the satisfaction of online shoppers and your success on the Digital Shelf.

Measuring website traffic allows you to identify any product pages that are either « underperforming³ » or « overperforming³ » to better understand what shoppers want or don't want.

This also provides you with information on the behavior of visitors to your product pages (time spent on each page, clicks, scroll, bounces…) and to remove any sticking points on these pages such as problems of display on mobile phones, design error, or slow loading… 40% of shoppers⁴ abandon a product page that takes more than three seconds to load.

KPI No. 2: Product availability

Product availability is a crucial KPI to satisfy the demands of customers and optimize their performance on the Digital Shelf.

Monitoring average stock levels⁵ on digital shelves enables you to anticipate high demand during peak periods such as summer sales, Black Friday, Holiday season, Cyber Monday… It also helps you to avoid product shortages which would result in unhappy customers: 56% of shoppers⁶ were unable to buy a product in 2022 for this reason and 50%⁷ are prepared to look for a competitor brand if the product they are looking for is out of stock.

KPI No. 3: SEO position tracking

SEO position tracking is an important KPI to improve the visibility of a product offer and implement a successful Digital Shelf strategy.

SEO position tracking enables you to assess the visibility of product pages among shoppers and carry out concrete actions to maintain these pages in the top search engine results pages (SERP).

When a product page loses ground in the SERP, you can react quickly and optimize the SEO of the pages in question by integrating appropriate keywords, working on Title tags, completing information on the Alt tags related to images… This work on SEO is essential as the top five organic results receive 67% of clicks⁸ and the 1st result on Google has a CTR (Click Through Rate) of 34.36% on average⁸.

KPI No. 4: Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the primary KPI⁹ to monitor for success on the Digital Shelf.

Monitoring the conversion rate allows you to measure the capacity of product pages to generate sales and enrich the pages that are underperforming to make them more attractive. This could involve adding photos taken from different angles, integrating product presentation videos, or completing the product description…

For example, a business can increase the conversion rate of their product pages by integrating discount codes which are appreciated by 55% of shoppers¹⁰… You can also increase this conversion rate by adding digital media (videos, visuals, animation…), 40% of the highest performing product pages⁹ contain digital media.

KPI No. 5: Product content quality score

The quality of product content is a crucial KPI for improving the appeal of products on the Digital Shelf.

A business should monitor the quality of the content of their product pages by referring to precise criteria such as the length of the title, numerous technical characteristics, size of any visuals… and attribute a score for adherence to these criteria.

This score enables a business to quickly identify the content requiring completion and/or enrichment which is important as 98% of online shoppers¹¹ have abandoned a purchase because this content was incomplete and/or incorrect… and increase your « chances of converting¹² » visitors into customers through the product page: 52.6% of products¹² are added to carts through this page.

To further optimize performance on the Digital Shelf, a business can also use a Product Information Management (PIM) solution which allows you to centralize all product content, enrich it and optimize its quality before publishing on digital channels. Some of the PIM solutions available on the market take this further and have dedicated features to ensure success on the Digital Shelf by controlling the quality of product information, observing changes in prices and stocks, or monitoring keywords…

¹ Hennigan, L., & Main, K. (2023, April 24). What is a KPI ? Definition & Examples. Forbes Advisor.
² Perco, A. (2023, December 11). 16 Marketing KPIs You Need to Monitor in 2024. Semrush Blog.
³ Comarketing-News. (2023, February 15). 1 visite de site web sur 3 génère de la frustration chez les clients.
⁴ HubSpot Staff. (2018, February 28). 16 Reasons Why People Leave Your Website. blog.hubspot.com.
⁵ Aragón, V. Z. (2022, June 23). Calcul du stock moyen : toutes les formules et explications. appvizer.fr.
⁶ Pivotal KPIs For Your Digital Shelf. BetterCommerce.
⁷ Weiner, B. How Much are Out-of-Stocks Hurting Your Business ? repsly.com.
⁸ Comarketing-News. (2020, October 1). SEO : 20 chiffres-clés à connaître en 2020.
⁹ Salsify. KPI e-commerce essentiels pour le digital shelf.
¹⁰ E-commerce : 4 fondamentaux pour réduire les abandons de panier. PackshotCreator.
¹¹ 7 éléments indispensables pour rédiger une bonne page produit pour mon site e‑commerce. ca-moncommerce.com.
¹² Qu'est-ce que l'abandon de panier ? Voici comment l'éviter. (2023, October 26). Stripe.
¹³ Leuenberger, M. E-commerce : comment optimiser les pages produits de votre boutique en ligne. Lengow.