KPIs by Business Type
The most important metrics to track depend on whether you are a product seller, service business, subscription company, or marketplace seller. Find your business type here.
eCommerce and product sellers
Revenue and order volume (top-line growth). Average order value (AOV) — are customers buying more per transaction? Gross margin by product — which products are actually profitable? Conversion rate — what percentage of site visitors buy? Return/refund rate — a rising rate signals product quality or expectation issues. Repeat purchase rate — are customers coming back? Stock turnover — are you managing inventory efficiently? Focus KPIs: gross margin, repeat purchase rate, return rate.
Wholesale and trade sellers
Revenue by account — which customers drive the most volume? Average order frequency — are accounts ordering as often as expected? Gross margin by customer — not all high-revenue customers are high-margin. Fill rate — what percentage of orders are shipped complete? Payment terms compliance — are customers paying on time? New account acquisition — growing the customer base, not just the top accounts. Focus KPIs: gross margin by customer, fill rate, repeat order frequency.
Service businesses (agencies, consultancies, freelancers)
Revenue by client — concentration risk: are you too dependent on one client? Utilisation rate — what percentage of billable time is actually billed? Average project margin — revenue minus direct costs of delivery. Client retention rate — what percentage of clients return for repeat work? Pipeline value — what is the potential value of active proposals? Average project value — are you winning bigger or smaller projects over time? Focus KPIs: utilisation rate, client retention, pipeline value.
Subscription and SaaS businesses
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) — the core health metric. Churn rate — monthly and annual. Net Revenue Retention (NRR) — are existing customers growing or shrinking in value? Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) — what does it cost to acquire a paying customer? LTV:CAC ratio — is each customer worth more than they cost to acquire? Trial-to-paid conversion rate — how well does your trial convert? Focus KPIs: MRR growth, churn rate, NRR.
Marketplace sellers (Amazon, Etsy, eBay)
Sales rank — visibility within marketplace search. Buy Box percentage (Amazon) — what percentage of the time do you hold the Buy Box? Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) — what percentage of sales revenue goes to ads? Return rate — marketplace returns are highly visible and affect ranking. Review velocity and rating — the number and quality of new reviews per month. Inventory health score — avoiding stockouts and excess inventory on marketplace warehouses. Focus KPIs: ACoS, Buy Box percentage, review rating.