KPI Metrics & Definitions

KPI Metrics & Definitions

KPI metrics in MerchantFlow are configurable through the North Star Metrics system, which lets you choose 3-4 primary metrics (and up to 12 secondary ones) from 38 options across financial, marketing, and operational categories. This page defines the most commonly used metrics and how they form a conversion funnel from product visibility to revenue.

Every KPI card carries a tooltip with the metric's definition, its formula, and the data sources behind it. When a figure looks surprising, open the tooltip before assuming the number is wrong.

Quick Reference

The formulas MerchantFlow actually uses, exactly as the metric tooltips state them:

ROAS and Blended MER share a formula: both divide online gross revenue by total ad spend. They are offered as separate cards because teams habitually use one label or the other.

Paid-acquisition metrics measure online orders only

Where the table above says Online, it means orders on the d2c sales channel -- your storefront -- and excludes B2B and wholesale orders. This applies to ROAS, Blended MER, CPA, Blended CAC and Conversion Rate, everywhere they appear: the North Star tiles and their history charts, the dashboard KPIs, the profit dashboard, Unit Economics, the daily summary email, Flow AI, and the MCP tools.

The reason is that ad spend buys online orders. A wholesale deal closed over email carries no acquisition cost, so counting its revenue in the ROAS numerator -- or its order in the CPA denominator -- reports a paid-acquisition efficiency you did not achieve. With $10k online and $20k B2B on $2k of spend, ROAS reads 5x, not 15x.

New-customer counting follows the same rule: a customer is acquired on their first online order, so an earlier wholesale purchase never hides a later first retail purchase.

POAS, Net Profit, Revenue, Total Orders, AOV and every other whole-business metric still include B2B. Ad spend is always your actual ad-platform total. See Sales Channels for the full split and for how orders get classified.

Two tooltips round off a further exclusion. Where Conversion Rate and Cost Per Acquisition say "Orders", the computed value uses only revenue-generating orders -- zero-value ($0 subtotal) orders are dropped from the count, the same set AOV excludes. On a store with no free replacements the two are identical.

Metrics defined outside the North Star selector:

Commonly Used KPIs

1. Revenue

What it measures: Total net revenue from all completed orders in the selected time period. The card is labelled Total Brand Revenue.

Data sources: Shopify orders, WooCommerce orders

How it is calculated:

Revenue = Order subtotals + shipping charged + tax not already in prices - refunds

Exclusions: cancelled and fully refunded orders.

What good looks like:

• Consistent upward trend month-over-month
• 15-30% growth year-over-year is healthy for e-commerce
• Seasonal businesses: Compare to same period last year

Example:

Revenue: $24,567.89
Up 12.3% vs. previous period

This means you generated $24,567.89 in sales, which is 12.3% higher than the previous equivalent period.

How to Improve Revenue

Strategies:

1. Increase product visibility - Optimize product titles and descriptions
2. Improve conversion rate - Better product photos, competitive pricing
3. Expand catalog - Add more products to capture more searches
4. Run promotions - Limited-time offers to boost sales
5. Target high-intent keywords - Focus on "buy" keywords vs. informational

Pro Tip: Revenue alone does not tell the full story. Always check profit margins in the P&L section to ensure profitable growth.

2. Impressions

What it measures: Number of times your products appeared in Google Search results or Shopping ads.

Data sources:

• Google Analytics 4
• Google Search Console (organic search)

How it is calculated:

Impressions = Total count of product appearances in search results

The card is greyed out with a dash until a Google analytics source -- GA4, Search Console, or Merchant Center -- is connected.

What good looks like:

• Growing impressions = increasing visibility
• High impressions with low clicks = opportunity to improve click-through rate
• Declining impressions = potential feed issues or competition

Example:

Impressions: 1,234,567
Up 8.5% vs. previous period

Your products appeared in search results 1.2 million times, up 8.5% from before.

How to Improve Impressions

Strategies:

1. Optimize product titles - Include relevant keywords
2. Fix Merchant Center issues - Resolve disapproved products
3. Expand product attributes - Add GTINs, brands, product types
4. Improve feed quality - Complete all optional fields
5. Bid more competitively - For Shopping campaigns (if using Google Ads)
6. Add more products - Larger catalog = more impressions

Common Issues:

• Disapproved products - Check Merchant Center diagnostics for issues
• Out of stock items - Remove or update unavailable products
• Poor product data - Incomplete or inaccurate feed

3. Clicks

What it measures: Number of times users clicked on your products in search results.

Data sources: Google Search Console. Clicks come from Search Console only -- GA4 does not supply them, so a GA4-only connection leaves this card at zero even though Impressions populate.

How it is calculated:

Clicks = Total count of clicks on product listings

What good looks like:

• Click-through rate (CTR) of 0.5-1% is typical for Shopping
• Clicks growing faster than impressions = improving CTR
• High clicks + low conversions = pricing or product page issues

Example:

Clicks: 12,345
Up 15.2% vs. previous period

Users clicked on your products 12,345 times, up 15.2%.

How to Improve Clicks

Strategies:

1. Use high-quality images - Clear, professional product photos
2. Competitive pricing - Be competitive on price
3. Promotional pricing - Show sale prices in feed
4. Compelling titles - Make products appealing at a glance
5. Highlight unique selling points - Mention "Free Shipping" or "Best Seller"
6. Product ratings - Include review stars in feed

Pro Tip: Calculate your Click-Through Rate (CTR):

CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) x 100

A CTR of 0.5% means 1 out of every 200 impressions resulted in a click.

4. Conversion Rate

What it measures: Percentage of website visitors who completed a purchase.

Data sources: Shopify/WooCommerce session data and Shopify/WooCommerce orders

How it is calculated:

Conversion Rate = (Revenue Orders / Store Sessions) x 100

Exclusions: zero-value ($0 subtotal) orders are dropped from the numerator, the same set Average Order Value excludes. The card's own tooltip says "Total Orders", but the number it prints excludes them.

Why store sessions? The denominator is the session count reported by your commerce platform itself, not an analytics estimate. That keeps the numerator and denominator on the same side of the same system: the orders and the sessions both come from your store.

Requirement: store session sync must be active. Without it, the Conversion Rate and Revenue / Session cards have no denominator and will not populate.

What good looks like:

• E-commerce average: 1-3%
• Good performance: 3-5%
• Excellent: 5%+
• Varies by industry, price point, and traffic source

Example:

Conversion Rate: 1.69%
Up 4.1% vs. previous period
(593 orders / 35,072 sessions)

This means 1.69% of store sessions resulted in a completed purchase - 593 orders out of 35,072 sessions.

How to Improve Conversion Rate

Strategies:

1. Optimize product pages - Clear descriptions, multiple images
2. Competitive pricing - Price competitively for your market
3. Trust signals - Reviews, security badges, return policy
4. Fast loading - Optimize page speed
5. Clear call-to-action - Make "Add to Cart" obvious
6. Reduce friction - Simplify checkout process
7. Mobile optimization - Ensure mobile-friendly experience
8. Retargeting - Bring back visitors who did not convert

Common Issues:

• High price vs. competition - Check competitor pricing
• Poor product descriptions - Add more detail
• Lack of reviews - Encourage customer reviews
• Slow website - Optimize performance
• Complicated checkout - Remove unnecessary steps
• Limited payment options - Add more payment methods

Pro Tip: Calculate your effective conversion rate across different traffic sources to identify which channels bring the highest-quality visitors.

Financial and Unit Economics KPIs

Ad Spend

What it measures: Total advertising spend across every connected ad platform (Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Snapchat) in the selected period. It is shown as a currency amount with a period-over-period delta, and the trend arrow is inverted - spending less is treated as the good direction.

Data sources: Google Ads, Meta Ads, Snapchat Ads, TikTok Ads. Only synced ad platform data is included. Meta campaigns you have excluded from profit (Settings > Integrations > Meta Ads > Campaigns) are left out of this KPI and of every metric derived from it.

To read spend as a share of revenue, use Blended MER, which is on the same selector:

Blended MER = Online Gross Revenue / Total Ad Spend

The numerator counts online (D2C) orders only -- wholesale revenue is excluded, because it carries no acquisition spend.

What good looks like:

• A healthy DTC store typically spends 15-30% of revenue on paid acquisition, roughly a MER of 3.3x to 6.7x.
• A sudden spend spike with no revenue lift is an early signal of media-creative fatigue.

There are also dedicated per-platform cards - Meta Ad Spend, Google Ad Spend, TikTok Ad Spend, and Snapchat Ad Spend - which only appear in the picker when the matching integration is connected. For full per-platform detail, see Ad Spend.

Average Order Value (AOV)

What it measures: Average revenue per paid order in the selected timeframe.

How it is calculated:

AOV = (Subtotal + Shipping + Tax - Refunds, revenue orders only) / Revenue orders

Exclusions: zero-value ($0 subtotal) orders - free replacements and warranty shipments - are removed from both the revenue and the order count, so the figure reflects what a paying customer actually spends. Because Shopify's own AOV divides by all orders including zero-value ones, MerchantFlow's AOV reads higher than Shopify's whenever such orders exist. Refunds against orders placed in earlier periods are not deducted here.

If you suspect the AOV looks wrong, start with Incorrect Metrics. MerchantFlow support can also run an internal AOV diagnostic against your account -- it reconciles the dashboard figure to an approximation of Shopify's own Total sales and Net sales numbers, showing where each excluded payment status, zero-value order, and cross-period refund accounts for the gap.

Blended CAC

The North Star Metrics selector includes Blended CAC:

Blended CAC = Total Ad Spend / New (First-Time) Online Customers

Data sources: Google Ads, Meta Ads, Snapchat Ads, TikTok Ads, and Shopify orders. The trend arrow is inverted - a falling CAC is the good direction.

The denominator counts a customer on their first online order. A wholesale-only buyer is never counted as acquired, and a buyer whose first purchase was B2B is acquired on the date of their first storefront order instead. See Sales Channels.

LTGP, the LTV:CAC ratio, and CAC payback period are not North Star cards. They live on the Unit Economics page, alongside the break-even floor and per-channel CAC, with per-customer versions on the Customer LTV page.

Estimated Fulfillment Cost

When you have not yet connected a 3PL like Speedfulfill, MerchantFlow uses your configured fulfillment cost method - a percentage of product cost or per-unit rates per product. With the optional estimation setting on, recent orders missing carrier data receive an estimated cost, overlaid on the dashboard with an explicit disclosure. Once a 3PL is connected, actual cost per order takes over.

How to Read Period-over-Period Comparisons

Each KPI shows a comparison to the previous equivalent period.

Example:

• Current: Last 30 days (Dec 1-30)
• Previous: 30 days before that (Nov 1-30)

Interpreting changes:

• Each North Star card shows an up or down arrow and the size of the change as a percentage, always to one decimal place
• Green means the metric moved the good way, red the bad way. Cost-style metrics invert this, so a rise in Ad Spend, COGS, Returns, or Refunds Count reads red
• The North Star cards have no "flat" state -- a 0.3% move still shows as 0.3% with an arrow

The flat and n/a pills appear on the P&L and Margin by Region pages instead: a change smaller than 0.5% reads flat, and a period with no prior-period data to compare against reads n/a.

Seasonal Adjustments

Consider seasonality when analyzing trends:

• Holiday periods - Higher revenue expected Nov-Dec
• Back-to-school - Aug-Sep surge for relevant products
• Summer slowdown - Many industries see dips June-Aug

Pro Tip: Use the year-over-year comparison (365-day time range) to account for seasonal patterns.

How KPIs Form a Conversion Funnel

KPIs form a conversion funnel:

Impressions (Top of funnel)
    |
Clicks (Middle of funnel)
    |
Conversions (Bottom of funnel)
    |
Revenue (Outcome)

Analyzing the funnel:

1. High impressions, low clicks? - Improve product images and titles
2. High clicks, low conversions? - Improve product pages and pricing
3. Low impressions overall? - Improve feed quality and bids

KPI Ratios

Calculate key ratios for deeper insights:

Click-Through Rate (CTR):

CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) x 100

Conversion Rate:

CR = (Orders / Visitors) x 100

Revenue per Click:

RPC = Revenue / Clicks

Average Order Value:

AOV = Revenue / Transactions

E-Commerce KPI Benchmarks

General industry estimates (these vary widely by niche, price point, and market):

• Conversion Rate: 1-3%
• CTR: 0.5-1.5%
• Average Order Value: $50-$150
• Monthly growth: 5-15%

Note: Benchmarks vary by:

• Industry (fashion vs. electronics vs. home goods)
• Product price point
• Market maturity
• Seasonality

How to Set SMART Goals for KPIs

• Specific: "Increase conversion rate to 3%"
• Measurable: Track weekly progress
• Achievable: Based on current rate of 2%
• Relevant: Aligns with revenue goals
• Time-bound: "Within next quarter"

Example goals:

• Grow revenue by 20% quarter-over-quarter
• Improve conversion rate from 2% to 2.5%
• Increase impressions by 50,000 per month
• Maintain or improve CTR while scaling

Advanced KPI Analysis

Cohort Analysis

Compare KPIs across different segments:

• New products vs. established products
• High-price vs. low-price products
• Different product categories
• Traffic sources (organic vs. paid)

How to segment:

1. Go to Products table
2. Filter by category, price range, or status
3. View KPIs for that segment
4. Compare to overall averages

Anomaly Detection

Watch for unusual KPI changes:

• Sudden spike in impressions - Check for trending product or viral moment
• Drop in conversion rate - Investigate site issues or pricing changes
• Revenue decline with stable traffic - Check pricing or competition

Pro Tip: Anomaly alerts (Pro and Plus) email you automatically when revenue, ad spend, or ROAS moves more than 30% away from its 7-day baseline. Tune the threshold at Settings > Notifications.

How to Export KPI Reports

There is no Export button on the dashboard overview page. Exports come from the Reports area, which requires Pro or Plus.

Building a Report

1. Go to Reports > Create Report (/dashboard/reports/new), or start from Reports > Templates
2. Set the Basic Info, Date Grouping, Default Timeframe, Display Format, and Comparison Mode
3. Save, then open the report to download it as CSV or PDF

Reports built from a curated template have a fixed on-screen layout. For those, open the report's Edit page and use the Export Columns picker to choose which columns appear in the CSV download -- the on-screen report stays the same. There is no Export Columns picker on the create form.

Scheduled Reports

Reports can be emailed on a recurring schedule. Scheduling is tiered: Pro allows weekly delivery; Plus removes the limit. Starter has no scheduled reports.

For a daily push without building a report, use the Daily AI Email Summary instead.

Troubleshooting KPI Issues

KPIs Not Updating

Check:

• Last sync time (the delta sync runs every 30 minutes)
• Integration connections (Settings > Integrations)
• Store session sync is active, if Conversion Rate or Revenue / Session is blank

Troubleshoot sync issues

Metrics Seem Wrong

Verify:

• Correct time range selected
• Currency settings match your store
• Time zone alignment between MerchantFlow and GA4

Troubleshoot incorrect metrics

Missing Data

Common causes:

• Recent account setup (need to run first sync)
• Integration disconnected
• No data for selected period

Troubleshoot no data

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does MerchantFlow use sessions instead of users for conversion rate?

Because sessions come from your commerce platform, the same system that produced the orders in the numerator. Using an analytics-side visitor count instead would mix two systems with different definitions and different bot filtering, and produce a rate that reconciles against neither.

How often do KPI metrics update?

KPIs update each time a sync completes. MerchantFlow runs one recurring delta sync every 30 minutes per workspace. That single job walks every connected integration in turn - commerce platform, ad platforms, analytics, Search Console, Merchant Center - rather than each source having its own schedule.

What actually delays a number is the provider, not MerchantFlow's schedule: Google Analytics takes 24-48 hours to finalise, Search Console runs 2-3 days behind, and ad platforms restate same-day spend as their own reporting settles. Check your last sync time in the Live Updates indicator.

What is a good conversion rate for my industry?

The average e-commerce conversion rate is 1-3%. A rate of 3-5% is considered good, and 5%+ is excellent. However, rates vary significantly by industry, price point, and traffic source. Focus on improving your own rate over time rather than only comparing to benchmarks.

Can I track KPIs for individual products?

Yes. Click any product in the Products Table to open its Product Detail page, which shows Revenue, Impressions, Clicks, and Conversion Rate for that specific product.

Related Articles

• Dashboard Overview
• Performance Charts - Visualize KPI trends
• Products Table - Product-level KPIs
• Traffic Sources - KPIs by channel
• North Star Metrics - Customize your dashboard KPIs
• Unit Economics - True CAC, LTGP, LTV:CAC ratio, and break-even floor
• P&L Overview - Profitability tracking
• Ad Spend - Per-platform ad spend detail
• Discount Codes - Margin impact of every code

Last updated: September 25, 2026