The Only 5 Metrics We Look at First When Auditing an Ecommerce Store

When a new client comes to us, their dashboard usually has one of two problems. Either it's completely empty — they're running their store on gut feeling and Shopify's default reports — or it's overloaded with numbers that don't connect to any real decision.

Both are the same problem. Too little signal, too much noise.

Before we build anything, we audit. And every audit starts with the same five metrics. Not because they're the only ones that matter, but because they tell us immediately whether a store has a data problem — and how serious it is.

Here's what we look at first.

1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

If you don't know what it costs to acquire a customer, you don't know if your ads are working. It sounds obvious, but the majority of stores we audit can't give us a clean CAC number broken down by channel.

They know their total ad spend. They know their total orders. But they can't tell us whether Meta is delivering customers at $18 or $47 — and that difference is the difference between a profitable store and one that's slowly bleeding cash.

What we want to see: CAC by channel, updated weekly.

2. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

CAC only makes sense next to LTV. A $47 CAC is a disaster if your average customer buys once and never comes back. It's perfectly healthy if they return three times a year for two years.

Most stores underestimate their LTV because they only look at first purchase value. We look at repeat purchase rate, average order value over 12 months, and churn — and we put that number next to CAC. That ratio tells us everything about the health of the business model.

What we want to see: LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1.

3. Conversion Rate by Traffic Source

Your overall conversion rate is almost useless. A store converting at 2.4% sounds fine until you break it down and realize organic traffic converts at 4.1% while paid social converts at 0.8%.

That's not a conversion rate problem — that's a targeting problem. Or a landing page problem. Or both. You can't know until you segment it.

What we want to see: Conversion rate broken down by source, device, and landing page.

4. Cart Abandonment Rate

The average ecommerce cart abandonment rate sits around 70%. Most store owners know this number is high but treat it as a fact of life rather than a recoverable revenue opportunity.

When we see abandonment above 75%, we start looking at checkout flow, payment options, shipping cost transparency, and whether there's any recovery sequence in place. In almost every audit, there's recoverable revenue sitting in abandoned carts that nobody is chasing.

What we want to see: Abandonment rate tracked weekly with a recovery flow in place.

5. Revenue by Product and SKU

Most stores know their total revenue. Very few know which products are actually driving it — and which ones are quietly destroying their margins.

We've audited stores where 80% of revenue came from 20% of SKUs, and the owner had no idea. They were spending ad budget promoting low-margin products while their best performers were barely featured. A clean revenue breakdown by product changes purchasing decisions, ad strategy, and inventory planning overnight.

What we want to see: Revenue, margin, and units sold by SKU, sortable and updated in real time.

What These Five Tell Us

Together these metrics give us a complete picture of where a store is acquiring customers, what those customers are worth, where they're dropping off, and what's actually driving revenue.

If any one of them is missing, unclear, or buried inside a spreadsheet that gets updated manually once a month — that's where we start.

Not Sure Where Your Store Stands?

Book a free 30-minute data audit with lebombo. We'll review your current setup, identify what's missing, and tell you exactly where you're leaving money on the table.

No commitment. No pitch deck. Just a clear picture of your data.