Marketplace - Customer Acquisition & Retention Activity

The Customer Acquisition & Retention Activity dashboard is a combination of widgets: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), focused metric tables, graphic displays of your data, data tables that can be quickly exported to a spreadsheet for further analysis.  The data displayed on the dashboard is intended to give you actionable insights into new vs. existing customer orders, average orders, items per order, trends over time as well as your return customer rates. A separate exportable data table gives you details at the customer level.

You will see a link to this document in the heading of the dashboard, click on Dashboard Help to access the document.

KPIs

At the top of the dashboard, a selection of KPIs reflect overall sales and orders, for new and for existing customers. Additional KPIs reflect the percentage of new customer vs. existing customer sales and orders for the selected date range - note that these additional KPIs allow you to click on the metric for a drop-down view of details and graphics. The customer account creation date defines whether a customer is new or existing in each month.  A useful application of this section is to monitor the KPIs for expectations and growth, particularly when you deploy initiatives to gain new customers.  You will be able to see the trends of customer acquisitions, as well as percentages in sales, # of orders, average orders and items per order - and compare them with the rates for existing customers. Naturally, once customers move from new to existing status, you will be able to see the impact in the following month KPIs.  You might find that new customers consistently over or under spend your existing customer base, and be able to take marketing or other steps to close the gaps.  You also might establish goals for customer activity, and be able to monitor and intervene based on the KPIs.

Focused Metrics

There is a mini data table on the dashboard, which you can view by clicking on the summarized % of Sales. A drop-down view of the details will appear when you click on the metric; the focus area displays data for the last 12 months. Here you will be able to see not only the sales $ and # of orders, you will also see the percentage allocations between new and existing customers so you can follow the trends from month to month.  The average order and items per order are also displayed here.  Graphics of the average order and items per order are available by clicking on the % of Orders metric, where a separate drop-down view will appear.  The graphics can sometimes bring to light the consistency (or inconsistency) of customer behaviors over time.  Sometimes dollar amounts fluctuate when percentages remain consistent; keep in mind the value of each as you monitor the data.  If you hover to the right of the field names, you will see an arrow that allows an ascending/descending sort.  You can export the data in these tables, to work with it outside of the dashboard. Do this by clicking on the 3 dots at the top right corner of the widget, choose Download and export an image or file.  The recommended file type for a spreadsheet is CSV.

Graphic Displays

There are sections of graphic displays on the dashboard.  The graphics display trends for sales and order trends, with focus on new vs. existing customer activity for each.  At once you can see the overall trends, and how the activity is allocated between new and existing customers.  This allows you to monitor at a glance when the trends are favorable or unfavorable in total, and where your focus needs to land with the customer base. You can use these graphics to help identify your initiatives, and then to monitor them for success. You might also measure the results of marketing efforts, for example, by monitoring the impact of initiatives in the trends. Graphics will often tell a story about your business or operations that is not obvious when looking only at metrics.  Look for trends in the data, and which metrics seem to impact the others.  You can make more informed decisions about your business when you combine what your data is telling you with the knowledge you have about influencing factors such as mergers & acquisitions, in-store efforts to gain new customers and marketing efforts to impact your customer base.

You will see an indicator for your Return Customer Rate. This represents data since inception on the Marketplace, and is the percentage of your customers who have made multiple purchases, i.e. returned.  You might use this information to compare marketing spend against expected results. You'll be able to see when additional marketing or other efforts would be helpful to maintain steady purchasing in your customer base.

There is a section that displays your local delivery customer metrics - use the top tabs to switch between Sales $, # of Orders, Average Orders and Items per Order.  You'll see two views for each that compare new customers with existing customers, first in a line graph where you can follow the 6 month trends and variances between the groups and second in a column chart where you can follow the aggregate trends while comparing growth in each group.  Use this section to monitor your continuing growth of local delivery, and to understand whether you have a steady influx of customers to local delivery options.  This information is valuable to determine budgets, labor allocations and local delivery logistics. Note that the calculation for Average Orders is made on a daily basis by customer, then aggregated for all customers.

Exporting the Data Tables

The data tables at the bottom of the dashboard are granular listings of what is represented in the dashboard.  The first table gives you general order information, while the second table allows you to look at the data by mail class and delivery location. The tables will react to filters set as you are viewing the dashboard, so you are able to see more details about what is impacting the results. There may be times when you want to look at this data, filtered or not, in a spreadsheet or image.  By left-clicking on the 3 dots at the top right corner of the table widget, choose Download and export an image or file.  The recommended file type for a spreadsheet is CSV.  This functionality allows you to shape and model your data for reporting, and importantly to inform your business decisions.