Setting Measurable Ecommerce Goals for 2025: A January Action Plan

The new year is a time for fresh starts and ambitious goals. For ecommerce businesses, this can translate to increased revenue, improved customer satisfaction, and a stronger market position. But setting vague goals like “increase sales” won’t cut it. To truly succeed, you need to define measurable, tangible, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.

Here’s how to set effective ecommerce goals in January using your 2024 data

Analyze 2024 Performance

Dive deep into your analytics: Review your 2024 ecommerce platform, CRM, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, email marketing, social marketing, and advertising data.

• Identify top-performing products and categories.
• Analyze traffic sources (organic, paid, social, etc.).
• Track key metrics like conversion rates, average order value (AOV), customer lifetime value (CLTV), and customer acquisition cost (CAC).
• Identify any seasonal trends or patterns.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) review: Analyze customer behavior, purchase history, and feedback.
• Identify high-value customers and segments.
• Understand customer pain points and areas for improvement.

Set SMART Goals

A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. A good example of this for an ecommerce store is setting a revenue growth target aligned with past year’s growth + anticipated impact of 2025 initiatives. All targets should align with and/or be supported by the initiatives set. For many, this is a chicken and egg consideration. We recommend setting targets, and then defining the initiatives required to achieve them. Here are some other examples of SMART targets:

• Revenue Growth
• Conversion Rate Improvement
• Reduce Cart Abandonment
• Average Order Value (AOV) Increase
• Email Subscriber Growth

January Action Plan

• Conduct a website audit: While it is often best to complete this phase of planning at the end of the previous year, there is also great value in waiting until January so that you have the full calendar year of data to review. A full site and marketing/advertising audit should be done at least once a year to identify areas for improvement in website speed, mobile optimization, and user experience. Practices like our Foundational Audit are a great method of achieving this task.
• Review the SMART targets you have set and define the activities / projects / initiatives that you will prioritize in 2025 to achieve them. This can include anything from revamping your product pages to beginning a journey with a new advertising channel. Just keep in mind that each initiative should be set to achieve a defined goal, and if an initiative does not align with your goals, it shouldn’t be on your list!
• Setup your reporting: Data is only valuable if you review it and understand it. A common method of achieving this is through a custom dashboard – for visualization and comparison of the individual data points. Psst: This is provided to all digital strategy clients of Mode Effect!

What’s Next

• Regularly monitor key metrics: Track progress towards your goals on a weekly or monthly basis.
• Analyze data and identify areas for improvement: Continuously analyze your data and make adjustments to your strategies as needed.
• Stay flexible and adapt to changing market conditions: Be prepared to adjust your goals and strategies as needed based on unforeseen circumstances.

By setting SMART goals and taking proactive steps in January, you can lay the foundation for a successful and profitable year for your ecommerce business. Remember to stay focused, be patient, and continuously strive for improvement. Not comfortable doing it on your own? We can help!