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E-COMMERCE METRICS AND KPIs: MEASURE YOUR E-COMMERCE SUCCESS

At a certain time, a person/an owner can't tell exactly how many people see his billboard hanging along the road, but he can see the number of people coming to his website. He can't tell how many people came in to his food shop or restaurant after seeing the advertisement in newspapers, but by the clicks in the banner ad, he can exactly see the number of people came to his site. This is all because of the digital marketings (metrics and KPI's) which offers a far more visibility to behaviors and actions of customers and the business. Google analytics, websites, pages per visit, bounce rate, time on site, and conversion rate, are the measurements and terms that are increasingly common. The graph below is based on the study of Statista which shows the following primary metrics used by retailers in measuring their personalization initiatives and success.
*insert pic atong graph*. But what is metrics and KPI's? How are these two differ from each other? Metric(s) is any quantifiable consistently defined measurement of website performance and measures the processes. Meanwhile KPI's or the Key Performance Indicator(s) are the number of growth from your website that you can track. It measures the performance of the processes and is which subjective in nature-- specific targets you want your business to achieve.
In addition, you can measure the performance at an enterprise level by having an index that summarizes the performance across selected marketing channels. Thus, checking your ecommerce metrics depends on the type of metrics you have. It can either be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

PRODUCT DISCOVERY METRICS

If you don't establish the awareness that leads to brand discovery, you won't be able to attract users to your website.

These indicators can help you track your awareness-raising and discovery activities:

• Impressions
The amount of times your ad or piece of content is shown to someone is referred to as impressions. These impressions can be obtained through paid advertisements on third-party websites, search results, social media platforms, and so on.

It's one of the most controllable metrics you can have because it's virtually entirely determined by the budget you set up for your various activities. It's crucial to keep in mind that an impression does not always imply a click. Any platform where you share material will have access to your impressions.

• Reach
The entire number of your followers and subscribers or the total number of people that will view your material is your reach. Consistent initiatives to attract subscribers, followers, and other forms of engagement whether via social media, email, etc. are the most effective way to increase reach. The more clearly established your brand and voice are, the more effective your outreach activities will be.

• Engagement
Your perceptions and your reach intersect to form engagement. In simple terms, how many of your followers and subscribers interact with your content.

Continued promotion of your brand and goods will be extremely beneficial and these efforts must be sustained. These efforts are more similar to farming than to hunting.

In conclusion, understanding product performance begins with product discovery metrics. It aids in the identification of areas where your product could be improved and it also helps you in enhancing the performance of your goods. As a result, you'll be better able to make business decisions.

CONSIDERATION (OR ACQUISITION) METRICS

• Email click-through
The email click-through rate is the percentage of your email subscribers who visited your website after receiving and opening the email (which are two different metrics).

You can positively impact this by sending out well-designed emails that have mobile-friendly design, powerful calls-to-action, and compelling subject lines.

• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
To ensure that you're not launching extravagant campaigns that only create a tiny number of clients, you should know how much you're paying for gaining first-time customers, often known as your customer acquisition cost (CAC).

Segmenting your campaigns to better target customers who will respond best to your campaigns' call-to-actions, landing pages that will assist reinforce your call-to-actions, and carefully controlling your campaign budgets can all help boost your CPA.

• Organic acquisition traffic
In the long run, you want to draw visitors to your site without having to pay for it. It's crucial to know how many of your visitors came to the site through organic means, which is readily visible in all analytics programs.

Ensure that your on-site/technical SEO follows best practices like correct tagging, fast response speed, etc. and that your off-page SEO operates properly.

• Social Media Engagement
Social media metrics can be quite beneficial to your ecommerce business. The following are the most important social media engagement KPIs to monitor on a regular basis:

~ Likes per post: People who have upvoted your social media posts are referred to as "Likes." Likes, thumbs-ups, favorites, and +1's are examples of this. To figure it out, add up the amount of likes on each social media platform and divide it by the number of posts on each platform.
~ Shares per post: "Shares" is a catch-all metric for "shares," "retweets," and "repins," and it represents the average number of times a post has been shared over a period of time.
~ Comments per post: The term "comments" refers to any mentions and comments on your social media posts. This indicator measures how big of a social media following your brand has.
~ Clicks per post: The clicks per post indicator tracks how many people clicked on links from social media posts over time. To compute this measure, add up the number of clicks from your social media postings throughout time and divide it by the number of social media posts released during that time.

Conversion Metrics used in measuring the store’s performance in converting visitors into paying customer are the following:

Abandonment
Both Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate and Checkout Abandonment determine the number of people who departed the store, the former is for those who added to their carts without purchasing the same and the latter is for those who did not complete the checkout process. These are essential to see the main cause of abandonment, whether it is because of the latter or completely other factors.

Micro to Macro Conversion rates
Metric that track particularly important activities in the site such as the number of those who click the product detail page or those who subscribed to receive emails.

Average order value (AOV)
Measures the customers’ average spending in checking out goods in their carts. This is crucial in understanding the marketing effectiveness measurements.

Sales Conversion rates
The number of visitors needed to achieve target sales is determined by dividing the total number of orders/sales to the total amount of sessions to the store. Strategies such as setting the rate by channel (E.g. AdWords) will help analyze the conversion rate metric.

Through good customer service, loyalty programs and other activities used keep existing customers will be beneficial to the following Retention Metrics:

Customer Retention Rates
Determines how the store is effectively retaining customers over time, and is expressed in percentage. This indicates how well the store serves its customers.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
CVL measures the average customer satisfaction, loyalty, and a brand’s viability as it is the total income earned from a customer over time, including all their orders. Recommended metric if an ecommerce business wants to expand steadily.

Repeat Customer Rate
The percentage of customers with numerous purchases also indicates how well the store serves its customers.

Refund and Return Rate
Determines the health of the store. Hence, refund and returns can either help by being a motivator for potential customers or be detrimental if it turned out to be high in numbers.

E-commerce Churn Rate
Measuring customers’ turnover will allow the store to develop strategies to keep the existing customers satisfied.

Advocacy Metrics are used to measure the efforts to show customers the store’s concern, and these are:

Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Determines the likelihood of customers’ referrals. Customers are either Detractors, Passives, or Promoters depending on their numeric answer. Thus, it is an overall measurement of the business’s performance and quality.

Subscription Rate
Email marketing is valuable, which means measuring subscription is equally important. This indicates that customers want updates. Meanwhile, unsubscribing will signal the opposite.

Program Participation Rate
Initiating programs such as customer loyalty programs will help boost the participation rate. Foregoing some profit for these programs will be beneficial for the business in the long run.

In conclusion, the metrics mentioned are tools beneficial in determining the performance and bottom line of the business. It also helps in ascertaining the areas that calls for improvement. Hence, attention in various areas is required when running a successful e-commerce store.

Authors:
Loyola, Xyrelle Love
Manos, Maria Lea
Marinay, Jalen
Miranda, Chrizel Diane
Molina, Raquel Joy

DEALING WITH THE RISE IN PHISHING ATTACKS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Phishing is a type of cybercrime in which a target victim(s) are contacted through emails, calls or text messages by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details and passwords. Phishing attacks is a top cybercrime committed in the Philippines and became worst and rampant during pandemic. It was recorded by the National Bureau of Investigation's Cybercrime Division that there is an increase of 200% of this threat since the lockdowns began. One of the reasons that this threat is evolving is because of individual's perceived lack of digital literacy in the country. This attacks are in form of sending emails, calls or text messages from individuals pretending to be someone, convincing the victim(s) to click on fraudulent links, and even divulge personal information such as online banking and credit cards' numbers and passwords, and other confidential data that can be used to access personal accounts that will result to identity theft and/or financial loss.

Among all of the phishing attacks, phishing emails about password cheques are still and most popular according to the report of security awareness training. It has been reported that topics related to HR, particularly to the new policies that would greatly affect all employees across the business organizations, has been increasing significantly. The CEO of the security awareness training stated that because of the increasing number of employees returning to the office, employees are concerned about the policies that would affect their situations in the workplace every day, and because of it, there becomes the rise of these kinds phishing attacks. In addition, when it comes to phishing, social media messages are another area of concern, wherein LinkedIn phishing dominate as the top-clicked social media email subject that holds the number one spot with 41% according to the survey conducted.

Since phishing is prevalent, nobody wants to fall prey to phishing attacks. In order to alleviate these threats, here are some of the suggested steps a company or organization can take to protect themselves and fight against phishing :

1.) Educate employees by conducting training sessions, webinars, literacy seminars about phishing attacks and have a mock phishing scenarios.

2.) Implement or provide a SPAM filter that detects viruses, blank senders, etc.
3.) Keep all systems current with latest security patches and updates.

4.) Initiate an antivirus solution, schedule signature updates, and monitor the antivirus status on all equipment.

5.) Carry out a security policy that has but is not limited to password expiration and complexity.

6.) All sensitive company information must be encrypted

7.) Have the HTML email converted into text-only email messages or disable HTML email messages.

8.) For employees that are telecommuting, encryption should be required.

With these and more, companies and/or organizations must keep track on different phishing strategies, security policies and solutions to ensure that their security and their employees as well is well guarded and be able to avoid these threats when they emerge. Thus, by providing regular security awareness training to their employees, they (companies and/or organizations) can surely reduce and fight the risks and exposure of phishing attacks.

Author: Loyola, Xyrelle Love O.

Online Scams in the Philippines to Watch Out For.

Nobody likes getting scammed, but not everyone knows how to secure themselves against online scams. So, How do you ensure your safety when making financial transactions over the internet?
First, be aware of the common online scams to avoid falling prey to them and losing your hard-earned money.

Online Shopping Scams: Online scams in the Philippines are on the rise, based on the latest data from the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group
This is how online shopping scams work
- online scammer pretends to be a legitimate seller using a fake ad on an authentic e-commerce platform, social media site, or a fake website. The fraudster tricks a customer into paying for a non-existent product and then delivers nothing and runs away with the money.
- They’re good at deceiving people with their cunning sales pitch, making it appear they’re selling a genuine product. The customer then receives a fake product or one that’s entirely different from what’s advertised.
This is how to avoid online shopping scams.
1. Learn How to Spot an Online Scammer
- When buying items online, watch out for red flags.

2. Shop Only at Trusted and Reputable Websites.
- Check the website’s address bar: its URL should start with “https” (not “http”) and there should be a closed padlock icon. These security features encrypt all communications between your browser and the website, protecting your sensitive information such as credit card number, address, and password.

3. Verify the Product and Seller
- Do your research before you shop. Before you trust an online shopping site with your credit card information, verify the company and browse reviews online.

4. Ask the Seller a Lot of Questions
- People who sell genuine products provide as much information to potential customers. Feel free to ask as many questions as you’d like about the product. Specifically, ask about the condition, specs, reason for selling (for second-hand items), and where it’s made.

5. Never Share Your Personal and Bank Details:
- Think twice before giving your confidential information to individual sellers. Online shopping scams usually involve sellers who try to gain customers’ trust and then ask for their personal and bank account details.

6. Check the Seller’s Refund or Returns Policy
- Make sure that you’re dealing only with online shops that have these features on their website.

7. Use a Secure Payment Method
- Cash on delivery is among the safest payment option, especially for high-value items, as it assures that you’ll get your order

Online Banking Scams

1. SIM Swap Scam
Also known as “Palit SIM” scam, SIM swapping is a relatively new form of online fraud in the Philippines. Scammers pretend either as legitimate mobile subscribers or authorized representatives of a mobile subscriber and request telecommunication companies for SIM card replacement.

2. ATM Skimming
Scammers use illegal skimming devices to read the card’s magnetic stripe and steal the details in it, making a fake or cloned card to access the owner’s bank account and complete banking transactions like cash withdrawals and fund transfers.

3. Email Phishing
This illegal activity can trick you into filling out a form with your email password, credit card details, and other sensitive details via a fake website that looks similar to your bank’s online banking facility.

How to Avoid Online Banking Scams
1. Protect Your Personal Data
Never disclose your birth date, phone numbers, home address, email address, and other sensitive information on social media. Be careful when sharing images that may expose these details in public—avoid posting pictures of your passport, IDs, visa, and other documents.

2. Always Monitor Your Bank Statements
When you detect any unusual activity on your bank account, or when you’ve provided confidential details, change your online banking password and notify your bank immediately.

3. Protect Your PIN
Never share your PIN with anyone. When using an ATM, cover the PIN pad with your hand.

5 Common Online Investment Scams in the Philippines
1. Online Paluwagan Scams
Also known as onpal, online paluwagan works like the traditional, offline paluwagan. Members pool their funds together and take turns receiving money based on their respective payout schedules.
Onpal uses Facebook heavily to lure investors and run the paluwagan.

2. Fake Online Lending Companies
Watch out for online investment scams on Facebook that entice people to invest in moneylending or financing businesses that turn out to be fake.

3. Bitcoin Investment Scams
Bitcoin scams dupe people into growing their money in cryptocurrencies through their pages or secret groups on Facebook.

4. Paid-to-Click Programs
Beware of online advertising companies that offer a money-making opportunity through paid-to-click (PTC) programs. A PTC program’s concept is simple—to get paid, you click on online ads, get referrals, or log in daily.

5. Offshore Stock Trading Scams
Planning to invest your US Dollars? Be vigilant about online investment scams that offer huge returns for minimal dollar investment. Scammers make victims send money for stock investing in another country. Often operating via social media, they recruit investors and make them register for an online account to start the offshore investment activities.

How to Avoid Online Investment Scams
Before you invest, fully understand where you’ll put your money into. Visit the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website (4) to verify if a company is registered and authorized to run its investment activities in the Philippines. If the company’s name is not included in the SEC’s list, then it’s most likely an online scammer. You may also check the SEC advisories on online investment scams (5).

Written by: Jalen Marinay

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ONLINE SHOPPING

As time went by, things from before evolved into something new and more beneficial to the humanity. Books turned into digital forms and letters are sent electronically - these and more are greatly influenced by technology and the internet. In the business sector, the breakthroughs in the traditional shopping activities led to the development of its easiest form, thus, the online shopping. The progress of this modern society is not without its history. Online shopping is a product which is framed by its accounts from the past. Hence, these footprints from long ago are the stepping stones for our tomorrow.

Defining Online Shopping.
As defined in a Blog written by Donszem, online shopping link buyers and sellers from all corners of the world through the use of a web browser. Therefore, making it a unique form of electronic commerce (E-commerce). In one way or another, one could have encountered an online store wherein its relevant and related information are widely available. With this, online shops can subsequently take two different forms. They could either be a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) retailer or a Business-to-Business (B2B) online store. Those with internet access can or has engaged into online shopping, whatever form it may be.

The Origins of Online Shopping.
In 1979, Michael Aldrich who is an English inventor devised the first form of electronic commerce. This allowed the process of online transactions between businesses and their clients, and among businesses themselves. Around the year 1990, the World Wide Web (WWW) which is the first ever web browser pioneered by Tim Berners Lee was then introduced. An interconnected internet made it possible for the emergence of today’s online marketplaces. With the establishment of the two significant platforms, online shopping was able to expand throughout the years. An encryption-based internet security protocol called Secure Socket Layer (SSL) was pioneered by Netscape on 1994. SSL was designed to safeguard the users’ sensitive information from malicious servers during the data transmission. Basically, SSL is necessary to all financial transactions due to its security.
The greatest shift in online shopping transpired in the year 1995. Hereafter, the first online marketplaces came into existence. Thus, Jeff Bezos - the world’s richest man as of 2019, launched an online marketplace called Amazon.com. Along with it came the AuctionWeb which is now called eBay.com. In 1998, an online payment system called Paypal was introduced and later on became a success. At this juncture, online shopping is slowly building its foundation.
Another online marketplace was launched in 1999 by Jack Ma. It is a well-known Chinese marketplace called Alibaba.com. Going further in the 21st century, an advertising tool allowing sellers to post ads in Google search results based on the user’s search preference was introduced. It was called Adwords which was launched by Google in the year 2000. On 2004, Shopify was established. This is an online storefront service that enables low-capital sellers to open online stores. By the year 2006, a new option for users to trade money and buy products online thr ough the use of their cellphones is introduced by Paypal.
These inventions from the past are the puzzle pieces that made up the current state of our online shopping today. Shopping at the present time has become more convenient through the use of different platforms developed to cater the needs of each and every type of consumers there is. People chose to do transactions online such as on Facebook. Hence, as DONSZEM stated in his Blog, “It is safe to say that we are in the online shopping era.”

The Future of Online Shopping.
Given the power of influence the technology and internet has to the progress of the humanity, there could be a total change in the ways in which humans are used to practice before. With regards to electronic commerce, it could be that in a few more years to come, online shopping will dominate instead of the traditional in-store retailing. This is due to the advancements brought upon by technological changes that further the shift in online shopping agenda. Blockchain, cryptocurrency, voice search, augmented reality and virtual reality are some of these technological inventions. The use of various platforms when it comes to trading has become a common practice. With this, it is without a doubt that online shopping will further progress through time.

Written by: Raquel Joy Ora Molina

Shopping Cart Abandonment Stats

More than 40% of cart abandonment emails are opened, 50% of those clicked on, and 50% of those who clicked bought something.

Statistics on cart abandonment can be found in a variety of industries, including finance, clothing, and more. While they go by a variety of names, they always refer to transactions that were left completed by potential clients who connected with the eshop.

Users abandon 69 percent of online carts on average. 45 percent of cart abandonment emails are opened; 21% of all emails are clicked on, and 50% of consumers who click purchase. Cart abandonment statistics, interestingly, do a good job of illuminating the customer behavior behind unfinished actions. This broadens marketers' views by allowing them to investigate why customers behave the way they do and how they are influenced.

Customers abandon their shopping basket for a variety of reasons. First, it's expensive to ship. If the price is unclear or too high, customers are hesitant to make a purchase. As a result, the vast majority of shopping carts are abandoned owing to exorbitant shipping prices or additional costs appearing after the item has been put to the cart. The second reason is the checkout process. Online shoppers have a short attention span and will abandon the checkout process if it is too complicated or time consuming. Concerns about delivery, third. Online shoppers abandon their shopping carts since they will not be able to receive their products quickly enough, and they will only have one option: standard delivery. Fourth, is the Concerns about payment. Customers that shop online want to be able to pay with their preferred manner. Customers are more likely to abandon if there are fewer options available to them. They may depart if they add things to their cart only to discover that they are unable to purchase using the payment method they prefer. And lastly, customers may abandon their cart simply because they are only seeking for promo codes or simply browse the web.

To use Carts Abandoned Stats well, you must use it sensibly, reactively, and proactively to get the most out of it. To begin, you should look at existing cart abandonment statistics from large companies in your field to identify red flags for your own website and e-shop. Second, examine your most recent cart abandonment statistics to determine what needs to be fixed and what can be improved. Finally, go to Google Analytics and track your customers' journeys. Examine the areas where the majority of clients abandon ship. Make the necessary adjustments.

Every business should know that cart abandonment statistics are important since they can help you overcome feelings of helplessness or that something is seriously wrong with the goods or service you're selling. It can also help you understand why customers and leads are abandoning their carts without making a purchase.

Author: Manos, Maria Lea

"Being human in the digital world is about building a digital world for humans"- Andrew Keen

The improvements in digital technology made our lives so much easier. So, What that this advancements brought to people more specifically to Filipino citizens? Philippines was ranked 48th among 110 countries in terms of digital quality of life in the latest study of Surfshark, marking an 18th spot improvement from the previous year. We may not have so much advancements as other country has but we are not far behind in terms of a promising future and high-tech digital items. Indeed, even while the Philippines' economy continues to suffer from a slew of problems ranging from crippling traffic to dramatic pre-political decision deceptions to airport tragedies, there is a lot of progress being made in our technology and computerized industries.

It is not new to Filipino’s about the internet, in January 2022, 76.01 million are actively engaged in internet. People are now adapting to the these advancements that they use internet connection effectively and use social media sites as one of their source of income. According to Rappler, just like last year, the Philippines is top when it comes to social media pe*******on. At least one type of social media site is used by 99 percent of internet users. Malaysia, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates are the only three countries with a social media pe*******on rate of 99 percent. Most of the internet users loves to spent most of their time on mobile applications like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, Youtube, etc.
"Global village" that is what most people describe our world today due to the vast improvement of digital technology. Social media is now becoming the most popular and largest player in the technology age since it allows individuals to easily connect with one another and share informations. Also, by the help of internet and social media sites it helps us in many fields, from shopping online to school learning and other stuffs.

Over 92.05 million in the country are users of different social media sites. The total number of social media users in the country has grown 67 million to 76 million this year, 75 million of these users are actively using Facebook application. Youtube has 56.50 million users in the Philippines. Some big time celebrities are one of those active user of this site since they are using it as their platform and use their influence to gain views, likes and incentives. In January 2022, 74.3% are the total percentage of YouTube users in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Instagram has a total of 64.2% equivalent to 18.65 million users of the local internet base. There are also sites that Pnoy's loves to use, tiktok has 47.3% users, facebook messenger has 49.3% and snapchat 13.9%.

Though digital advancements, social media and internet gives people easy access, it can also harm the society. Spreading fake news, online bullying and online scamming. The way we engage with one another has changed dramatically because of social media. Stories and opinions may spread at an unparalleled rate, allowing people all over the world to participate in a near-real-time conversation about both serious and frivolous issues. We as a young citizen of this country must be responsible in all we do online. Philippine government on the other hand must promote cyber awareness for people to use these advancements in the safest way possible. In this sense, we can utilize these advancements effectively and efficiently.

“What you post online speaks VOLUME about who you really are. POST with intention. REPOST with caution.”
― Germany Kent

Author: Miranda, Chrizel Diane M.