What is an eCommerce audit and how to approach it?
The eCommerce audit assesses all the areas and activities in the e-commerce value chain for fashion companies:
- Ecommerce commercial plan & marketing calendar
- Ecommerce assortment: visual merchandising, stock availability to reach the targets
- Technology stack: performance, security and scalability
- User Experience: accessibility, navigation, responsiveness
- Operational efficiency: logistics, customer service, payments
- Marketing performance: traffic acquisition, budget allocation
- KPIs: Metrics and Benchmarking
The Fashion Ecommerce Audit provides actionable insights to optimize platform, processes, and strategy. This helps brands improve performance and drive sustainable growth. These audits are tailored and designed to optimize performance and align operations with business goals, providing strategic recommendations that drive efficiency and growth.
What are the goals and output of an eCommerce audit?
The goal of an eCommerce audit is to improve business performance and align operations with business goals. This includes analyzing current metrics and KPIs (AS-IS) and defining future goals and targets to be achieved after implementing corrective actions and platform improvements.
The output of an e-commerce audit for fashion companies encompasses all the knowledge areas where benefits can be achieved:
- Actionable insights that enable businesses to improve performance and drive sustainable growth.
- Strategic recommendations designed to boost efficiency and growth.
- A prioritized list of recommendations for short-, medium-, and long-term improvements to build an eCommerce roadmap.
- An evaluation of the eCommerce value chain, from product assortment to platform features, to ensure all activities are managed effectively.
It’s important to highlight that the ecommerce assessment should be applied at 360° degrees in order to obtain maximum results as all the activities of the value chain influence each other.
Ultimately, the audit aims to provide a clear path for businesses to optimize their platforms, processes, and strategies for sustained success.
What goals can be achieved with an eCommerce audit?
The eCommerce audit is the first step in achieving target eCommerce revenue and profitability. eCommerce revenue depends on market potential and the ability to drive traffic and conversions on the platform—this is generally referred to as “demand.”
eCommerce profitability depends on:
- Product assortment
- Cost of goods sold (COGS)
- Operational costs
These three elements determine margins and the profitability of the eCommerce channel.
What problems can be resolved with an eCommerce audit?
Companies typically request an eCommerce audit when they don’t know how to move forward with their eCommerce business. Managers or business owners realize they are stuck because revenue growth has plateaued, and profitability is shrinking. At the same time, they don’t know which actions to take to improve performance, or they have identified potential issues but don’t know how to address them.
An eCommerce audit can help by:
- Pointing managers in the right direction with a list of actions to take.
- Providing an estimate of implementation costs.
- Analyzing the expected return on investment (ROI).
This cost-revenue analysis helps companies prioritize actions effectively.
What tools can be used for an eCommerce audit?
The tools used depend on the business area being analyzed, whether it’s demand generation (revenue growth) or profitability (cost optimization).
Tools for analyzing demand generation and revenue:
- Google Trends
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
- Hotjar
- Google Ads
- Baymard Research
Tools for analyzing profitability:
- Value chain analysis (Model)
- P&L audit (Spreadsheet)
- Digital Marketing budget analysis (Spreadsheet)
- Supplier analysis (Contracts and Service Level Agreements review)
What are the steps of an eCommerce audit?
- Initial call
- NDA signing (Non-Disclosure Agreement)
- Discussion of business goals
- Market potential audit
- Competitive advantage audit (Competitor analysis)
- KPI audit
- KPI target definition
- Definition of corrective actions
- Creation of eCommerce strategy and implementation plan
What options are available for an online eCommerce audit?
- Personalized eCommerce audit
- Online eCommerce audit
- Self-service eCommerce audit (Fill out a questionnaire + online discussion)
Example of a personalized eCommerce audit:
- Definition of key metrics for measuring results in UX and Digital Marketing.
- Website performance analysis across key acquisition channels: SEO, SEM, Social Media.
- Output: A detailed report accompanied by a presentation.
- AS-IS – TO-BE analysis: A description of the current state and how it should look at the end of the project or within a set time frame (e.g., 1 to 3 years).
- Roadmap definition: Creation of an action plan for the agreed-upon timeframe.
🛒 Fixed price package: £1,000
➡ Contact us for the assessment package
How to approach an eCommerce audit?
Key areas of focus:
- Core technology stack: Cost, implementation, fit, and utilization. Includes eCommerce platform, back-office systems, and integrations.
- Trading & Optimization: Upselling, cross-selling, gifting experience, merchandising, bundling, site search, landing pages, personalization, behavioral reporting.
- Third-party technology partners/vendors: Content management, loyalty programs, gift cards, analytics & reporting, data feed management, product data management.
- Checkout: Cart functionality, checkout flow, localization, gifting, upsells (pre- & post-purchase), account/login experience, order confirmation page.
- Customer Experience (CX): Front-end UX, cross-device usability, merchandising, CRM, email marketing, user-generated content, content management, mobile usability, performance, post-purchase experience, and returns.
- Analytics & Tracking: Tag management, data recording, data quality & accuracy.
- Customer Acquisition: Internationalization/localization, marketing technologies, channel effectiveness, and marketing budget allocation.
- Best Practices in eCommerce: Accessibility, technical SEO, gift cards, performance, checkout, and payments.
Possible actions after an audit
✅ Platform improvements: Enhancements in UX, payments, logistics, customer service, and team structure.
✅ Evaluate and optimize the eCommerce value chain: From product assortment to platform features, ensuring all activities are managed effectively to achieve sales and margin targets.
eCommerce Audit Glossary
🔹 Corrective Actions
Definition: Proactive measures implemented to resolve issues negatively impacting eCommerce performance. These actions are data-driven and aim to prevent problems from recurring, ultimately improving sales, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
📌 Examples of Corrective Actions in eCommerce:
✅ Simplify the checkout process.
✅ Implement cart abandonment email reminders with incentives.
✅ Improve the speed of the checkout page.
✅ Optimize product pages with high-quality images and videos.
✅ Enhance product descriptions for clarity and persuasiveness.
✅ Implement A/B testing to optimize landing pages and product pages.
✅ Improve commercial and marketing plans.
✅ Optimize assortment, visual merchandising, and stock management.
✅ Gain efficiency by controlling shipping costs.
✅ Optimize website loading speed.
✅ Fix broken links and site errors.
✅ Ensure the website is mobile-responsive.
✅ Perform regular website maintenance and updates.
✅ Improve the website’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
By implementing these corrective actions, eCommerce businesses can address weaknesses, improve performance, and achieve their business goals. 🚀