What is a common metric to assess the effectiveness of an e-commerce website?

The shopping cart abandonment rate is a vital metric for assessing the effectiveness of an e-commerce website because it directly reflects customer behavior and the site's usability. This metric calculates the percentage of users who add items to their shopping cart but do not complete the checkout process. A high abandonment rate can indicate issues with the purchasing process, such as complicated checkout procedures, unexpected additional costs, or lack of payment options. By analyzing this rate, e-commerce businesses can identify barriers that may prevent customers from completing their purchases and implement changes to enhance the user experience, optimize conversion rates, and ultimately increase revenue.

The other options, while they provide useful insights, do not specifically address the direct impact on sales or conversion effectiveness. For example, the number of clicks on ads primarily measures advertising performance rather than the actual checkout process. Average time spent on a website may indicate user engagement but does not necessarily correlate with successful transactions. Similarly, the total number of products listed does not provide insights into customer behavior or satisfaction but simply indicates inventory levels. Therefore, the shopping cart abandonment rate is the most relevant metric for assessing how effectively an e-commerce website converts visitors into customers.