How Can Digital Commerce & Media Metrics Come Together ?

"What gets measured, gets managed." – Peter Drucker.

In today’s digital-first world, where every click, swipe and scroll is tracked, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of metrics. Even more so, in the world of digital commerce; where the lines between media & commerce are converging (see my previous article on this) leading the former and the latter to be more connected and more connect-able.

In principle, primary media metrics are related to exposure, effectiveness and efficiency towards the generation of awareness in some cost efficient manner (reach, frequency, impressions, GRPs, recall, TOMA, cost per thousand impressions, cost per reach, cost per rating point...).? And while we may call these 'media' metrics, they are, by the nature of what they measure, important steps in selling. After all, how can you sell something to someone if no one knows about it ?

Then we bring in the metrics on the Digital Shelf - which are not necessarily 'new' metrics but rather, are a subset of known logical metrics (with some parallels in the shopper marketing or retail marketing world) under this 'conceptual context' of the virtual shelf - to better connect the media to the commerce.

As someone who likes and enjoys numbers, I find these metrics are interesting not just for work but for intellectual pondering and joy as well.

Foundational Metrics: Hello Everyone, May I Have Your Attention Please !

A study by Media Dynamics says that in the 1970s the average person saw was exposed to 500-1,600 ads every day. Today with traditional, digital & social media, it is estimated that the average person sees 4,000 - 10,000 ads a day ! To say our attention's are stretched is an understatement.

So like then, now too, reach as a concept & metric remains important. If the total number of buyers (for any brand or category needs to grow), then more people need to buy and therefore more people need to first, know about it. Reach. Of course, the nature of the product, the geographical scope & scale of distribution, attitudinal or preferential concentration of potential buyers, volume goals, available budgets and resources and a few more elements will direct just where and to what extent that reach (be it in absolute numbers or % terms) should be - and can be - planned for.

Given the massive communication overload we are all exposed to, the plethora of brands and categories that (directly or indirectly) compete for our time, our attention and most importantly our share of wallets, repeating the message...to get noticed...is equally (still) important. Frequency. Like reach, the sensible extent of repetition needed will also vary based on how simple or complicated the message is, how much mental effort it may take someone to comprehend and remember it, where and in what context that message is being delivered and just how 'stand out' or 'attention evoking' it inherently is.

Beyond using them to plan for one's own 'noticeability' (or the at least, the attempt to be noticed) they can also be used to gain some form of competitor insights.

• GRPs (which need not be only TV - there are smart ways to leverage intelligent estimates across touch points) across brands or categories can help understand one's 'weight' of campaigning versus that of another (am I saying something too softly or too loudly in the context of others ?)
• One's own media expenditure (known) combined with one's own weight (known) + the weight of competition (ascertainable with data access + estimation) can help understand how much others are spending (is someone else playing with twice the financial muscle with respect to being noticed? 10 times ?...).
• That combined with some, again, smart thinking + knowledge of one's own industry, can help understand the potential impact across P&Ls (okay...maybe they are playing with 10 times the financial muscle but its unlikely they're making a profit then).
• That in turn, could be used to understand one's own P&L goals in a larger industry context (if some one else is going berserk at potentially low or no profits, one's own volume may take some more time than earlier expected...Is there some particular sub group of the audience one can focus on better ? any other changes one should consider making in this context ?)

Even now, the simple concepts / metrics related to Reach, Frequency and Efficiency, used intelligently, are necessary to plan and may also be played with to understand a lot more, beyond just media.

New-er Metrics: But Did You Get Noticed ?

With digital and social media, we got some more metrics that now help understand the (likely or potential) effect of that reach and frequency...at least to some degree.

• While reach, impressions and frequency may help understand the extent of message delivery, a CTR or a VTR may help understand the message, in its given form, 'piqued the interest' of the recipient (were they tempted enough, or rather, did it incite enough interest or curiosity, for them to click on it ? to view it for at-least 50% of its duration ? for 100% of its duration ?).
• Taken further, with digital media affording the opportunity to target multiple sets of people with multiple different messages, these two creatures may be used to understand what kind of message resonates better (or not at all) with what kind of audience.
• This in-turn, can be used to optimise which groups and which messages those precious resources are best spent behind and even, inspire better, sharper and more relevant ideas overall.
• Search metrics or volumes may be yet another surrogate to understand if all that 'messaging' is making any actual change in consumer behaviour (are more people looking on the lines of what you are putting out there ?)
• The extent of engagement with online influencers, or even better, the extent of actual clicks, or code-tracked sales, can further help address the satirical comment of 'I know half my marketing budget is wasted, I just don't know which half' (at least to some extent).

These and others like them, further developed and combined, specially with eCommerce or Digital Commerce Metrics, can points to Costs Per Acquisition, Returns on Ad Spend, Costs per Conversion and so on and so forth, which may well influence (beyond optimisation) the nature of the product portfolio that you sell (especially in the world of online commerce) to better optimise potential and eventual efficiency, commercial soundness & profitability.

Again, while they may predominantly be considered media metrics, their implications and potential uses are not just media.

Re-Framing the Context: Representing the Digital (Virtual) Shelf

With so many online selling channels now (between eCommerce Portals, Social Commerce Channels and others), with all the consumer action related data on or from each of those channels (from clicks to the product page to eventual volume & value sales and everything in between) and with people spending more time shopping (or window shopping) online, can some of the metrics be framed in a more commerce-oriented manner ? That, is one way to think of the Digital Shelf (metrics). From the time people enter the (virtual) store, what's going on?

• Search Visibility: One can have the best product in the world, but if no one can find it, does it even matter? In fact, 53% of product searches now start on Amazon, meaning the ranking on eCommerce platforms may well be make-or-break for sales.
• Ratings & Reviews: The modern day word-of-mouth: 92% of consumers say they are more likely to buy a product after reading a trusted review. High ratings boost the product’s trustworthiness, while negative reviews can tank the chances of conversion—no matter how fancy or brilliant the marketing was. And 'understanding' the nature of reviews, of what people are writing (which AI led tools enable now), can help with USPs to highlight, claims that are being questioned and product improvements that people are looking for.
• Pricing & Promotion Metrics: A study shows that 65% of consumers compare prices online before making a purchase. Promotions, too, can sway decisions, with customers being 60% more likely to try a new product during a promotional period. And using this information at a category level can help understand promotional cycles, aid planning calendars for campaigns and understand changing price-points that consumers are conformable with.

Connecting these to final Volume, Value sales is of-course the logical step to the closing the loop.

These metrics, specially taken together, offer a real-time pulse of consumer behaviour and how well the product is performing in the digital aisles.

While this is all new and evolving - at least in the way it is used - an Amazon sales report suggests that brands that optimise their digital shelf visibility, pair it with promotional strategies, and consistently monitor ratings and reviews see 20-30% higher sales.

From the Top of the Funnel to the Bottom: Media, Commerce, Digital Shelf

And here we come full circle—what gets measured, gets managed. Metrics are no longer just a way to track performance; they can be the roadmap to success. Traditional media, digital media, and digital shelf metrics can work together to create a complete picture of the product's presence and performance and help prioritise aspects that may yield the most returns.

The very mathematically inclined may even go one step further, and from time to time, leverage statistical marketing mix models (built with multiple laters of regression analyses from large sets of data) across the key variables to derive structural and directional volume, value and even margin impact from all these avenues coming together.

It's not as 'clean' as it seems (like most things). Sources are different, attributions are not exact, and some manual work, experienced guesstimating and most importantly, acknowledgement of and comfort with non-perfection is required.

But even with all those flaws, a reasonably well estimated measurement (and hypothesis) is still better than nothing.

In the next few articles, I will try to delve deeper into the digital shelf metrics, and then come back to the larger context.

Thank you for reading.

In this 9 article series I try to structure (and share) my thoughts, after some years spent, working across integrated media, brand & e-commerce. Anything expressed here is a personal opinion; neither associated with nor representative of that of any organisation past or present.

The other articles in this series:

• How Did Media & Business Converge? And What Is Changing in Business as a Response?,
• Why Are Content and Reviews Key to Digital Shelf Success?
• How Can Digital Shelf's Search, Pricing & Promotion Be Used Beyond 'Keeping Score' ?