Keeping track of sales is one of the most important aspects of selling on Amazon. Understanding KPIs or Key Performance Indicators should be the aim of any budding entrepreneur.

These KPIs tackle specific objectives and business milestones to measure growth. Knowing this ahead of time increases cost-effectiveness and lessens subsequent delays.

Before we identify which tracking tools are available to help run your e-Commerce business, let’s run through a list of KPIs you need to track. KPIs involve the entire group. A business works best when members understand and perform their roles well.

These are the 7 KPIs you need to track:

• Sales Revenue - The bottom line of the entire business, an increase or decrease in sales, is always something to watch out for alongside trends and fluctuations throughout the months, is the decrease in sales seasonal, for example.

• Return On Ad Spend - Determines the efficiency of your ad campaigns. Are there sufficient returns from the ad budget? Knowing if the campaign is succeeding can help decision-making for future reference, and if it is failing, to cut down on ad spending.

• Inventory - Manage stocks throughout the year so as not to run out of inventory on critical calendar events such as the holidays. In the long run, every opportunity wasted is a dollar lost. This is especially true during the holiday season.

• Ratings and Reviews - Consider the relationship between your business and customers, both new and returning. Especially in e-Commerce, it is easy for ratings to drop on every misstep as a seller. This plunges sales and may leave your business in an unrecoverable state.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR) - This metric measures how many customers click on your product compared to those who don't. Downloading the Amazon Search Term Reports from Seller Central can effectively show the results of your ad, content, and keyword performance.

• Customer Performance - Concerning ratings and reviews, another aspect to watch out for is the negative feedback left by customers. This includes customer chargebacks, negative reviews, A-Z guarantees, claims, etc. These can alert Amazon to your account to issue warnings or outright suspension if not remedied on time.

• Amazon Seller Fees - There are fees that need to be settled by the seller to Amazon, especially if using the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) model wherein Amazon takes care of your product’s picking, shipping, and handling. Sites like Shopkeeper help track and manage the 72 different charges and fees Amazon places upon sellers. This helps streamline the time-consuming process and increases efficiency.

As nice as it is to have a list of metrics to focus on, you absolutely need a smart way to do the tracking. To get around Amazon's limited dashboard, sellers actively use third-party tracking tools.

With these 13 tracking tools, you can track sales, revenue, gross profits, SEO keywords, inventory, and more for e-Commerce, including daily, weekly, and monthly data.

• Helium 10 - Analytic tools like Profits, Market Tracker, and Keyword Tracker.

• DataHawk - Can track SEO, monitor ASINs Data, conduct Market Research, and run Sales Reporting. It can also track BSR (Best Sellers Rank), price, ratings, and product listing details.

• Trendle - Tools for PPC Advertising, Reverse ASIN, FBA Reimbursements, Keyword Ranking, Profitability, Review Request Extension, Reviews & Feedback Alerts, Automatic Emails, Inventory Analytics, and Split Testing.

• ManageByStats - Software for Seller Tools, Sellermail, Advertising Manager, Catapult, and Product Finder.

• PacVue - User tools that can leverage flexible, robust reporting and save time by bringing sales, inventory, pricing, and advertising data together with customizable dashboards.

• AMZ Tracker - Includes features such as Amazon Keyword Rank Tracker, Listing Optimization On-Page Tool, Amazon Super URLs Tool, Negative Reviews Notifications, Email Notification Tool, Product Promotions Website, Amazon Product Research, Best AMZ Tracker Seller Posts, and AMZ Tracker Help Desk.

• Sellics - Software for keyword clustering, revenue, and sales forecasting while considering seasonality. Also, it can track key inputs and fees, including Amazon fees, FBA fees, refunds, historical CoG, promotional costs, and many more. It has an SEO tool that analyzes listing optimization, keyword research, content monitoring, and ranking tracking.

• Jungle Scout - All-in-one platform for Amazon selling, which includes analytics for Product Database, Product Tracker, Supplier Database, Keyword Scout, Sales Analytics, and Inventory Manager.

• HelloProfit - Amazon seller analytics include tools like Merchant Dashboard, Product Dashboard, PPC Manager, Payout Reporting, Instant Notifications, and Customers & Orders.

• AccelerList - Tools relating to the product listing, product reporting, accounting, label printing, product research, and employee support.

• Forecastly - Predictive software that tracks accurate demand forecasts also includes inventory management.

• Amalyze - AMALYZE Shield answers questions relating to new potential products, competitor products, prices, availability on Amazon Prime, products with the best BSRs (Best Sellers Rank) on Amazon, and relevant keywords.

• InsightLeap - Call us a little biased, but we’re a big deal when it comes to helping Amazon sellers and vendors scale their growth. Our platform features powerful Amazon Vendor Central reporting, weekly trends and historical context, product buy box history, and comprehensive daily product review monitoring.