Which metrics matter for an online art store?

Average order value — specifically the share of orders with more than one piece — the proportion of returns whose reason is size, conversion by size, and landed cost at the customer's door.

Why do most of my sales come from the smallest size?

Usually it isn't preference, it's risk: the customer won't commit to a large piece they can't picture. When they see true scale, the size mix shifts.

Which metrics can I ignore early on?

Sessions, bounce rate and follower count. They rise with any post and say nothing alone: a list of a hundred emails is worth more than a thousand followers who don't buy.

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Which metrics matter in an art store

Shopify gives you a hundred charts and almost none of them tell you what to do tomorrow. These four do — and one of them moves first when something starts working.

Updated September 20266 min read

What's in here

The four that matter
Average order value
Returns with a reason
Conversion by size
Landed cost
Three you can ignore

The four that actually matter

Shopify gives you a hundred charts and most of them won't tell you what to do tomorrow. In an art store, these four will:

Metric	What it tells you	Warning sign
Average order value	Whether you sell single pieces or sets	Under 20 % of orders with more than one piece
Size-related returns	Whether your product page explains size well	They're the majority of your returns
Conversion by size	Which size people dare to buy	Nearly everything is the small one
Landed cost	Your real margin	You haven't worked it out

Average order value: the one that moves most

In framed art, fulfilling an order costs about the same at €30 as at €200. So order value matters more than conversion. The specific number to watch isn't the euro average: it's the share of orders containing more than one piece. Under 20 % and you have the big lever untouched.

Returns, but with a reason attached

A bare return rate is useless. What matters is the reason, and specifically what share is size — because that's the only one the product page can fix.

If your platform won't let you tag reasons, ask in the return email: one line is enough. Without that data you're optimising blind.

Conversion by size: the one nobody watches

Look at what share of your sales is the smallest size. If it's overwhelming, it isn't that your customer likes small: it's that they won't risk large because they can't picture it. Same problem as the returns, seen from the other side.

The effect that confirms it

When a customer sees true scale, they size up. If you make a change that shows real size, the mix of sizes sold moves before any other metric. It's the fastest signal that something worked.

Landed cost at the customer's door

Not a dashboard metric but a sum to do once and revisit quarterly: printing, frame, packaging, freight, fees and a percentage for breakage. Without that number, the margin you think you have and the one you have aren't the same.

And three you can ignore at the start

Sessions. They rise with any post and mean nothing on their own.
Bounce rate. In a store with few products it's noise.
Followers. A channel with a thousand followers who don't buy is worth less than a list of a hundred emails.

To measure what counts

Which piece gets tried and which one sells

InRoom's analytics show the funnel piece by piece: how often it's opened in AR and how often it reaches the cart. That tells you which pieces generate interest you aren't converting.

See it on the Shopify App Store →