THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WEBSITE METRICS AND THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF ONLINE BUSINESSES

Online businesses are often engaged in web metrics to gauge the performance of their eCommerce website. This study examines the relationships between web metrics and the financial performance. The key purpose of the present paper is to learn whether metrics measures have an impact on profitability in eCommerce website. An online survey was used to gather data from companies that have eCommerce website. The results from this study indicate that companies with perceived successful financial performance have also enjoyed perceived success in the customer behaviour on their website. Furthermore, the study explores the role of five contingency variables,the markets it operates in, the effort of the company to make the website visible, the involvement of the owners, the percentage of the online business and the age of the website, on this relationship. The results indicate that these variables moderate the relationship between metrics measures and the performance of the website so that a positive association occurs under older website, higher percentage of online, and higher level of owner’s involvement with the website. The findings prompt the owners to carefully monitor their website traffic for a possible downturn and remedy the situation prior to its occurrence