5 min read
Average Order Value Is Lying to You : Why You Need to Measure New-Customer AOV
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AVERAGE ORDER VALUE IS LYING TO YOU : WHY YOU NEED TO MEASURE NEW-CUSTOMER AOV
Average order value is one of the most-chased metrics in ecommerce, and one of the most misleading when you look at it blended. A rising AOV feels like progress. But a single blended AOV number hides the one distinction that actually matters for growth: are your high-value orders coming from new customers, or from existing customers who were always going to buy? Until you separate those two, you are optimizing in the dark. Here is why new-customer AOV is the number to watch, and how to raise it.
Topics: Wicked Reports attribution windows Attribution Health multi-touch attribution customer lifetime value (CLV)
4 min read
Fastest-Growing E-commerce Sectors for 2026 and Beyond
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FASTEST-GROWING E-COMMERCE SECTORS FOR 2026 AND BEYOND
Online shopping stopped being a pandemic story a while ago — it's simply how a growing share of the world buys. In 2026, global ecommerce is expected to reach roughly $6.88 trillion - accounting for more than a fifth of all retail sales worldwide and it's on track to pass $8 trillion by 2027. Growth has cooled from its 2020–2021 spike into a steadier high-single-digit climb — but it's still expanding at more than twice the rate of physical retail.
What's changed most since the early-pandemic surge isn't whether people shop online — it's what they buy online and how. The categories growing fastest now are being driven less by lockdown habit and more by structural shifts - grocery finally going digital at scale, mobile-first buying (mcommerce is now around 59% of ecommerce sales), AI-powered personalization, social commerce, and the maturing of direct-to-consumer brands.
Topics: Wicked Reports Ecommerce Trends customer lifetime value (CLV) DTC growth trends (Direct-to-Consumer) online retail
6 min read
How to Use Ecommerce LTV to Optimize Cold Traffic
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HOW TO USE ECOMMERCE LTV TO OPTIMIZE COLD TRAFFIC AD SPEND
Customer lifetime value is the most underused metric in ecommerce — and that's exactly why it's an edge. Most brands optimize their cold-traffic ads for the cheapest possible click, lead or first purchase. The brands that win optimize for something their competitors aren't even measuring - which cold traffic turns into high-value, repeat customers. This is how you do that.
Topics: Wicked Reports cohort analysis customer lifetime value (CLV) Cold Traffic Attribution ecommerce metrics
4 min read
What Is a Good Cost Per Lead (CPL)? The Honest Answer
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COST PER LEAD (CPL): WHY IT MATTERS, AND WHY IT MATTERS LESS THAN YOU THINK
If you run paid ads, you track CPL. Every media buyer does. It's the metric that feels like it tells you whether your advertising is working. Here's the contrarian truth. CPL is one of the easiest metrics to measure and one of the easiest to be misled by. Let's cover what it is, how to calculate it and then why chasing a lower CPL is quietly costing some brands their profitability.
Topics: cost per lead Wicked Reports marketing metrics customer lifetime value (CLV) Lead Generation
7 min read
How to Optimize Ad Campaigns : 3 Things That Move ROI
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HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR AD CAMPAIGNS : THE 3 THINGS THAT ACTUALLY MOVE ROI
There is no shortage of advice on optimizing ad campaigns, and most of it is noise about bidding tweaks and creative hacks. After tracking billions of dollars in ad spend, we have found that campaign optimization really comes down to three things, and none of them are tricks. They are about measuring the right way so you make the right calls. Here they are.