How to Use Ecommerce Analytics to Reduce Churn

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 “𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲.” But no one ever explains how. So let’s break it down. First, forget the word “value.” It’s vague. It’s subjective. It’s hard to measure. Instead, ask: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲?  • “More leads per week”  • “Faster deal close times”  • “Fewer security incidents per month” That’s your destination. But getting there might take weeks (or even months). So here’s the real key: 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁” 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲.  • First lead from your system  • First deal closed using your platform  • First security incident prevented through your product Because 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 is really just: 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁. And if you get that right — engagement skyrockets. Adoption improves. Churn drops. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: I worked with an ecommerce email marketing SaaS company. Their product helped brands drive more sales through email. Sounds clear, right? But many new customers spent their first month building social proof or welcome emails — the ones that don’t drive sales. So their first email sale? Didn’t happen for weeks, if at all. The result? High churn. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲: In the first 7 days, the entire onboarding focused on 3 steps:  1. Create a sales email campaign  2. Send it out  3. Make their first dollar Retention improved. Expansion grew. All because we shifted focus from features… to 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁” 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲? #customersuccess

Your past churn is killing your future growth - because you can't grow what you can't keep. We are sitting on mounds of insights about why customers leave (and even why they stay) but we aren't using it to prevent future churn. Mostly because folks don't know how to put it to work. And here’s the hard truth: you can’t fix what you don’t even know is broken. Most companies fall into one of these churn-tracking traps: 🚫 No receipts. You’re not capturing churn reasons at all. (Ghosted. Zero closure. Ouch.) 🌪️ Messy receipts. Free-form text with long-winded stories—great for drama, terrible for trend-spotting. 🥸 Fake receipts. You’ve mapped churn reasons that aren’t real reasons. (“Customer churned because Mercury was in retrograde.” Sure, ok.) 🎯 Receipt goals. You’re tracking the right reasons, the right way. (If this is you—seriously, drop your framework. We need to talk.) If you’re not doing this—or not doing it well—here’s a framework to get a better handle on what’s happening and how to fix it: Let’s make churn insights actually actionable: 1️⃣ First I break all churn into these two categories: 🔍 Controllable vs. Uncontrollable Controllable: Product gaps, lack of perceived value, bad onboarding. Uncontrollable: Bankruptcy, M&A, global economic meltdowns. 2️⃣ Second I narrow down the reasons (pro tip, there aren't that many): 📉 Churn Reasons - Not an ICP fit - Product Gaps - Product issues - Failure to launch - Lack of perceived value - Financial viability concerns - Poor Customer experience - Business restructuring or M&A 3️⃣ Always include the details: 🔑 Situational Insights - Competitor wins - Tool consolidation - Executive turnover - Misset expectations - Lack of engagement Get this right, and you’ll: ✅ Pinpoint if your churn problem can actually be fixed ✅ Quickly identify where to focus for maximum impact ✅ Design programs that don’t just check boxes—but move the needle Because dialing in on churn insights isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s your roadmap. And remember: let’s not leave our customer base like Humpty Dumpty—broken and beyond repair. 🥚💔 ____________________ 📣 If you liked my post, you’ll love my newsletter. Every week I share learnings, advice and strategies from my experience going from CSM to CCO. Join 12k+ subscribers of The Journey and turn insights into action. Sign up on my profile.

Customers are churning after your launch. What do you do? Retention after product adoption isn’t discussed enough, but it’s critical. Churn gives you insight into whether positioning was accurate, if onboarding worked, and if your product delivered on its promise. Here’s how to analyze churn as a product marketer: 1️⃣ Start with data ➖ Usage trends: What features are (or aren’t) getting used? ➖ Adoption metrics: Did customers reach the product's key value moment? ➖ Customer feedback: Pull from surveys, support tickets, reviews, and 1:1 interviews 2️⃣ Refine your positioning and messaging ➖ Audit your messaging: Did it overpromise or miss the mark? ➖ Create tailored use cases: Ensure customers understand how the product solves their specific problems. ➖ Communicate improvements: Use emails, blogs, or in-app messaging to highlight product updates. 3️⃣ Segment your churners ➖ Lifecycle stage: Are new users struggling to onboard, or are power users disengaging? ➖ Feature adoption: Did they adopt key features, or was there a drop-off early on? ➖ Customer goals: What value were they seeking that wasn’t delivered? 4️⃣ Collaborate on product updates ➖ Feature fixes: Advocate for resolving top customer pain points. ➖ Onboarding enhancements: Recommend guided flows or tooltips to drive adoption. ➖ Value alignment: Suggest new features or tweaks that better align with customer goals. 5️⃣ Prevent churn from happening again. ➖ Content strategy: Build resources like webinars, guides, or success stories to demonstrate value. ➖ Proactive messaging: Launch campaigns that educate customers on underused features. ➖ Customer advocacy: Highlight how others are succeeding, reinforcing the product’s value. Churn is just a signal to refine your strategy. While churn is often a sales concern, we product marketers are uniquely qualified to understand why customers leave and how to keep them engaged.

In some instances, it's ok to be paranoid. Churn is one of those instances. 18 months ago, all of my prospect and customer conversations were focused on pipeline generation. Now every conversation includes the aspect of churn prevention - oftentimes it's the main driver. What this tells me: it's time for leadership to get really tactical to figure out what can be done right now to fix churn — and that starts with identifying your top churn reasons. Last week, I presented at Uncork Capital's 12th Annual Portfolio Summit about "How to stop the leaking bucket." Here's a condensed overview of that presentation and the framework we use for this at UserGems 💎: 1️⃣ Step one 1) Qualitative analysis → Require CSMs to add churn reasons to every Closed Lost Opp → Hold win/loss/churn interviews to dig into customer mindset The first time you run this analysis, there will be so much new, painful information to unpack. Once you get into a rhythm (we do them quarterly) you will become excited to see the results. 2) Quantitative analysis → Run a correlation calculation to pinpoint what variables correlate with a customer's success Everyone knows Facebook's "7 friends in 10 days." What is yours? 2️⃣ Step 2 1) Based on the qualitative, outline tactics to fix churn issues in the short term → Weekly red/green review → Address common churn triggers → Proactively communicating value 2) Based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis you did before, you know which signals correlate with churn and trigger them. → Review product usage (usage decrease, active log-ins) → Track champion changes (champion left, new executive joined) → Intent signals (company evaluates other vendors) Shout out to Catalyst Software for making it easy for our CS team to act on these signals. We build playbooks in Catalyst for different signals that get auto-triggered, e.g. when a champion leaves, when a new exec joins, etc. Our CSMs get alerts immediately and know exactly what to do. Once you've got a 360-degree view of churn causes, you can begin strategizing for long-term churn prevention across customer success, sales, and product. #pipelineanxiety #revenue #churnprevention #customersuccess