Measure twice, optimize once

This week I've been doing performance optimizations on Repeat Customer Insights reports.

The reports load fast but collecting the data for the reports was getting slow.

I had a lot of ideas to speed them up but long ago I learned there's an important first step:

Measure the current performance first

This advice applies beyond just code performance. Website performance, marketing campaigns, business growth, they all are better if you measure first.

Code performance is easy to measure, there's a major industry around it with too many tools to pick from.

Same for website performance where the tools measure every bit and byte.

Marketing campaigns and business growth can be more difficult to measure, or at least it can take a long time to collect the data.

But measurement is still important.

Next time you think "I should make this better by..." remember to take a minute and see if you can measure first. That way you'll know for sure things improved.

If you'd like to improve your store's sales, repeat purchases, and customer base as a whole, the measurements from Repeat Customer Insights can help.

They go beyond the basic reports and drill into the customer behavior behind your metrics with an eye for the long-term.

Eric Davis