The Six Metrics Every Digital Business Will Need in 2026

Australia’s digital economy enters 2026 under a different set of pressures than those that supported growth over the past decade. Signals across payments, consumer behaviour, logistics, marketing, cloud infrastructure and regulation through 2025 point to an environment where revenue may still rise, but the economics underneath it are shifting.

Payments data from the Australian Payments Network shows card not present fraud increasing again, creating more work for risk teams, dispute handling and merchant operations. Digital advertising spend remains strong according to IAB Australia, yet surveys from AANA and ADMA show pressure on marketing budgets and growing uncertainty in attribution. Discovery behaviour is also changing. The rise of AI-driven search and recommendation tools means traditional SEO visibility is becoming less reliable, and businesses are beginning to focus on AI Engine Optimisation. This shift is altering both the cost and predictability of customer acquisition.

Retail associations continue to report persistent fulfilment and returns pressure, even in categories where demand is stable. Major bank spending trackers show more variable discretionary behaviour online. Cloud costs are rising. Gartner forecasts another step up in Australian cloud expenditure in 2025, and industry groups including AIIA and Ai Group point to increasing cybersecurity and compliance workloads that are becoming part of the fixed cost base.

Regulation and technology are moving as well. The expansion of the Consumer Data Right, progress on Digital ID and improvements in identity verification will change onboarding, payment authentication and customer switching. Open Banking maturity is expected to reduce verification friction in high-volume digital environments. AI-driven finance and risk tools are becoming standard, improving reconciliation, forecasting and anomaly detection. Event-level accounting platforms are emerging, which will influence how finance teams measure and interpret performance.

Taken together, these pressures mean traditional indicators like top-line growth, gross margin and a single CAC number no longer provide enough insight. Digital businesses need a scorecard that reflects how value is created, how behaviour is changing and where operational pressure is building. The framework below sets out a practical scorecard for 2026 based on the financial and operating signals now visible across Australia’s digital economy, including clearer measures of customer economics and cashflow that match the speed of modern digital businesses.

The 2026 Digital Scorecard: A Practical 2 by 3 Dashboard for CFOs

1. Revenue Stability

Revenue stability measures how durable and diversified revenue is, not just how fast it grows. Industry bodies point to the increasing importance of repeat customers, balanced channel exposure and full-price demand in periods of mixed consumer confidence.

How to calculate it

( + ) Revenue from subscriptions or repeat customers

( – ) Revenue dependence on a single channel

( – ) Promotional uplift as a proportion of total revenue

What to include

• mix of full-price vs discounted revenue

• share of revenue from durable segments

• channel concentration risk

Signs of pressure

• heavier reliance on promotion

• channel concentration increasing

• declining full-price mix

What leaders can adjust

• improve loyalty programs

• diversify acquisition channels

• strengthen pricing and product mix

2. Customer Cohort Behaviour

Cohort behaviour shows whether new customers behave with the same strength as earlier ones. Major bank spending data in 2025 shows more volatility across discretionary categories, making cohort analysis essential for accurate planning.

These signals reveal whether the engine is strengthening or weakening. For example, a drop in repeat rate in recent cohorts often appears months before headline revenue slows. Early disengagement can point to onboarding friction, weaker product-market fit or promotional contamination. Rising support load within specific cohorts can signal hidden cost-to-serve issues.

Cohort behaviour is one of the most important inputs into Revenue Stability, Cost to Deliver, True Margin and Acquisition Efficiency.

How to calculate

Start with a defined acquisition cohort (by month or quarter), then measure:

( + ) Percentage of customers who return

( + ) Frequency of purchases or usage per customer

( + ) Average spend per active customer

( – ) Percentage of customers who disengage early

What to include

• repeat purchase rate at 30, 60 and 90 days

• change in order frequency or usage intensity over time

• shift in average spend between early cohorts and recent cohorts

• early drop-off rate for discount-driven or incentive-driven customers

• comparison between strong cohorts and weak ones

Signs of pressure

• faster drop-off in recent cohorts

• stable traffic but weaker repeat behaviour

• incentive reliance to reactivate customers

What leaders can adjust

• refine onboarding

• remove friction from the customer journey

• shift marketing toward more durable customer sources

3. Cost to Deliver

Delivery economics capture the real margin after logistics, returns, transaction fees, cloud consumption and fraud. Retail associations consistently report that delivery expectations and returns volumes remain expensive to service.

How to calculate for (Ecommerce / Retail)

( + ) Revenue

( – ) Cost of Goods Sold

( – ) Delivery Costs

Delivery costs include:

• fulfilment

• freight and shipping

• returns handling

• platform and marketplace fees

• fraud impact

• transaction fees tied to delivery

How to calculate for (Tech / SaaS)

( + ) Revenue

( – ) Cost to Serve

( – ) Infrastructure Delivery Costs

Cost to Serve includes:

• cloud hosting

• storage and compute

• API usage

• authentication and security

• fraud screening

• customer support load

Signs of pressure

• returns increasing as a share of orders

• cloud costs rising faster than revenue

• growing fraud losses

What leaders can adjust

• renegotiate logistics or processing contracts

• strengthen fraud controls

• refine cloud cost management

• adjust SKU or product economics

4. True Margin

Contribution value tests whether products, segments or cohorts create economic value once variable costs are included. With rising cloud, compliance and fraud costs, contribution value is a clearer indicator of performance than gross margin.

How to calculate it (Ecommerce / Retail)

( + ) Revenue

( – ) Cost of Goods Sold

( – ) Fulfilment and Delivery Costs

( – ) Variable Revenue Costs

Variable revenue costs include:

• payment processing fees

• scheme fees

• fraud losses and chargebacks

• buy now pay later merchant fees

• platform or marketplace fees tied to revenue

• customer support costs driven by order volume

• promotions and discount leakage (if attributable to the cohort)

How to calculate it (Tech, SaaS, Payments, Platforms)

( + ) Revenue

( – ) Cost to Serve

( – ) Variable Revenue Costs

Signs of pressure

• popular segments delivering weak contribution

• higher support cost per user

• promotional buyers not converting into value

What leaders can adjust

• refine pricing

• improve product economics

• automate support

• tighten promotional rules

5. Customer Growth Yield

Customer Growth Yield shows whether new customers strengthen the business or weaken it. It blends customer economics and acquisition cost into one clear result. Instead of relying on CAC, ROAS or long-range LTV assumptions, this measure looks only at the True Margin generated in the first 120 days after acquisition. This is short enough to be practical and long enough to reveal economic quality.

How to calculate

True Margin from new cohorts in first 120 day

(÷) Acquisition cost for those same cohorts

A result above 1.0 means new customers are generating more margin than they cost to acquire.

A result below 1.0 means growth is consuming cash rather than creating it.

Baseline cohorts provide the comparison point. These are past cohorts that showed steady and representative economics. Leaders then track whether today’s new customers deliver equal or better economic value once the cost of acquiring them is included.

Signals of pressure

• early contribution from new customers falls below historical patterns

• acquisition cost rises faster than early True Margin

• early disengagement increases

• promotions inflate early activity but do not translate to economic value

• channels deliver weaker customers than baseline periods

What leaders can adjust

When Customer Growth Yield weakens, leaders typically need to act in one or more of these areas:

Revenue levers

• improve first-purchase average order value

• reduce discount reliance

• adjust price architecture on key products or plans

• optimise introductory offers to lift early-stage economics

Product and experience levers

• fix points of friction in onboarding or first-use

• improve product activation rates

• strengthen early-repeat nudges (email, in-app, SMS)

• simplify SKUs or plans to improve early-series purchase behaviour

Cost to deliver levers

• reduce fulfilment cost per unit

• negotiate lower payment processing fees

• tighten fraud rules that increase chargebacks and cost to serve

• simplify support workflows to reduce early engagement load

Acquisition levers

• shift spend toward channels delivering stronger cohorts

• pause channels producing poor-quality customers

• refine targeting to reduce wasted impressions and weak intent

• improve creative that drives higher-value acquisition rather than lower-cost volume

Customer Growth Yield gives leaders a clear, single view of whether the next dollar spent on growth creates value or erodes it. It replaces weak metrics like CAC and ROAS with something grounded in the actual economics of the customers entering the system.6. Cashflow Strength

6. Cashflow Velocity

Cashflow Strength measures how well the business converts its operating activity into available cash each month. It shows whether the model generates enough cash to fund growth, cover fixed costs and absorb volatility in acquisition performance. This metric focuses on cash conversion inside a short and predictable window rather than long-range projections.

Cashflow Velocity measures how quickly the business turns revenue into cash that can be reused. It captures the operating pace of the model using a rolling thirty-day window, which smooths seasonality and gives leaders a more accurate view than calendar-month reporting.

How to calculate

Operating cash inflows over the rolling 30-day period

(÷) Revenue recognised over the same period

A result above one means cash arrives faster than revenue is recognised. A result below one means cash is lagging revenue, increasing working capital pressure.

Signals of pressure

• slower settlements

• rising refund volumes

• longer fulfilment cycles

• subscription renewal gaps

• increased buffer stock

• delayed customer payments

What leaders can adjust

• negotiate shorter settlement cycles

• improve fulfilment speed

• simplify product range to reduce inventory drag

• tighten returns pathways

• strengthen subscription renewal prompts

• shift spend away from slow-paying channels

Cashflow Velocity gives leaders a forward-looking view of resilience. It reveals whether the business can fund its operating rhythm without relying on external capital.

Why This Scorecard Matters for 2026

The pressures visible through 2025 show that the economics of digital business are changing. Higher fraud losses, rising fulfilment and cloud costs, more variable consumer behaviour and shifts in how customers discover products are affecting performance in ways that traditional dashboards cannot capture. Regulatory changes including Open Banking, the Consumer Data Right and Digital ID, along with the rapid adoption of AI in finance and operations, will continue to reshape how digital businesses measure and manage performance.

The six-metric scorecard gives CFOs and executive teams a clearer read on the drivers of value. It links operational behaviour to financial outcomes and highlights pressure earlier, before it appears in revenue or cashflow. Metrics such as Growth Yield and Cashflow Velocity provide a more accurate picture of growth quality and resilience, using short cycles that match the pace of modern digital operations.

Businesses that adopt this approach will move into 2026 with better insight into revenue durability, customer behaviour, delivery efficiency, contribution strength, the economics of growth and the speed at which cash moves through the system. Those relying on headline numbers like CAC, ROAS or top-line revenue may find they are watching signals that no longer describe the realities shaping Australia’s digital economy.