What is Weekly Active Users?

The Weekly Active Users (WAU) metric is used in ecommerce and digital media to measure user engagement within a one-week time frame. A user is considered to be ‘active’ if they perform any actionable event within the platform, such as opening an app, posting a comment, making a purchase, or even just logging in. The WAU metric offers a micro-level view of user engagement, making it useful for assessing the immediate impact of marketing or product updates.

Formula

WAU is calculated by counting the number of unique users who performed an activity in the platform within a seven-day rolling period.

Example

If, for instance, a retailer’s website attracts 500 individual users who execute at least one task during a specific week, the Weekly Active Users (WAU) for that week is 500.

Why is WAU important?

Weekly Active Users (WAU) is a critical ecommerce metric because it provides insight into the size of a platform’s active user base over a shorter timeframe than Monthly Active Users (MAU). It helps businesses understand their user engagement pattern on a week-by-week basis, which is particularly valuable in the rapidly changing world of ecommerce. Moreover, it lets businesses measure the immediate impact of any changes made and aids in designing strategies for improved user engagement.

Which factors impact WAU?

Improving WAU is largely about increasing user engagement. This may involve enhancing the user experience, creating compelling content, offering promotions, or improving customer service. Regular performance reviews and making necessary adjustments based on insights derived from user behaviour can also positively impact WAU.

How can WAU be improved?

Various factors impact WAU, including product quality, user experience, marketing and promotional activities, platform usability, customer service, and product pricing. Additionally, external factors like market trends, competition, seasonality, and economic factors could also influence WAU.

What is WAU’s relationship with other metrics?

WAU is closely related to other user engagement metrics like Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU). The ratio of DAU to WAU, also known as stickiness, is a measure of how frequently users are engaging with your platform within a week.