The Ultimate Guide to Shopify Reports: Understanding Your Data

Sales conversion rate (CVR)

One of the most crucial parameters for any business is the conversion rate. It is calculated from the number of visitors who bought items out of the total number of visitors from the website.

When conversions stay at a certain fixed level, it is normal. The best situation is if conversions increase over time. Significant drops in conversions signal problems with the website. It might be a good sign to ensure your site works properly.

Here is the formula for this metric:

CVR = [# of Purchases] ÷ [# of Sessions]

Usually, the report shows a certain coefficient value as a result. If it is more convenient for the user to use the percentage ratio, the result is multiplied by 100.

Average order value (AOV)

This metric helps to assess users’ paying capabilities. You can set realistic expectations for new customers and adjust your strategy, knowing how much clients can spend.

Here is the formula for this metric:

AOV = [Total revenue] ÷ [Total Number of Orders]

Average order value shows business owners how much, on average, customers spend on one order.

Customer lifetime value (CLV or CLTV)

Customer lifetime value describes the total revenue a business could expect from a single customer during their lifetime. The lifetime in question is when the user will consistently shop at your store.

This metric helps business owners analyze the value of a customer to business. With it, you may determine how much you can safely spend on customer acquisition and still make a profit.

Here is the formula for this metric:

CLV = [Average Value of a Purchase ] × [# of Times the Customer Will Buy Each Year] × [Average Length of the Customer Relationship (in Years)]

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

This metric lets owners understand how much bringing in a new client costs. It is based on the sums spent on advertising and the number of new clients. Check this parameter regularly to ensure it stays within your CLV or even get closer to it.

Here is the formula for this metric:

CAC = [Amount Spent on Marketing] ÷ [# of New Customers]

Refund Rate

The refund rate is a one-order metric that acts as a quality assurance measure. It shows how often clients file for refunds.

Knowing which products are not meeting customer expectations may be crucial for a store’s growth. Shop owners can remove these products from the catalog, restructure ads, or adjust pricing.

Shopify Acquisition Reports

You should work with acquisition reports to analyze data about store visitors over a certain period. The time users spend on the site helps to understand the extent to which visitors are interested in cooperating with the store.

Acquisition reports include the following reports:

• Sessions Over Time Report

  This report shows and analyzes information about the number of visitors and sessions to the Shopify store over a while. Also, the number of sessions is presented on the graph.

• Sessions by Referrer Report

  This report contains information about visitors' sources to enter the store site. It is easy to see if visitors are coming from a search, through a referral, or directly to a store.

• Sessions by Location Report

  This report provides information about the location of visitors who visit the store.

These reports help to increase visitor engagement by understanding where they live and how they interact with the website.

Shopify Marketing Reports

Marketing strategies work based on how many customers show interest in the product. Reports help you see your progress. You can find out where your sales are coming from, like social media or search engines.

These reports show how many visitors end up buying your goods. They are useful because they give you a clear view of your marketing and where it can be improved. The main benefit of these reports is that they offer deep insight into your marketing efforts and allow you to identify areas for improvement.

Shopify Behavior Reports

Behavior reports are instrumental in comprehending the interaction patterns of customers and visitors. They reveal what customers search for, the pages they visit, and their ease of navigation, among other aspects. These reports provide insights into customer behavior and the store's user experience.

Shopify makes a data import from a store database and offers built-in reports that will show the following:

• The most popular searches and recommendations in online stores. Top online store searches Report, Top online store searches with no results Report, Top online store searches with no clicks Report, Top products with low recommendation click rate Report, Product recommendations conversions over time Report.
• Online Store Conversions Over Time Report. Business owners should use this report to explore the session's performance during which store visitors made a purchase (regardless of purchase size).
• Information about sessions and their results. Sessions by device Report, Sessions by landing page, Search conversions over time.
• Online Store Speed Reports. Business owners should use it to monitor how the store performs when visitors use it. Website speed is one of the important things that can help increase the ranking of your store in the eyes of the buyer.
• Information about the cart. Online store cart analysis report.

Shopify Order Reports

These reports provide information about orders placed in the store. The entrepreneur will be able to import the data from his store and monitor the status of orders and the state of their execution. Reports included in this category:

• Product Orders and Returns Report. These are your best sellers and products that get returned more often.
• Fulfillment, Shipping, and Delivery Times. Reports that show fulfillment, shipping, and delivery times details.
• Shipping labels. The details about shipping labels.
• Order overtime report. Orders received at a particular time frame.

Shopify Finances Reports

Financial reports import the data from the store database to deliver insights on payments, sales, actual profits, accounting, and liabilities. These reports offer critical data on net sales, shopify gross sales, returns, and discounts used during checkout. They also provide details on the store's payment transactions over specific periods and other vital information concerning cash flow.

In general, all financial reports can be divided into categories depending on what they describe:

• Income - Total sales Shopify Report, Gross profit, Gross sales report, Shopify Net sales report
• Sales - Total sales Report, Sales over time Report, Gross sales report, Net sales report, Net sales with cost, Net sales without cost.
• Liabilities - Discounts, Gift card sales report, Gift card balance.
• Goods - Cost of goods sold Report
• Payments - Payments, Payment by type, Gross payments by month
• Shipping report
• Returns report
• The summary report - Dashboard that displays the most needed information about finances. This report is shown in the picture below.

Shopify Profit Reports

To analyze products that are making revenue, you should learn Profit reports. Shopify automatically calculates the profit made on selling goods. Business owners should only enter their cost and price when items are added.

Shopify offers these reports:

• Profit by product report - Shopify sales by product shows products, profit made on selling them, and margin.
• Profit by product variant SKU - is more detailed sales by product Shopify report because each product variant shows profit.

Shopify Sales Reports

Product sales information should be presented as a separate type of report that would help business owners track customer orders. The difference between Sales Reports and Order Reports is that They describe not only the order itself but also what discount was received, how much profit the purchase made, how much shipping cost, and how much the returned orders cost. It is comfortable to watch a dashboard on sales information filtered by different criteria in reports:

• By Billing location
• By Channel
• By Client name
• By Discount
• By Item
• By Item variant SKU
• By Item vendor
• By Traffic referrer
• Sales over time
• Average order value over time

Also, reports display or export key metrics such as average order value, gross sales, and net sales.

Shopify Customers Reports

Understanding your customers lets you adapt the store to their requirements. By tracking the frequency of purchases, it is easy to evaluate the purchasing power of users and adjust your business development strategy based on the behavior of visitors. Customer reports display and export information about users, their location, and how often they visit the store.

Reports proposed by Shopify:

• “Customer cohort analysis”;
• “Clients by location” helps to analyze which regions the store is more popular in and adjust the business strategy to the specifics of this territory;
• “Clients by predicted spend tier” shows how much the user has already spent in the store and predicts how much more he can spend;
• “Clients over time”;
• “First-time vs returning customer sales” shows the ratio of users who used the store's services for the first time and those who returned;
• “One-time customers” shows how much users spent on their first purchase in the store. This report allows you to understand how high the store's reputation is among visitors;
• “Returning clients”.

Shopify Tax reports

Taxes are an important part of all businesses, so Shopify offers two tax reports for the USA and all other countries. The store owners are responsible for filing and remitting taxes for business. Shopify won’t do this by itself. But reports will help keep track of the amount needed to pay the government.

Tax reports are a type of Financial report, so they are available in Analytics => Finances.

Before generating Tax reports, business owners should set up general information about levies: click “Settings” in the bottom-left corner and then click “Taxes and duties”.

Shopify Inventory Reports

Inventory reports are essential for monitoring the shop’s inventory. Reports from Shopify can help you identify goods that need restocking, find items with higher sales, and develop strategies for optimal inventory management.

• Average Inventory Sold Per Day. It shows the average number of goods sold daily from the store’s inventory;
• Month-end Inventory Snapshot. It shows the amount of each item variant remaining in inventory at the end of the month;
• Product Sell-Through Rate. It helps owners understand how many items from inventory were sold during a certain time frame;
• Days of Inventory Remaining. It estimates how long the current inventory is expected to last. The result is based on your average sales figures for each option and how much inventory you have left;
• Percentage of Inventory Sold. It shows the percentage of each product option sold from the total stock quantity;
• ABC Analysis by Product. It uses the Pareto principle to place products into three categories based on popularity.