Why Sales by Product Type Report is Important
Product sales reports can be considered as a highly important management tool for sales managers. They can use it to get a better understanding of sales variances and trends within a specific time range.
The summary on product types sales shows the breakdown of key financial metrics for products. This detailed data can be analyzed directly by numbers or transformed into powerful charts for easy spotting of trends.
The functionality of this reporting tool allows seeing the progressions in key sales indicators contrasted with earlier time periods.
Using the default configuration of this report, a store manager can obtain data on the general sales of product types available in the store. The information is offered by displaying such columns as the number of orders, net quantity, gross, net, and total sales.
With the help of filtering functionality, the displayed data can be made more representative of the needs of a particular task. For example, a store manager, in addition to the product type, can see product variants, product names, or SKUs. Such information can be useful for inventory planning and marketing purposes.
What Questions Can Be Answered with Sales by Product Type Document
This type of summary pulls the sales data on product types in a convenient format of a list. This can be a starting point for getting a high-level overview of item sales in a store.
The document can be used as a part of in-store standard business practice for improving product decisions and tracking sales performance. With the data it provides, important trends on sales have higher chances to be noticed.
The data displayed in this summary can be used to answer such questions as:
- What is the number of orders for each product type within the specified time period?
- What is the quantity of items sold of each product type within a given time range?
- How to see the sales data on exact products, product variants, and SKUs for each product type?
- What are the key sales indicators (gross, net sales) for each product type?
- How many refunds does each product type have?
- What product types do customers prefer to purchase using discount codes?
- What discount codes and their marketing campaigns bring the most sales for each product type?
- What is the average discount value for every product type sold in a store?
Expand this list of answers you may get on your sales by using additional data columns and data filters.
Key Sales Indicators in a Report
Use the data on product type sales that is provided by the Advanced Reports app to be informed on key sales metrics. Expand it with additional columns to get a detailed view. For example, expand the report with the columns for product variants and SKUs.
Track the number of orders and ordered items, gross and net sales, within the chosen time period. Get a sales overview output for product types by having such data as:
- Number of orders
- Taxes
- Discounts
- Refunds
- Gross and net sales
Use these columns to get a glance at the current financial and fulfillment statuses for each order within the selected dates.
Reports Similar to Sales by Product Type
When viewing sales data from another scope, significant sales and inventory trends can be recognized. The summary can be made more informative when switching time periods and comparing data between time ranges.
This tool allows generating a report with more options than simply modifying time periods. Generate the report on sales based on other factors available in the store database.
In conjunction with the variant sales, a store manager can often use such summaries as:
- Sales by Variant: See both the variants that are selling the best and the variants that are not selling at all. Keep your inventory according to the variant sales.
- Sales by Collection: Get a detailed breakdown of sales split by product collection. It is another way to look at sales in a store besides the direct sales by product or sales by variant reports.
- Sales by Vendor > Product > Variant: Similar to the Sales by Vendor report, but more detailed. The report is sorted by vendor, product, and variant.
- Sales by Product Tag: A simple report that shows sales data based on the product tags. Tags are keywords used for identification of salable items and sorting them in a way it is done with collections and types.
Key Columns for Sales by Product Type
The default table with the data on product type sales consists of such columns as:
- PRODUCTS Product Type
- ORDERS Number of orders
- ORDER ITEMS Net Quantity
- ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales
- ORDER ITEMS Discounts
- REFUND ITEMS Returns
- ORDER ITEMS Net Sales
- ORDER ITEMS Tax
- ORDERS Shipping
- ORDER ITEMS Total Sales
An executive manager is totally free to exclude any of the existing columns from the report or add several additional ones. Simply choose available columns from the list.
Here is how some of the key columns in the default report are calculated:
-
ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales: The final column of the default report is calculated through the price and quantity.
[ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales] = [PRODUCT VARIANTS Price] × [ORDER ITEMS Quantity]
If taxes are included, then the formula for Gross Sales transforms to:
[ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales] = [PRODUCT VARIANTS Price] × [ORDER ITEMS Quantity] – [ORDER ITEMS Tax]
-
ORDER ITEMS Net Sales: The net sales column of the default report is calculated through gross sales, discounts, and refunds.
[ORDER ITEMS Net Sales] = [ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales] - [ORDERS Discounts] – [REFUNDS Returns]
-
ORDERS Shipping: The shipping fees are obtained from the total shipping price and amount.
[ORDERS Shipping] = [ORDERS Shipping amount] - [ORDER ADJUSTMENTS Total Shipping Amount]
-
ORDER ITEMS Total Sales: Get the sum of total sales calculated as:
[ORDERS Total Sales] = [ORDERS Net Sales] + [ORDERS Shipping] + [ORDERS Tax]
Variations of Sales by Product Type Report
You can get another view on sales beside the product type sales. Using variations of the default report, a store expert can obtain a clearer insight into the shop’s business performance.
One of the easiest ways to get a glance at the business success is to compare a specific date range to the previous period.
Using filters and sorting options, you can get answers to some other questions regarding sales. Here are some examples of the report variations.
How to See Sales by Location
You can easily see the sales data for each sale day with the data on the geographical distribution of customers.
See in which provinces, cities, and countries you have the most or least purchases.
How to See Customer’s Lifetime Value
It is well known that existing customers cost the store less than attracting a new one. Depending on the purchases each customer makes, he sets his individual value for a store.
You can easily see the customer lifetime value with the CUSTOMERS CLV data column. Use it to monitor signs of shoppers attrition in your store.
How to See Gross Margin in Percent
Gross margin is one of the parameters for the business performance, which shows how much financial funds the store retains. The higher this indicator is, the more capital is available to pay for other costs.
See the gross margin in percent by activating a corresponding column.
[ORDERS Gross Margin, %] = ([ORDERS Net Sales] - [ORDERS COGS]) ÷ [ORDERS Net Sales] × 100
The result is rounded to two numbers after the comma sign. If the calculation result is negative, the report shows zero value in the table.
How to See the Total Cost of Ordered Items
The total cost of ordered items in the order is calculated as:
[ORDER ITEMS Total Cost] = [ORDER ITEMS Quantity] × [INVENTORY ITEMS Cost]
How to See What Type of Customer Made the Order
A store can have either new or recurring customers, and the latter are preferable. Merchants can easily see what types of customers buy in their stores within the ORDERS Customer Type column.
In case the date of the customer’s first order is equal to the order processing date, then the customer is considered a first-time buyer. Otherwise, he is assigned to a Returning type. If the report cannot detect customer IDs, it will display the Unknown value.
How to Get Total Shipping Price for Partial Items
For each order, get the shipping price calculation:
[ORDER ITEMS Total Shipping Price] = [ORDERS Shipping Price] ÷ [ORDER FACTS Quantity] × [ORDER ITEMS Quantity]
How to Get Total Sales for Orders
Get the sum of total sales calculated as:
[ORDERS Total Sales] = [ORDERS Net Sales] + [ORDERS Shipping] + [ORDERS Tax]
The ORDERS Net Sales are obtained as:
[ORDERS Net Sales] = [ORDERS Gross Amount] - [ORDERS Discounts] - [REFUNDS Returns]
The ORDERS Shipping is obtained as:
[ORDERS Shipping] = [ORDERS Shipping amount] - [ORDER ADJUSTMENTS Total Shipping Amount]
The ORDERS Shipping is obtained as:
[ORDERS Tax] = [ORDERS Taxes] – [REFUND ITEMS Total Tax Amount]
