Sales by Variant Report

Why the Sales by Variant report is important

The summary on variant sales shows the breakdown of revenue and expenses for products on a more granular level than a sales by product report.

The functionality of this reporting tool allows seeing the progressions in key sales indicators contrasted with earlier time periods.

The default configuration of this report offers data on general sales of products and their variants. The information is provided by displaying columns such as the number of orders, gross sales, discounts.

Filters can be used to make the data more representative of your needs. For example, you can see product variants by their name or SKUs. Such information can be useful for inventory planning and marketing purposes.

What questions the summary on sales by variant can answer

This type of summary pulls a list of products sold in a more detailed manner – by the variant name or SKU. Start from this report to get a high-level overview of sales on items.

By default, the document does not include shipping, as the data is viewed at the product level. The data it displays can be used to answer such questions as:

• what number of orders each product variant has for the specified time period
• see what SKU has the most sales and what SKU has the least sales
• what are the key sales indicators (gross, net sales) for each product variant
• how many refunds does each variant have
• what product variant do customers purchase with discounts

Expand this list of answers you may get on your sales by using additional data columns and data filters.

Key sales indicators in the report

Use the data on variant sales provided by the Advanced Reports app to be informed on key metrics. Expand it with additional columns to get a detailed view. For example, you can see product variants by name and SKU.

Track the number of orders, gross and net sales, total quantity within the chosen time period. Sales overview output for each sales day displays data such as:

• Number of orders
• Taxes
• Discounts
• Refunds
• Gross, net sales

Use these columns to glance at the current financial and fulfillment statuses for each order within the selected dates.

Reports similar to Sales by Variant

In case the sales data must be tracked from another scope, the reporting tool allows switching time periods and comparing data between time ranges.

When generating this report, you are not limited to modifying the report exclusively by time periods. Generate the report on sales based on other factors that can be extracted from the store database.

In conjunction with the variant sales, a store manager can often use summaries such as:

• Sales Overview. It contains key sales indicators and can be used to determine when sales were best/worst for a specified time range.
• Sales by Day. Use it to see the information about the sales that occurred for every day within a specified time range.
• Sale by Hour. A convenient method to know the exact time when your store has the busiest hours. See the sales that occurred every hour.
• Sales by Year. Use it as a yearly summary of sales in your store and compare it with data for previous years.
• Sales by Channel. See what channels bring sales to your store. Get information on whether it is an offline POS or online store.
• Sales by Customer. Get more information on what customer types make your sales.
• Sales by Discount. See what marketing campaigns had the most success in your store.
• Sales by Product. Displays the information on purchases for each product name or SKU.
• Average Order Value Over Time. It shows how the average check has changed over a certain time period, for example, a month.
• Sales by Day of the Week. Quickly see which day of the week brings you the most orders.

Key columns for Sales by Variant

Typically, the table with the data on variant sales consists of columns such as:

• ORDER ITEMS Product Name
• ORDER ITEMS Variant Name
• ORDERS Number of orders
• ORDER ITEMS Total Quantity
• REFUND ITEMS Total Quantity
• REFUND ITEMS Total Amount
• ORDER ITEMS Total Discount
• ORDER ITEMS Total Net Amount
• ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales

You are totally free to exclude any of the existing columns from the report or add more ones. Simply choose the available columns from the list.

Here is how some of the key columns in the default report are calculated:

• ORDER ITEMS Total Net Amount. This column is calculated through the total amount of ordered and refunded items.

  [ORDER ITEMS Total Net Amount] = [ORDER ITEMS Total Amount] - [REFUND ITEMS Total Amount]

• ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales. The final column of the default report is calculated through the variant’s price and quantity.

  [ORDER ITEMS Gross Sales] = [PRODUCT VARIANTS Price] × [ORDER ITEMS Quantity]

Variations of the Sales by Variant report

You can get another view on sales besides the variant sales. Using variations of the default report, you can obtain a clearer insight into the business performance of your store.

One of the easiest ways to glance at the business's success is to compare a specific date range to a 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 geographic distribution of customers.

See what provinces, cities, and countries you have the most or least purchases.

[ORDERS Gross Margin, %] = ([ORDERS Net Sales] - [ORDERS COGS]) ÷ [ORDERS Net Sales] × 100

How to get details on sales transactions

The sales overview can be extended with the data columns on transactions. You can get information such as:

• Gateway from which the operation was made
• Source name of the transaction
• Current status of the transaction
• The type of the transaction (sales, refund)
• Creation timestamp
• Transaction total amount for each sale day

[ORDER ITEMS Total Cost] = [ORDER ITEMS Quantity] × [INVENTORY ITEMS Cost] 

[ORDER ITEMS Total Shipping Price] = [ORDERS Shipping Price] ÷ [ORDER FACTS Quantity] × [ORDER ITEMS Quantity]

[ORDERS Total Sales] = [ORDERS Net Sales] + [ORDERS Shipping] + [ORDERS Tax]

[ORDERS Net Sales] = [ORDERS Gross Amount] - [ORDERS Discounts] - [REFUNDS Returns]

[ORDERS Shipping] = [ORDERS Shipping amount] - [ORDER ADJUSTMENTS Total Shipping Amount]

[ORDERS Tax] = [ORDERS Taxes] – [REFUND ITEMS Total Tax Amount]