Reliable reporting is the key to developing a foolproof e-commerce and digital marketing strategy. But where to start?

There are a wealth of analytics and reporting tools across your marketing mix, each with its own purpose and benefits. When you’re analysing e-commerce performance though, there’s no place better to look than at the source: with no data discrepancies or competing attribution.

From a rich library of pre-built reports, plus myriad ways to customise or create from scratch reports that fit your business needs, ensure your business is set up for success by taking advantage of Shopify’s powerful reporting and analytics. Read on to find out which reports we use most for our e-commerce clients.

Sales over time

Fundamental to every e-commerce business is sales. Sales over time reporting allows you to analyse your business growth at a macro level:

• Are you selling more than you did this time last year? What about last month?
• How have sales trends established or changed over the years?
• When are your peak sales periods? When do sales tend to dip?
• Which day or week of the month do you tend to generate the most revenue?
• How do different promotion types affect overall sales?

The answers to each of these questions will determine marketing budget and resource planning, discount and promotion strategies, as well as smart targets for growth.

First time vs returning customers

As well as sales, we want to see your audience growing. Typically broken down into first time vs returning customers, the relative in/decrease in each audience segment can help establish your most pressing marketing priorities.

• Is your customer base growing?
• When do you tend to acquire the most new customers?
• How long does it typically take to turn a first time customer into a returning customer? Is that journey enhanced by email automation or ads retargeting?
• Are your customers coming back to purchase a second time? At what rate?
• Is new customer acquisition dropping off beyond seasonal expectations?
  • Are your ads performing optimally? Is your ad budget sufficient?
  • What are you doing to generate brand awareness?
  • Is your site optimised for conversions?
  • Do you use onsite reviews and social proof to demonstrate trust?
• Are your existing customers returning less than usual?
  • How is your email subscriber growth? Does your email strategy need to be reviewed?
  • How are you incentivising customers to return, i.e. with loyalty benefits or referral rewards?

Gross profit breakdown

Keeping a close eye on gross profit & margin ensures your revenue growth and marketing activity is grounded in and informed by profitability. Monitoring these reports regularly

• First of all, are you actually turning a profit?
• Beyond Shopify, is your profit covering your business overheads?
• Is excessive or generic discounting eating into your margins?
• Are there particular vendors, product types or variants which contribute most (or least) to your profitability?
  • The answer should inform onsite merchandising, sales promotions and ads priorities, as well as conversations about ongoing product viability

For profit reporting to be effective, you must have accurate cost information against your products.

Shopify Sidekick

AI-powered insights straight from the Shopify admin. Ideal for ultra-specific, one off analysis - where setting up a custom report could be fiddly or time-consuming. Chats with Sidekick are saved to your admin, so can be reread or revisited as required, and are a great jumping off point for your own further investigation or personal analysis.

Reporting for success

Can't make heads or tails of your digital marketing and website performance? Unsure of how to take your performance to the next level? Contact us today for an exploration call with our expert, in-house digital marketing team.