We don’t know your experience as a store owner, but studying always continues. If you are new to Shopify, this article will be informative. But if you are an experienced Shopify store owner, don’t get upset; we have something interesting for you, too. Understanding what reports are and what they are will be interesting for those who meet them for the first time. And understanding their value and when they should be used is important for everyone.
What are Shopify professional reports?
Reports are the best way to understand how your enterprise works. In real life, they are tables with data representing the result of your store’s activity. Each table collects data about an object of your trade or the area of operation of your store. You can find all Shopify reports in your online store in the tab “Analytics => Reports”.”
After you open this tab, you will see a huge number of reports – 76. Don’t be afraid; these are only basic reports. But seriously, you don’t have to worry about not understanding why you need so many reports. Above all reports, you can find a drop-down list named “Categories”. If you open this list, you will see the categories that all these reports are divided into:
- Customers,
- Finances,
- Sales,
- Orders,
- Sales,
- Inventory and some others.
You can choose one or several categories, and only those reports that belong to these categories will remain visible to you. Let’s choose Sales Reports. Some of them will separate sales according to some features. For example, Sales by Product shows you how much you earned from selling each product. But some of them show general sales results. For example, Shopify’s monthly sales report shows your store’s monthly sales figures.
As you saw in the example, each report has its place, and it is easier to deal with them by working with separate categories. It is worth adding that dashboards are offered to help you in addition to reports. Returning to the same Sales Reports, you can use the Shopify sales dashboard, which visualizes all your sales data. The main task of dashboards is to convert many numbers into graphics.
The article about Shopify reports describes all types of reports in very detail. But today, we want to look at the reports from another point of view. If you have only started your business, reports will help you divide the management of your store into several directions by report type. Also, each direction has its KPIs, usually displayed in Shopify reports. So you will know which indicators you need to monitor to keep your finger on the pulse.
We don’t know your experience as a store owner, but studying always continues and websites such as www.ronins.co.uk can assist.
Symptoms that you still need to use reports
Sometimes, you don’t have time to check the store’s analytics every night. Or you don’t think it’s important. However, the main thing is not to miss the moment when it is worth checking the store’s results. Here, we offer several situations that testify to this:
- You do not know how much profit the store brings
This means that your store’s turnover is high. However, to avoid losing customers, you should follow the analytics results. Also, you need to know how much your store has made to allocate revenue correctly to consider all needs.
Solution: Profit Margin Reports and Finance Reports
- You do not know how many products you have in stock
Such a situation is difficult to imagine, but it is still possible. Your stock is still your money. If you do not sell these goods, you will receive losses. Not knowing how many more units you can sell can lead to a critical situation of a lack of goods in stock or excess.
Solution: Inventory Reports
- The number of orders has decreased for no apparent reason
This indicates a lack of analysis of product popularity. Buyers like something more or something less. You can lose your audience and customers if you do not know which product is worth promoting.
Solution: Behavior Reports, Customer Reports, and Marketing Reports.
- You don’t know how many orders you need to prepare for shipment.
This is probably the most dangerous situation. Then, you should definitely refer to the report; it will show how many orders are in the “Pending” status.
Solution: Orders Reports
You don’t have to follow the metrics in real time, but it is worth checking occasionally to see whether everything is within the norm. Generally speaking, the main task of reports is to provide the owner with information so that he can make decisions about his business.
This is similar to a small study: an experiment is conducted for a certain time, then the results are checked and their compliance with expectations, then actions are corrected, and the experiment is continued. And so in a circle. If you remove the verification of the results from this plan, you may not reach the goal.
Dashboards are the report’s best friends
Why? Because they make them beautiful. And this is not a joke. Big tables with numbers are very informative, but it is difficult to understand whether the results are good or bad. The dashboard immediately shows whether sales have increased or fallen in a week.
Usually, dashboards are not one graph but several with different indicators to give you an overall picture. For example, when you open the “Home”, “Analytics”, or “Marketing” tab, the first thing you will see is dashboards.
Financial Reports has a special Summary dashboard. It does not have graphs, only indicators and their values. This might seem inconvenient, but believe me, it is not. This dashboard displays information about Sales, Payments, Gross Profit, and Liabilities together. So you don’t need to check all the reports every evening. You only need to check this dashboard.
Conclusion
Reports are the part of your store that provides information and allows you to plan for the store’s future. Making decisions based on reliable information is fully realized if indicators are checked in time.
You can use dashboards linked to reports to facilitate the perception of information and its comprehensibility. However, you should always remember that dashboards and reports are powerless if you do not adjust the store’s management based on the results.
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