Table of Content
What is Shopify Analytics?
Shopify Analytics is the reporting area inside your Shopify admin. It shows sales, orders, traffic, customers, products and inventory, and you can open reports or build your own views. Shopify says its main analytics features are available on every plan. To go further, many stores build dashboards that combine Shopify data with ad and web analytics numbers.
The short version
- Start with nine dashboards, each built around one question, such as “What sold today?” or “What will we run out of?”
- Shopify Analytics is free with your store. Its main features come with every plan, and what you see can vary by plan, so check your own admin.
- Native reports cover the basics. Use Google Analytics 4 for traffic detail and a BI tool when you need to join store, ad and finance data.
- Watch the inventory tiles. Shopify shows sell-through rate, days of inventory remaining and ABC grades on the Products page.
- Define each number once. Agree what counts as a sale, a refund and a repeat customer before you chart anything.
- Need a custom setup? Our Shopify development services team builds reports and integrations for stores.
What you get in Shopify Analytics, and where it stops
Shopify Analytics gives you a dashboard of headline numbers, a library of reports and tools to explore data and save your own metrics. Shopify says its main features are available on any plan, though the page does not spell out which reports belong to which plan, so look at your own Analytics menu to see what you have.
Shopify’s reports focus on what happens in your store. They are less suited to questions that cross systems, such as “Which ad campaign brought the customers who came back three times?” For that, teams join Shopify data with ad platforms and web analytics in a spreadsheet or business intelligence tool. Shopify also offers its own query language, ShopifyQL, for custom reports, and availability can depend on your plan.
9 Shopify analytics dashboards to build
Each dashboard answers one question. You can build the simple ones from Shopify’s own reports and the bigger ones in a BI tool. The first three give most stores the biggest return.
1. Daily sales pulse
Question: How is today compared with a normal day?
Show: Total sales, orders, average order value and conversion rate, each against the same weekday last week. Add sales by hour and by channel.
Why it helps: It tells you in seconds whether something broke or a campaign worked.
Choose it if you check the store every morning. Watch for reacting to one slow day. Look at the trend before you change anything.
2. Traffic and acquisition
Question: Where do visitors come from, and which sources turn into orders?
Show: Sessions, orders and conversion rate by source, such as search, social, email and direct. Add new against returning visitors.
Why it helps: It shows which channels deserve more budget. Compare it with Google Analytics, because tools count visits differently. Our guide to the most important metrics in Google Analytics explains the numbers.
Choose it if you spend money on more than one channel. Watch for untagged links. Use consistent UTM tags so campaigns are not lumped into direct traffic.
3. Conversion funnel
Question: Where do shoppers drop out?
Show: Sessions, product page views, add to cart, reached checkout and purchase, with the drop-off rate between each step. Split by device.
Why it helps: A big drop between cart and checkout points to shipping costs or a slow checkout, and a drop before the cart points to product pages. Our conversion rate optimization team uses this view to pick tests.
Choose it if traffic is healthy but sales are flat. Watch for small sample sizes. Do not judge a step on a few dozen visits.
4. Product performance
Question: Which products earn the money, and which just take up space?
Show: Revenue and units by product, margin if you track cost, sell-through rate and refunds. Shopify’s Products page also grades variants A, B and C by revenue, with A covering about 80% of revenue.
Why it helps: It shows where to focus ads, bundles and stock.
Choose it if you have more than a few dozen products. Watch for ignoring returns. A best seller with high refunds may not be a winner.
5. Inventory health
Question: What will we run out of, and what is not moving?
Show: Days of inventory remaining, which Shopify calculates as units left divided by average daily units sold, and sell-through rate, which is units sold divided by units sold plus units left. Add stock on hand and incoming purchase orders.
Why it helps: It turns stock levels into decisions about reorders and markdowns. Our guide to fixing inventory management challenges covers the process side.
Choose it if you sell physical products. Watch for new products with no history. They need a different rule than established ones.
6. Customer and repeat purchase
Question: Are customers coming back?
Show: New against returning customers, repeat purchase rate, time between orders and a cohort table that tracks each month’s new customers over time.
Why it helps: Repeat buyers are cheaper to earn than new ones. A cohort view shows whether changes to email, shipping or products improve loyalty.
Choose it if you want growth without raising ad spend. Watch for blending guests and accounts. Decide how to count a customer who checks out as a guest.
7. Marketing and campaign return
Question: Which campaigns pay back?
Show: Ad spend, revenue from each campaign, return on ad spend and cost to win a customer, from your ad platforms joined to Shopify orders.
Why it helps: Platforms often report their own credit for a sale. A dashboard that uses store orders as the source of truth keeps everyone honest.
Choose it if you run paid ads or influencer campaigns. Watch for different attribution windows. Write the rule on the dashboard.
8. Discounts, refunds and margin
Question: Are we giving away profit?
Show: Gross sales, discounts, returns, net sales, and gross margin where cost data exists. Break discounts out by code and by campaign.
Why it helps: Heavy discounting can lift revenue while lowering profit. This view makes the trade-off clear.
Choose it if you run frequent sales. Watch for missing cost data. Add product costs in Shopify so margin can be calculated.
9. Finance and payouts
Question: Does the money in the bank match the sales we recorded?
Show: Sales, taxes, shipping, fees and payouts by period, with a list of differences to review.
Why it helps: It speeds up month-end close. Our guide to payment reconciliation automation shows how to match payouts to orders.
Choose it if you reconcile Shopify with accounting software. Watch for timing gaps. Payouts arrive after the sale, so compare matching periods.
The ecommerce KPIs behind these dashboards
These ecommerce KPIs are the numbers to chart in Shopify analytics reports and in any Shopify reporting tool you add.
| Metric | How to calculate it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion rate | Orders divided by sessions | How well traffic turns into sales |
| Average order value | Net sales divided by orders | How much a typical order is worth |
| Repeat purchase rate | Customers with 2 or more orders divided by all customers | How loyal customers are |
| Sell-through rate | Units sold divided by units sold plus units left | How fast stock moves |
| Days of inventory remaining | Units left divided by average units sold per day | How long stock will last |
| Return on ad spend | Revenue from ads divided by ad spend | Whether ads earn more than they cost |
| Refund rate | Refunded sales divided by gross sales | Product or expectation problems |
Shopify Analytics compared with Google Analytics
The two tools answer different questions, and most stores use both. Do not expect their numbers to match exactly, because they define sessions, users and sales differently.
| Question | Shopify Analytics | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Sales, orders and refunds | Best source, it reads from your orders | Depends on tracking setup |
| Product and inventory data | Built in | Not designed for it |
| Traffic behavior and paths | Basic | Deeper, with explorations |
| Cost | Included with your store | Free standard version |
| Joining ad and store data | Limited | Possible with connectors |
Shopify analytics tools: where to build custom dashboards
- Shopify’s own reports and saved metrics. Free and fast to start, with limits on joining outside data.
- Looker Studio or Google Sheets. Good for small teams that want a free layer on top of exports or connectors.
- A BI tool such as Power BI. Best when you join several sources and want shared, governed dashboards. Our business intelligence dashboard services team builds these.
- A custom data pipeline. For larger stores, a warehouse and an ongoing sync give you full control. See our ecommerce development services.
If you want help tracking the right numbers from launch, our guide to Shopify store setup steps covers the basics, and our overview of AI tools for Shopify shows where automation can save reporting time.
A simple weekly review routine
- Check the daily pulse for sudden changes in sales, orders or conversion.
- Review the funnel for the biggest drop and note one fix to test.
- Look at products and inventory for stockouts coming and slow movers to bundle or discount.
- Check campaigns and move budget toward the ones that pay back.
- Review customers and repeat rate once a month, and compare against the last cohort.
- Write down one action for each dashboard, with an owner and a date.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Shopify Analytics?
Shopify Analytics is the built-in reporting section of your Shopify admin. It shows sales, orders, traffic, customers, products and inventory, and it lets you open reports and build your own metrics. Shopify says its main features are available on any plan.
Is Shopify Analytics free?
Yes. Shopify Analytics is part of your store, and Shopify says its main features are available on any subscription plan. Some reports and tools can vary by plan, so check what appears in your own Analytics menu.
Is Google Analytics better than Shopify Analytics?
Neither is better in every case. Shopify Analytics is the better source for orders, products and inventory. Google Analytics 4 shows more about how visitors move around your site. Most stores use both and compare trends.
What is a Shopify analytics dashboard?
It is a page that brings together the key numbers for your store, such as sales, orders, conversion rate and top products. You can use the dashboard in your Shopify admin, or build a custom one in a tool such as Looker Studio or Power BI.
Why do Shopify and Google Analytics show different numbers?
They count differently. Shopify reads actual orders, while Google Analytics depends on tracking code, consent settings and browser behavior. Use Shopify for sales totals and Google Analytics for traffic trends, and compare direction, not exact matches.
Which Shopify metrics matter most?
Start with conversion rate, average order value, repeat purchase rate, sell-through rate and return on ad spend. Together they show whether you attract the right traffic, convert it, keep customers and manage stock and spending.
Can I see inventory reports in Shopify?
Yes. The Products page shows an analytics bar with sell-through rate, days of inventory remaining and ABC analysis. Each tile opens a detailed report. Check your admin to see which inventory reports you have on your plan.
What is ShopifyQL?
ShopifyQL is Shopify’s query language for analytics. It lets you write custom queries to build reports and metrics beyond the standard ones. Availability can depend on your plan, so check Shopify’s documentation.
Do I need a paid analytics app for Shopify?
Not at the start. Shopify’s own reports and Google Analytics cover most needs for a small store. Consider an app or BI tool when you need to join ad, finance and store data, or when reports take too long to build by hand.
How often should I check my Shopify dashboard?
Glance at a daily sales pulse each morning, review funnel and campaigns weekly, and look at customer and cohort trends monthly. Checking too often can lead you to react to normal ups and downs.
Bottom Line
You do not need a dozen dashboards. Start with the daily pulse, the funnel and the inventory view, define each number once and review them on a schedule. Add campaign and repeat-customer views when the basics work.
If you want custom reporting or integrations for your store, explore our Shopify development services.
