Shopify Reports Explained: Which Ones Actually Matter

Shopify provides dozens of reports. Most merchants check sales, glance at traffic, and ignore the rest. This guide explains which reports matter, what they tell you, and how to use them for decisions.

Report Access by Plan

What Each Plan Gets

Basic Shopify:

• Live View
• Finances reports
• Acquisition reports
• Behavior reports (limited)
• Marketing reports (limited)

Shopify (Standard): Everything above plus:

• Detailed behavior reports
• Customer reports
• Inventory reports
• Orders reports

Advanced Shopify: Everything above plus:

• Custom report builder
• Product analytics
• Retail reports

Shopify Plus: All reports plus:

• Custom analytics
• Advanced custom reports

Where to Find Reports

Dashboard: Shopify Admin > Analytics

Full Reports: Analytics > Reports

The Reports That Matter Most

Sales Over Time

What it shows: Total sales by day, week, month, or custom period.

Why it matters: Your primary health metric. Answers "How is business going?"

How to use:

• Compare to previous periods (this week vs. last week)
• Identify trends (growing, declining, seasonal)
• Correlate with marketing activity

Key insight: Look for patterns. Spikes after email sends. Dips on certain days. Seasonal trends.

Total Orders

What it shows: Number of orders over time.

Why it matters: Separates volume from revenue. You might have fewer orders at higher value, or more orders at lower value.

How to use:

• Calculate average order value (Sales / Orders)
• Track order volume trends
• Identify capacity needs

Sessions by Device

What it shows: Traffic breakdown by desktop, mobile, tablet.

Why it matters: Tells you where to focus optimization efforts.

How to use:

• If mobile is 70% of traffic, prioritize mobile experience
• Compare conversion by device
• Identify mobile vs. desktop performance gaps

Common finding: Mobile has more traffic but lower conversion. This signals mobile optimization opportunity.

Online Store Conversion Rate

What it shows: Percentage of sessions that result in purchase.

Why it matters: The ultimate measure of store effectiveness.

How to use:

• Track over time (improving or declining?)
• Compare to benchmarks (1.4% average, 2.5%+ good)
• Segment by traffic source

Key insight: Small conversion improvements compound dramatically. 2% to 2.5% is 25% more revenue from same traffic.

Sales by Traffic Source

What it shows: Revenue attributed to traffic sources (organic, direct, social, referral).

Why it matters: Shows which channels actually generate revenue.

How to use:

• Identify highest-revenue sources
• Calculate ROI on paid channels
• Shift budget to performing channels

Warning: Attribution is imperfect. Customers often touch multiple channels. Use directionally.

Top Products

What it shows: Best-selling products by revenue or quantity.

Why it matters: Identifies winners. Shows what customers actually want.

How to use:

• Feature top products prominently
• Ensure inventory for top sellers
• Study what makes them successful

Returning Customer Rate

What it shows: Percentage of customers who purchase more than once.

Why it matters: Retention is more profitable than acquisition. This measures loyalty.

How to use:

• Track over time (aim for 20-30%+ within a year)
• Identify what drives repeat purchases
• Invest in improving retention

Benchmark: 20-30% is healthy. 40%+ is excellent. Below 15% signals retention problems.

Customer Reports

Customer Over Time

What it shows: New vs. returning customers by period.

Why it matters: Balance between acquisition and retention.

How to use:

• Growing stores should see new customer growth
• Maturing stores should see returning customer growth
• Track the ratio over time

First-Time vs. Returning Customer Sales

What it shows: Revenue from new vs. returning customers.

Why it matters: Shows revenue dependency on new acquisition.

How to use:

• If 90% from first-time, you need retention work
• If 70% from returning, your flywheel is working
• Target 40-60% returning for healthy balance

Customers by Location

What it shows: Where customers are located geographically.

Why it matters: Informs shipping, marketing, and expansion decisions.

How to use:

• Optimize shipping for main regions
• Target advertising to high-value locations
• Consider local inventory or fulfillment

Behavior Reports

Sessions Over Time

What it shows: Traffic volume over time.

Why it matters: Measures reach. More sessions = more opportunity.

How to use:

• Correlate with marketing activity
• Identify traffic sources
• Track awareness growth

Important: Traffic without conversion is expensive. Monitor conversion alongside sessions.

Online Store Speed

What it shows: Page load performance metrics.

Why it matters: Slow sites lose customers. Every second matters.

How to use:

• Target sub-3-second load times
• Identify slow pages
• Prioritize speed fixes

Top Landing Pages

What it shows: Which pages visitors enter your store through.

Why it matters: First impressions happen here. These pages need to perform.

How to use:

• Optimize top landing pages
• Ensure clear paths to purchase
• Fix issues on high-traffic entry points

Top Online Store Searches

What it shows: What customers search for on your site.

Why it matters: Tells you what customers want and cannot find.

How to use:

• If searches have no results, add those products or improve categorization
• Popular searches should lead to relevant products
• Identify merchandising gaps

Inventory Reports

Inventory Snapshot

What it shows: Current inventory levels by product/variant.

Why it matters: Stockouts cost sales. Overstock costs cash.

How to use:

• Identify low-stock items before stockout
• Find overstocked items for promotion
• Plan reordering

Percent of Inventory Sold

What it shows: How fast inventory is moving.

Why it matters: Identifies slow-moving and fast-moving products.

How to use:

• High percentage = reorder soon
• Low percentage = consider promotions
• Optimize buying for velocity

Days of Inventory Remaining

What it shows: Estimated days until stockout at current sales rate.

Why it matters: Prevents stockouts. Enables proactive reordering.

How to use:

• Set reorder triggers (e.g., reorder at 30 days remaining)
• Plan seasonal inventory
• Identify products needing attention

Marketing Reports

Sales Attributed to Marketing

What it shows: Revenue attributed to marketing channels and campaigns.

Why it matters: Measures marketing ROI.

How to use:

• Calculate return on ad spend
• Compare channel effectiveness
• Shift budget to performers

Caveat: Attribution models are imperfect. Last-click does not tell the whole story.

Sessions from Marketing

What it shows: Traffic from marketing campaigns.

Why it matters: Measures reach of marketing efforts.

How to use:

• Compare cost per session
• Correlate with conversions
• Identify traffic quality issues

Financial Reports

Gross Sales vs. Net Sales

What it shows: Total sales minus discounts, returns, and refunds.

Why it matters: Net sales is what you actually keep.

How to use:

• Track discount impact
• Monitor return rates
• Understand true revenue

Taxes Collected

What it shows: Tax amounts collected by region.

Why it matters: Compliance and financial planning.

How to use:

• Prepare for tax remittance
• Verify tax configuration
• Identify tax obligations

Custom Reports (Advanced/Plus)

Building Custom Reports

Available on: Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus.

What you can do:

• Combine metrics across dimensions
• Filter by specific criteria
• Create unique views

Common custom reports:

• CLV by acquisition source
• Conversion by first product purchased
• Revenue by product category over time

How to Use Reports Effectively

Weekly Review

Check these weekly:

• Sales over time (compared to previous week)
• Conversion rate
• Sessions by device
• Top products

Takes: 15-20 minutes

Monthly Review

Check these monthly:

• Sales by traffic source
• Customer reports (new vs. returning)
• Inventory levels
• Marketing attribution

Takes: 30-45 minutes

Quarterly Review

Deep analysis:

• Customer lifetime value trends
• Product performance over quarter
• Channel ROI
• Year-over-year comparisons

Takes: 1-2 hours

Common Report Mistakes

Mistake 1: Checking Only Sales

Problem: Sales without context is meaningless.

Fix: Always pair sales with sessions and conversion. Did sales go up because of more traffic or better conversion?

Mistake 2: Ignoring Segments

Problem: Looking at overall averages when segments vary dramatically.

Fix: Break down by device, source, and customer type.

Mistake 3: Short Time Frames

Problem: Drawing conclusions from one day's data.

Fix: Use weekly or monthly views for decisions. Days are noisy.

Mistake 4: Not Acting on Data

Problem: Reviewing reports but not changing anything.

Fix: Each report review should produce 1-2 action items.

Mistake 5: Vanity Metrics

Problem: Celebrating sessions without considering conversion.

Fix: Focus on revenue-connected metrics.

The Bottom Line

You do not need to check every report. Focus on:

Essential (check weekly):

1. Sales over time
2. Conversion rate
3. Sessions by device
4. Top products

Important (check monthly):

1. Customer retention
2. Sales by source
3. Inventory levels
4. Top landing pages

Strategic (check quarterly):

1. Customer lifetime value
2. Channel ROI
3. Product category trends
4. Year-over-year growth

Reports are only valuable if they drive decisions. Each review should answer: What is working? What is not? What should we do differently?

The best merchants check fewer reports but act on what they see.