Did you know that around one million businesses use Shopify? A press release in mid-2020 announced that Shopify had reached one million users across the globe (nearly 175 countries). If you are a seller on Shopify, you will have access to some built-in reports to see which products are selling well and which are not. This insight is crucial for making informed decisions about the direction of your eCommerce business. Analytical data can help you shape your business and improve how you run it. Reports reveal how your customers interact, buy, and spend on your website.
If you have not yet leveraged these Shopify reports or are unaware of what they are and how you can use them, you are probably leaving a lump sum of money on your table. To help you with the task, we have developed a complete guide on Shopify reports. We have also compiled a list of Shopify reports that are crucial for your business to check.
What are Shopify Reports
Shopify reports offer an analysis of your store's data that is presented in the form of charts and tables. These reports can provide insight into which of your products are the most popular, when you typically make the most sales, and where your website visitors are coming from. Knowing how your store functions can be beneficial in controlling costs and maximizing your Shopify conversion rate.
For example, a Shopify merchant might review sales reports to monitor product-wise revenue performance, examine customer reports to analyze repeat purchase rates, and use behavior reports to optimize the checkout flow based on where customers are dropping off.
Where Can You Find the Shopify Reports
As a seller, you can access all the Shopify reports via the analytics section of your dashboard. You can find them under the analytics section indicated by the name ‘Reports.’
However, it’s important to note that Shopify’s basic plans only provide access to limited reports. To unlock more advanced features, such as custom reports, cohort analyses, or profit reports, you’ll need to upgrade to Shopify, Advanced Shopify, or Shopify Plus plans.
How to Export Shopify Reports
Exporting Shopify reports can be done directly from most report pages:
- Open the report you want to export inside your Shopify admin.
- At the top-right corner, click on Export.
- Choose your desired format (usually CSV or Excel).
- Select whether you want to export current page data or full report data.
- Download the file directly to your system.
Keep in mind that the ability to export some of the reports may be restricted based on your Shopify subscription level. Higher-tier plans offer full export capabilities with advanced reports.
While exporting works for ad-hoc analysis, for brands operating at scale or using omnichannel platforms, manual exports quickly become inefficient and prone to errors. This is where automation becomes critical, and we will cover this later in the blog.
Shopify Reports- What is Included in Each Plan?
Before we start talking about Shopify reporting, let’s look at the level of data access you have based on your plan:
So, you can see that for fast-growth eCommerce brands in the US operating across multiple SKUs, customer segments, and fulfillment models, the limitations of lower-tier plans can quickly create blind spots. Many advanced operators therefore move towards Advanced Shopify or Shopify Plus to gain access to richer datasets.
What are the different types of Shopify Reports
The valuable data and insights from the reports will help you know more about your customers and products. In addition, this data will assist you in making informed decisions about product design, marketing campaigns, sales strategy, and more.
It is important to note that not all Shopify plans provide the feature of reports. Many of these reports are regarded as a premium feature and, as a result, are not included in the base tier plans. The Advanced ($229/month) and Shopify Plus plans (starting from $2,000/month) offer the entire suite of analytics, whereas the regular Shopify plan ($79) still presents a considerable amount of data. Lower-tier plans (Lite and Basic) come only with limited analytics, but you can access the Analytics dashboard regardless of your plan.
Shopify Acquisition Reports
Purpose: If you want to know where your store's traffic and customers are coming from, you must analyze Shopify acquisition reports.
Key Metrics:
- Sessions by referrer (organic, paid, social, direct)
- New vs. returning customer sessions
- Location of visitors
- Device type (mobile, desktop, tablet)
- Conversion rate by channel
Actionable Use Case:
Let’s say, you notice that 65% of your new sessions now come from Instagram, but the conversion rate is only 0.8%, compared to Google Ads at 2.1%. This suggests you're driving traffic, but not the right kind. Therefore, you might need to refine your Instagram strategy. You should focus on higher-intent audiences or shift more budget to search ads, which are converting better.
Shopify Behavior Reports
Purpose: These reports will help you analyze how visitors interact with your store.
Key Metrics:
- Top landing pages
- Product page views
- Cart additions and abandonment rates
- Checkout behavior
- Store search terms
Actionable Use Case:
Let’s say your "summer essentials" landing page has a high bounce rate of 68%. After reviewing store search data, you find customers are looking for "linen shirts" that aren’t featured upfront. Adding those products prominently to the page could reduce bounce rates, improve session duration, and lift conversions.
Shopify Marketing Reports
Purpose: Using these reports, you can evaluate how effective your marketing efforts are in driving sales.
Key Metrics:
- Sales attributed to marketing campaigns
- Sessions generated from each marketing source
- Conversion rates by campaign
- Average cost per acquisition (CPA)
- ROAS (return on ad spend)
Actionable Use Case:
Suppose your Google Shopping campaign shows strong traffic, but ROAS is stuck at 1.3x, while your Klaviyo email flows are producing a 10x ROAS. This suggests your paid media needs optimization; maybe negative keyword tuning or better product feed segmentation.
Shopify Financial Reports
Purpose: For any business, it’s vital to gain visibility into overall financial health beyond pure sales numbers, and this is where you can leverage Shopify financial reports.
Key Metrics:
- Total revenue
- Discounts applied
- Refunds and chargebacks
- Shipping costs and taxes
- Net sales after deductions
Actionable Use Case:
Imagine your refunds spike from 2% to 5% over one quarter. A deeper analysis shows most refunds stem from international orders with sizing issues. To fix this issue, you may think of tightening up your size guides, adding local warehouse options, or even disabling certain international markets temporarily to protect margins.
Shopify Profit Reports
Purpose: These reports are for measuring the true profitability after factoring in costs of goods sold and expenses.
Key Metrics:
- Gross profit
- Net profit margins
- COGS (cost of goods sold) by SKU
- Profitability by product or collection
- Profitability by channel
Actionable Use Case:
You might discover your newly launched athleisure line generates strong top-line revenue but carries only 25% margins compared to your core line at 45%. Rather than ramp up ads for athleisure, you could optimize sourcing costs, renegotiate with suppliers, or prioritize marketing for higher-margin SKUs to maximize profitability.
Shopify Sales Reports
Purpose: With the sales reports, you can track revenue performance across products, time periods, and channels.
Key Metrics:
- Total orders and sales
- AOV (Average Order Value)
- Sales by product, vendor, or collection
- Sales by sales channel (online store, POS, marketplaces)
- Refunds and cancellations
Actionable Use Case:
If your online store sees a 20% decline in AOV during holiday sales, while POS sales hold steady, it may signal that online promotions are attracting low-intent bargain hunters. You could test minimum purchase thresholds for discounts or create bundles to maintain AOV while still driving promotions.
Shopify Customers Reports
Purpose: In any business, particularly eCommerce, it’s vital to understand your customer base, behavior patterns, and loyalty. This is where the Shopify customers reports can be useful.
Key Metrics:
- First-time vs. repeat customers
- Customer cohorts (based on signup date)
- LTV (lifetime value)
- Average purchase frequency
- Geographic distribution of customers
Actionable Use Case:
Suppose your 90-day cohort repurchase rate slips from 35% to 22%. Reviewing the data shows many customers from a recent influencer campaign have yet to return. You may deploy post-purchase email sequences, loyalty programs, or personalized offers to nurture these one-time buyers into repeat purchasers.
Shopify Inventory Reports
Purpose: To stay on top of stock levels, inventory turnover, and restocking needs, you can keep a close eye on your Shopify inventory reports.
Key Metrics:
- Inventory on hand by SKU
- Bestsellers vs. slow movers
- Days of inventory remaining
- Stockouts and overselling incidents
- Inventory adjustments (write-offs, transfers)
Actionable Use Case:
Let’s say your hero product runs out of stock three times in two months, causing lost revenue and frustrated customers. Inventory reports highlight a mismatch between actual lead times and your reorder thresholds. You might adjust safety stock levels, renegotiate faster replenishment cycles with suppliers, or stagger promotions to avoid future stockouts.
What are the Benefits of Analyzing Shopify Reports
Pulling up your Shopify reports is the easy part. The real challenge lies in turning that data into decisions that move the needle. When leadership teams know how to read and apply these reports, they can spot issues early, double down on what’s working, and course-correct before problems snowball.
Get Real Insights That Drive Growth
We all know that revenue numbers alone don’t tell you much. But once you start connecting the dots (sales spikes tied to certain channels, or product trends linked to customer segments), that’s when you move from guessing to understanding. For example, spotting that a recent jump in sales came mostly from first-time buyers on TikTok Ads helps your marketing team fine-tune acquisition strategy rather than blindly spending more.
Spot Where Customers Are Dropping Off
Shopify’s behavior reports make it easier to see exactly where you're losing customers; whether it’s on the product page, cart, or checkout. Once you know the exact reason, you can eliminate the friction points and make the entire shopping experience more streamlined and easier for your customers.
Protect Margins and Financial Health
Revenue growth means little if profits are slipping. With Shopify reports, finance teams can track margins, discounts, returns, and COGS closely. If gross margins suddenly fall below your 60-70% comfort zone, you’ll know whether the problem sits in rising ad spend, supplier costs, or fulfillment fees, and fix it fast.
Give Leadership a Single Source of Truth
Shopify’s reporting gives operators and leadership a single dashboard that pulls together sales, marketing, customer service, and inventory data. This means no more chasing down half-updated spreadsheets from every department. Everyone sees the same numbers, which translates to better aligned decisions.
Optimize Marketing Spend with Confidence
For marketing teams, attribution is everything. When you know exactly which platforms are contributing more to your business revenue, you can optimize your marketing spend and derive maximum ROI from it. Also, this will keep your customer acquisition costs in check.
How to Analyze Shopify Reports (Without Getting Stuck in Data Overload)
Knowing you have reports is one thing. What really matters is knowing how to use the data to grow your business. That’s where most brands feel stuck. Data doesn’t grow revenue, rather its smart analysis and action. Here’s how experienced operators approach it.
1. Pick the Right Metrics for Where You Are
Your reporting focus should shift depending on your stage of growth. Newer brands care more about acquisition and CAC; mature brands care much more about retention, LTV, and margin. The metrics that matter change as you scale.
Example:
Let’s say your CAC is $40, and your AOV is $50, which means you're acquiring customers profitably. But once you pull up Shopify customer reports, you notice only 15% of buyers ever come back. That changes the math. Without strong repeat rates, your long-term profitability takes a hit. Tracking AOV alongside cohort repeat rates gives you a much clearer view of true customer value.
Here’s a simple cheat sheet you can apply:
Bottom line: Don’t track everything; rather, zero in on 6–8 metrics that directly map to your current business priorities.
2. Start with Shopify’s Built-In Reports
You don’t need fancy tools to start leveraging eCommerce data and analytics. Shopify’s native reports already cover most of what operators need these days. Here is a recap of the same:
- Sales Reports: Revenue, AOV, product sales, sales channels.
- Customer Reports: Cohorts, LTV, repeat purchase rates.
- Behavior Reports: Checkout funnels, cart abandonment, on-site sessions.
- Marketing Reports: Attribution by channel, campaign performance.
- Finance Reports: Margins, refunds, discounts, taxes.
Pro Tip: Use Shopify’s built-in reports to catch issues early. Then drill deeper with external tools when you need to validate or expand your analysis.
3. Visualize What Matters (Not Everything)
Once you’re juggling multiple SKUs, regions, or marketing channels, spreadsheets quickly hit their limit. This is where visualization tools like Looker Studio (Google Data Studio) or Tableau can come in handy. They let you build interactive dashboards from Shopify data and other marketing platforms.
Example:
Let's say you run a U.S. apparel brand, and you recently pulled data from Shopify, Klaviyo, Google Ads, and Meta into Tableau. Your dashboard uncovered that email marketing, not Facebook retargeting, was driving stronger LTV gains. That insight led you to invest more in list-building and triggered email flows while scaling back Meta spend.
Pro Tip: Build 3-4 simple dashboards aligned to your exec KPIs. Avoid the temptation to build 20 dashboards nobody actually checks.
4. Graduate to ELT Tools When the Spreadsheets Break
As you scale, manual exports become a major bottleneck. Growing brands eventually turn to ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) tools to automate data flows and unify reporting.
What ELT does:
- Pulls Shopify data automatically via API
- Sends it to your central data warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift)
- Cleans and organizes the data for ready-to-go analysis
If you’re running a multi-channel health & nutrition brand, you can use Saras Daton to pull Shopify, Klaviyo, Google Ads, NetSuite, and Amazon Seller Central into Snowflake. Your BI team could then:
- Accurately calculate blended CAC across Shopify + Amazon.
- Build advanced LTV models blending subscription and marketplace sales.
- Track inventory turns across all DTC and marketplace channels.
- Generate real-time financial forecasts by syncing COGS directly from NetSuite.
Without ELT, getting to this level of unified reporting took several analyst hours every week. With it? The team focuses on insights, not data prep.
Resource Tip: Want the technical playbook? Check out ProjectBI’s ETL Guide for DTC Ecommerce — very tactical and actionable.
5. Use Trends to Stay Ahead (Not Just Look Back)
Static reports only tell you where you’ve been. The real edge comes from spotting patterns early and adjusting before issues show up on your P&L.
Pro Tip: Combine historical seasonality with current data signals — like ad fatigue, refund trends, or shipping delays — to get proactive before small issues snowball.
Conclusion
Shopify is one of the leading and fastest-growing eCommerce platforms in the market. Amongst all its exciting features, Shopify reports can help you succeed by offering data at your fingertips. Using the reporting features lets you know which marketing efforts can help you generate quick results.
The different reports come with additional limitations and challenges. As your brand grows, your data requirements grow as well. With our eCommerce Data pipeline and Shopify connectors, you can always have the correct data at the right time.
Talk to our data consultants to find out more.
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