Understand your analytics
Build a dashboard of the numbers that matter — revenue, orders, average order value, customers, traffic, and best sellers.
Analytics answers the questions you'd otherwise guess at: is this month better than last, which products actually sell, and are the visitors you're paying for turning into customers. Your Analytics page is a dashboard you assemble yourself from a set of widgets.
Choose your date range
Everything on the page follows the date range you pick at the top. Comparisons — the little up-or-down figures next to each metric — are against the previous period of the same length, so a good week is measured against the week before it.
The widgets
Use Customize → Add widget to add, remove, resize, and rearrange widgets until the page shows what you actually care about.
Headline numbers
| Widget | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Total Revenue | What you've earned, with the growth trend |
| Total Orders | How many orders came in |
| Average Order Value | What a typical order is worth |
| New Customers | How many first-time buyers you gained |
Money in detail
| Widget | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Sales Breakdown | Gross sales walked down to net through discounts, shipping, and refunds |
| Gross Profit | What's left after the cost of the goods you sold, with your margin — needs product costs |
| Refunds | How much of your revenue goes back to shoppers |
Trends and charts
| Widget | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Revenue Over Time | Where the peaks and troughs fall |
| Average Order Value Trend | How basket size moves day by day, not just its average |
| Order Status Breakdown | How orders are distributed across statuses |
Customers
| Widget | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Customer Retention | Returning customers versus new ones |
| Repeat Purchases | How often customers come back and what they're worth |
| Cohort Retention Heatmap | How long each month's new customers keep buying, month by month |
Products and operations
| Widget | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Top Products | Your best sellers — with profit per product once costs are set |
| Stock Health | How much of your tracked catalog is currently out of stock |
| Fulfillment | How long orders wait before they're packed |
Traffic and marketing
| Widget | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Traffic | Storefront visitors and page views |
| Views Over Time | How traffic moves across the period |
| Most Viewed Products | What shoppers look at most |
| Conversion Funnel | Where shoppers drop out on the way to paying |
| Conversion Over Time | Daily conversion rate and what each visitor is worth |
| Sales by Channel | Which marketing channel actually drove each sale |
| Traffic by Channel | Where your visitors come from before they buy anything |
Tip: Put Most Viewed Products next to Top Products. A product with heavy views and few sales is telling you something specific — usually about price, photos, or shipping cost.
Some traffic widgets need a paid plan. They appear on the page with sample numbers and an upgrade badge, so you can see what you'd get before you pay for it.
Gross or net revenue
The Revenue Over Time chart has a basis switch: Net (after refunds) or Gross. Net is the default and the honest number — it's what you actually kept. Flip to gross when you want to see demand rather than takings, for instance when a single large return would otherwise hide a good week.
Where your sales come from
Sales by Channel and Traffic by Channel answer different halves of the same question.
Traffic by Channel shows where visitors arrive from — search, social, ads, email, direct. Sales by Channel shows which of those channels was actually responsible for an order. Your store records how a visitor first found you and what brought them back on the visit that converted, so a shopper who discovers you through Instagram and returns a week later through search is attributed sensibly instead of being credited entirely to whichever click came last.
Tip: Read them side by side. A channel with lots of traffic and few sales is either the wrong audience or the wrong landing page — and it's usually the one you're paying for.
Cohort retention
The heatmap groups customers by the month of their first order and follows each group forward. Every row is a month's new customers; every column is how many of them were still buying one month later, two months later, and so on.
It's the clearest picture you'll get of whether your store keeps people. A row that fades to nothing by month two means you're renting customers, not acquiring them — and it costs far more to keep replacing them than to fix the reason they don't come back.
Numbers worth watching
- Margin beats revenue. Set product costs and the Gross Profit widget will tell you whether your best seller is actually your best product.
- Average order value is often the easiest number to move. Bundles, free-shipping thresholds, and cart recommendations all push it up.
- Retention is where profit hides. Winning a new customer costs more than keeping one you already have.
- Views without sales point at a product page problem, not a traffic problem.
- The funnel's biggest drop is your highest-value fix. If it's between cart and checkout, look at shipping cost and delivery time.
FAQ
Why don't my revenue figures match Stripe exactly?
Analytics reports on your store's orders; Stripe reports on payments, and applies its own fees, refunds, and payout timing. They answer slightly different questions. Use Stripe as the source of truth for money in the bank.
Where does traffic data come from?
From storefront visits recorded for your store — not from Google Analytics or any third-party tag. Some traffic widgets depend on your plan — see Manage your plan & billing.
Why is my margin so high?
Because some of what you sold has no cost recorded. The Gross Profit widget shows its cost coverage for exactly this reason — see Track profit with product costs.
A widget shows sample data with an upgrade badge.
That widget is on a higher plan. The numbers behind it are a preview, not your store's — upgrade and it fills in with real data.
Can I get a different set of numbers on a different day?
Yes — the dashboard is yours to rearrange. Add and remove widgets whenever your focus changes.
My analytics look empty.
A brand-new store has nothing to report yet. Check back once orders and visits are coming in, and make sure your store is actually live — see Publish and go live.
What's next
- Turn revenue reporting into profit reporting with Track profit with product costs.
- Dig into individual orders in View and manage orders.
- See who keeps coming back in Manage your customers.
- Catch problems early with Spot and fix store issues.