Introduction

Understanding your website’s performance is vital to ensuring you are able to build a more successful online store. Shopify provides a robust, and easy to use platform for analysing user behaviour, and sales data. Here is a detailed guide to all of the different aspects of Shopify’s built in analytics platform, and how to best utilise these tools.

How to Effectively Use Shopify’s Built-In Analytics

Overview Dashboard

  • Key Points:

    • Use the overview dashboard, to get a quick look at the general performance of your store.

    • This area displays data such as total sales, website visitors, and conversion rates.

    • Make sure to review the overview dashboard regularly, to check for any areas that need attention.

Sales Reports

  • Key Points:
    * Use the sales reports, to access a detailed overview of your sales data.

    • Use the various filters to narrow down your data, so that you can see data based on specific metrics, products or time periods.

    • Be aware of all the various different ways you can filter your sales data.

Traffic Reports

  • Key Points:

    • Analyze your website traffic sources, to see how users are discovering your website, and to see which channels are working best.
      * Check metrics like session duration, bounce rates, and which types of devices are most commonly used.

    • By using this information, you will be better equipped to target specific audience groups.

Marketing Reports

  • Key Points:

    • Track the performance of your marketing campaigns to see the effectiveness of various promotions and advertising efforts.

    • Use data to improve your strategy, and ensure that your marketing budget is spent in the most effective manner.

    • By tracking your marketing results, you will be better equipped to make future decisions.

Customer Reports

  • Key Points:

    • Use your customer reports, to gain insights into your target audience, including their location, purchase history and purchasing habits.

      • Use this data to help refine your marketing approach, and your product selections.

    • By better understanding your audience, you will be better equipped to appeal to them.

Behavior Reports

  • Key Points:
    * Use the behaviour reports to understand how users interact with your website, and to see what key words they are searching for.

    • Use heat maps and session recordings to better analyse the customer journey.
      * Identify weak points, and potential areas for improvement.

Real-time Analytics

  • Key Points:
    * Utilize the real time analytics, to keep up to date on how users are currently interacting with your store.
    * Use this to gauge the immediate performance of promotions, or to see the impact of recent changes to the site.

    • This is a good way of quickly identifying any sudden drops in activity on your website.

Customizable Reporting

  • Key Points:
    * Create your own custom reports based on specific metrics, and unique needs.

    • This is a good way to get a specific picture of areas of your site that you feel need more attention.

    • Use this for tracking specific goals, or metrics that are unique to your business.

Mobile App Access

  • Key Points:
    * Monitor your store's performance directly through your Shopify mobile app, allowing you to access your reports on the go.

    • This allows you to stay on top of your data, no matter where you are located.

    • Check in with your data on a regular basis.

Utilize Filters

  • Key Points:

    • Filter your data, by specific time periods, or specific parts of your website, so that you can see what actions are having the most impact.

    • Use these filters to get the best possible view of the data that you are collecting.

    • Use this to narrow your focus when looking at specific performance metrics.

Conclusion

By effectively using Shopify’s built in analytics platform, you will gain greater insights about your website performance and user behaviour, which will enable you to make data-driven decisions to improve your business overall.