The idea of having all the marketing analytics you need in one dashboard can be mind-blowing. Thanks to online marketplaces like Shopify, you can now have all the essential marketing metrics in one place. They even have built-in dashboards for commonly used terms like ‘reach’, ‘active buyers’, ‘conversions’, and ‘loyalty’.
The problem is that marketing analytics can be overwhelming. Even if you’re only looking at a few metrics, having so many numbers can make it hard to know what is going on. To make sense of it all, you’ll need somebody to help you. That’s why we’ve gone through the arduous task of defining and naming the top 5 Shopify dashboards that every marketer should know.
Overall Revenue And Sales Performance
The first thing you’ll want to do is take a quick look at your overall sales and revenue. This dashboard gives you a bird’s-eye view of your sales performance from the previous month (or quarter). You can see how many sales you made and how much money you made on each sale.
The reason this is the top pick is simple: without seeing this dashboard, it’s difficult to understand what is causing your sales to go up or down. Looking at monthly variations in sales can help you determine whether you’re reaching more people or selling to the right audience. For example, maybe you found that your product mix changed over time and you’re now serving a different audience. Or, it could be that your retail prices decreased, allowing you to sell more for the same revenue.
Market share And Growth
An important part of any business is determining the size of your market. Without knowing your exact market position – ie, how much of the market you’re currently serving – it’s difficult to determine how much effort you should put in to reach more customers. This is why the market share dashboard is so important. It allows you to examine your competitors’ positions in the marketplace and how well you’re performing against them.
The growth dashboard gives you an idea of how your business is performing compared to what you predicted. To create this dashboard, you’ll need to enter your forecasted revenue for the next month. Then, you’ll want to look at the difference between the actual revenue and the forecasted revenue.
This dashboard can be especially helpful when trying to determine how well your marketing and sales efforts are paying off. For example, if you noticed that your product mix changed over time and led to a growth in sales but the actual revenue was lower than expected, it could be that your new customers aren’t as engaged with your product as you’d hoped. Maybe they’re not even aware of your product at all! In that case, you’ll want to examine what led to this low revenue to find out what you did wrong.
Customer Retention, Lifetime Value, And Churn
Have you ever dropped a customer who wasn’t worth your time and effort? As a business owner, you’ll be keen to maximize the lifetime value of your customers. Having customers who aren’t planning on staying with your business is both costly and, in the long run, harmful to your company’s growth. This is why the customer retention dashboard is so important.
The lifetime value dashboard shows you the average order value and the average order time of your customers. Knowing these numbers allows you to determine the LTV (lifetime value) of your customer base. (The average order value is the total value of all the orders placed – including canceled orders – during a given period, while the average order time is the amount of time it takes to place an order.)
The churn dashboard indicates how many customers you have who have ceased to do business with you. The better this number is, the less chances there are of your losing a customer for good. Knowing how many customers you’ve lost due to lack of retention is critical in ensuring that you continue to gain new, long-lasting customers. The churn dashboard also shows you the average time between a customer’s first and last order.
Product Popularity, Customer Review Rating, And Ratings
Your product’s popularity and the ratings your customers give your product are important metrics. They can help you determine how successful your marketing was in getting the word out about your product. For instance, you might notice that your Instagram following increased tenfold after you posted a picture of your new sweater collection. Or, you could see that a particular product review sparked a lot of interest from potential customers, leading to many orders that month.
Customer reviews are also an important factor in your marketing strategy. If you want to increase your sales, you’ll need to convince potential customers to give you a good review. The more reviews you have, the more attractive your product will be to potential customers. (The best guides for getting good reviews will be detailed in a future blog post.)
Marketing Activity, Website Traffic, And Social Media
The activity dashboard gives you a quick look at the amount of marketing activity – like posts on social media or banner ads on websites – that you’ve conducted over the past month. Your activity dashboard will show you the number of posts that you’ve made on all your social media accounts, how many views you’ve gotten on your website, and the number of times your ads have been clicked on.
The website traffic dashboard gives you an idea of how many people are finding your website through organic search traffic and direct traffic from social platforms like social media. This traffic source will include both direct visits and referrals from other websites. Knowing the amount of traffic to your site, you can determine how many people are finding you online and whether or not your strategy is working. (You’ll have to set up a free account to access this dashboard.)
The social media dashboard allows you to keep track of your social media accounts’ performance. It shows you the number of people who’ve engaged with your content – like likes, shares, and comments – on various platforms. (Remember: the more engaged your audience is, the more likely they are to become customers. Having happy, active social media followers is a great indication of the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Sales Performance, Delivery Status, And Feedback
The deliveries status dashboard indicates the progress of your past orders. Look at this number daily to get an idea of whether or not you’re meeting the demands of your customers. If you notice that a large number of orders are pending delivery, you’ll need to find out what is holding up the process. This could be because your supplier has changed their policy and you need to get approval from them before you can ship the product. Or, it might be that your product is taking a little longer to produce than expected.
The feedback dashboard allows you to track customer complaints and feedback. Sometimes, customers can be harsh, especially if you haven’t delivered their product on time or if there’s been a problem with the product itself. The better you are at receiving and acting on feedback, the more confident you’ll be in your decisions moving forward.
Hopefully, this post has helped you understand the significance of each of the Shopify dashboards. Knowing the metrics inside and out will help you make smarter, more informed decisions about your business. We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reach out to us on social media or via email at hello@guerillaanalytics.com to tell us how we can help your business grow.