The comprehensive guide to ecommerce reporting in 2026

Running an online store can look simple from the outside: no storefront, sales floor, or fixed hours. But operating a store 24/7 brings challenges that aren’t always obvious.

Sales spike, dip, and spike again. Customers jump between devices, disappear, and come back later. Marketing campaigns run across different sales channels at the same time.

All of this makes it harder to answer questions like: 

• What’s driving revenue? 

• Where are customers dropping off? 

• Which campaigns are worth the spend?

Ecommerce reporting exists to answer those questions—and this guide covers everything you need to know to get started.

What is ecommerce reporting?

Online stores don’t operate like brick-and-mortar ones. Customers browse, abandon carts, and come back weeks later during a late-night scroll. None of it happens in order, and it rarely shows up in one place.

Ecommerce reporting pulls it together. Sales data, customer behavior, and marketing performance sit side by side, so you can finally see patterns—instead of getting lost in a sea of metrics.

Maybe paid search brings in new customers while email drives repeat customers and a larger share of total revenue. With that view, it’s easier to see which strategies are worth doubling down on—and which ones deserve an early retirement. 

Why ecommerce reporting is critical for growth

Once an ecommerce business is juggling multiple campaigns, small blind spots start to matter more than they used to. Growth slows not because teams lack data, but because it’s unclear how performance connects across the ecommerce site.

Ecommerce reporting connects the dots, so you can:

• Catch revenue leaks before they show up in totals: Funnel reports surface checkout and product drop-offs early, before a dip in sales turns into a post-mortem.

• Stop debating which campaigns work: A clear sales breakdown across various sales channels shows which marketing efforts drive most revenue and which ones just look busy.

• Identify who your most valuable customers are: Separating new and repeat customers makes customer loyalty visible instead of theoretical.

• Connect inventory decisions to sales performance: Inventory reports and product report data show when stock levels or timing quietly limit growth.

• Spend less time hunting for data: When all your data lives in one place, ad hoc analysis stops eating hours it shouldn’t.

Choosing key metrics to track in ecommerce reports

Picking which metrics to track can be a lot—the data is endless and almost all of it looks important. The trick is figuring out which ecommerce metrics explain performance rather than just describing activity.

Clients want context-rich reporting that explains what metrics mean, why they matter, and whether performance is good or bad.

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Here’s how to choose metrics that matter:

• Start with your ecommerce goals: Decide what your client is trying to change first—more sales, more repeat customers, or better performance—then worry about metrics.

• Match the metrics to the goal: Ecommerce metrics like repeat purchase rate, customer retention, and lifetime value support repeat customer growth, while conversion rates and cost per acquisition matter more when growing the top of the funnel.

• Measure outcomes, not motion: Clicks and pageviews explain activity; revenue, profitability, and customer growth explain impact.

• Segment before you trust the story: Looking at new vs. repeat customers, different sales channels, and product categories exposes issues that averages smooth over.

• Keep metrics that force a choice: If a sales channel underperforms, the data should make the next move obvious—adjust, pause, or reallocate.

Top ecommerce reporting tools compared

Not all ecommerce reporting tools solve the same problem. Some collect data well. Others focus on presentation. Finding the right fit comes down to how reporting actually works day to day. Here are a few options worth a closer look.

AgencyAnalytics

AgencyAnalytics is designed for agencies managing ongoing ecommerce reporting across multiple clients. It brings sales data, customer behavior, and marketing performance into dashboards that support real decisions, not just routine reviews.

AgencyAnalytics top features:

• Dashboards built around outcomes: Ecommerce reporting dashboards are configured around goals like repeat customers, channel performance, and revenue trends—so strategy and results stay connected.

• Native integrations for ecommerce reporting: Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce data flows directly into reports, reducing setup time and keeping ecommerce data consistent.

• Automated reporting: Reports update on a schedule, keeping data current without manual work.

• Shared performance context: Revenue, campaigns, and customer behavior live in one place, making it easier to spot patterns and explain performance.

• SEO reporting software for ecommerce teams: SEO analytics insights connect directly to ecommerce performance, so organic traffic and revenue trends are easy to understand together.

AgencyAnalytics digital marketing reporting software is built to flex with your workflow. Try it free and finally see how ecommerce and organic performance connect.

Impress clients and save hours with custom, automated reporting.

Join 7,000+ agencies that create reports in under 30 minutes per client using AgencyAnalytics. Get started for free. No credit card required.

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Givz

Givz lives inside one very specific moment: charity-driven incentives at checkout. The reporting stays focused there too—showing how those programs affect things like participation, average order value, and retention, rather than overall channel or revenue performance.

Givz top features: 

• Reporting tied to one moment: Analytics stay centered on charity-driven incentives at checkout, not the full ecommerce funnel.

• Engagement over volume: The focus is on participation and donations—who opts in, how often, and under what conditions.

• Impact on AOV and retention: Reporting shows whether incentives actually change buying behavior, not just feel good.

• Built-in analytics, not a reporting layer: Data lives inside the Givz experience and stays tied to the incentive flow.

Piwik PRO

Piwik PRO is a privacy-first analytics platform that ecommerce teams use when visibility into customer behavior matters as much as compliance. It supports ecommerce reporting, but from an analytics-first angle.

Piwik PRO’s top features:

• Privacy-first tracking: Consent management and data control are baked in, not bolted on.

• Seeing the messy middle: Customer journeys, checkout behavior, and drop-off points are easy to dig into.

• Segmentation that goes deep: Behavior, device, and audience splits are where this tool earns its keep.

• Funnels that explain friction: Shows where shoppers hesitate and where conversion starts to unravel.

• Revenue-aware analysis: Customer lifetime value, total revenue, and average order value are available when ecommerce tracking is set up properly.

Best practices you can’t ignore

Dashboards don’t fix messy reporting. A few disciplined habits do—and that’s when ecommerce reporting actually starts connecting the ecommerce site, marketing efforts, and inventory management.

Automate data collection

When ecommerce data is pulled manually from Shopify, Google Analytics, and Google Ads at different times (especially across multiple clients), numbers start drifting. One report says one thing, another says something slightly different, and suddenly you don’t know which data is telling the right story. 

Automation fixes that by pulling the same data from the same sources, on the same schedule—and eliminates manual mistakes that make reports harder to trust. 

What actually makes automation work:

• Decide which numbers are non-negotiable: Lock in a small set of core metrics—like total sales and net revenue daily—so every report answers the same baseline questions.

• Be clear about how metrics are calculated: Average order value by product category needs one definition across the ecommerce site, inventory management, and reports, or trends won’t hold.

• View acquisition costs in context: Customer acquisition cost per marketing channel makes more sense when it’s viewed next to revenue and customer behavior, not on its own.

• Refresh data on a predictable cadence: Regular updates make it easier to compare performance and spot changes early.

Provide narrative context

A spike in total sales is great. The real question is why it happened. Was it a Facebook ad pulling in new traffic? A free shipping promo nudging hesitant buyers over the line? Without context, the numbers don’t say much.

Adding a quick note like “Revenue jumped 22% this week, driven by new customers from Instagram Ads” ties the results back to the marketing initiatives behind them, so clients understand exactly what changed—and why.

Segment your data

Averages hide too much. Segmentation is what makes ecommerce reporting actionable by showing where performance actually comes from.

Start with a few core cuts:

• New vs. repeat customers: Understand which group contributes more to lifetime value, not just order volume.

• Sales channels: See whether Google Ads, email campaigns, or social media are driving profitable customers.

• Product categories: Identify which products sell consistently, which lag, and where inventory issues may be forming.

Deeper cuts like demographics, device types, or referral sources add clarity, but even basic segmentation sharpens visibility into customer behavior and revenue drivers.

In ecommerce, I primarily look for transactional and commercial keywords as opposed to informational and navigational ones. That said, I don’t completely dismiss the latter; instead, I save them to include within my blog and brand strategy.

Josh Kimmes, CEO, Bear North Digital

Monitor trends over time

Monitoring trends over time helps separate meaningful shifts from normal ups and downs. Here are a few things worth tracking:

• Sales and revenue by week or month to spot seasonal shifts.

• Customer lifetime value trends help to understand whether growth is sustainable.

• Repeat purchase behavior to see whether loyalty programs are working.

Looking at these trends over time makes it easier to anticipate changes in sales, repeat purchase likelihood, and inventory needs before they show up in results.

How to build an effective ecommerce report

The best ecommerce reports answer questions fast and make decisions easier. Here’s how to build one that does exactly that.

Key reporting areas

Each section should answer one question, then set up the next one. Think sequence, not commentary.

Start broad. Then narrow. End with decisions.

Start with traffic sources

This section answers: where is traffic coming from? Use this section to set context, not conclusions.

• Show where visitors are coming from: organic search, paid ads, social, and email.

• Use Google Analytics to see what visitors do after they arrive, not just where they came from.

• Look for mismatches between traffic volume and on-site behavior.

Want a clearer way to visualize that data? AgencyAnalytics Google Analytics reporting tool turns traffic insights into client-ready reports—and it’s free to try.

Anchor everything in sales & revenue

This is all about outcomes. It answers: where are we making money? Total sales, average order value, revenue by product, and top-performing channels ground your report in tangible results.

Look at trends over time instead of single points. If traffic holds steady but net sales dip, the issue usually lives in conversion, pricing, or product mix—not acquisition.

Use customer behavior to explain the numbers

This section answers: how are customers moving through the sales funnel?

Funnel tracking helps explain where things slow down—cart abandonment, checkout friction, or drop-offs between key steps. Segment by new vs. repeat customers, product preferences, and shopping behavior.

If repeat customers spend more in certain categories, that’s where retention and merchandising efforts should focus.

Close with marketing performance

End with what can be acted on. This section answers which marketing campaigns are earning their keep? 

Look at which email sequences drive repeat purchases, which paid ads bring in higher lifetime value, and which initiatives aren’t pulling their weight. This is where ROI becomes visible and priorities get clearer.

Don’t start from scratch—use a pre-made ecommerce reporting template 

Building ecommerce reports from scratch gets old fast. Between multiple clients and multiple sales channels, too much time goes into setup and not enough into analysis. AgencyAnalytics ecommerce reporting software removes that friction by giving you a starting point you can actually build on.

Here’s what a customizable ecommerce analytics dashboard takes off your plate:

• Manual data pulls: Dashboards refresh on a schedule, keeping sales trends and marketing data current without constant exports.

• Report cleanup and formatting: Reports stay consistent and presentation-ready, so time isn’t spent fixing layouts before client calls.

• Metric selection debates: Core metrics like average order value, total sales, repeat purchases, and customer lifetime value are already built in.

• Rebuilding reports for every client: Reports adapt across clients, product lines, and sales channels, with segmentation that surfaces actionable insights.

Ready to stop rebuilding reports and start using them? Try AgencyAnalytics for free and see how ecommerce reporting works when the setup’s already done.

Final thoughts: Ecommerce reporting that drives results

Running an ecommerce store isn’t exactly passive. Products need attention, campaigns need watching, and something is always changing in the background. 

When ecommerce reporting is done right, it doesn’t add to your workload. It keeps things moving. With all your data in one place, you can finally see what’s selling, what’s slowing down, and focus on plotting your next big campaign—not chasing numbers across tools.