7 Steps To Creating a Shopify Report for Agency Clients

Your team has been hard at work optimizing every aspect of your client’s Shopify store–perhaps you’re perfecting the copy on landing pages, tweaking product images, creating irresistible ad campaigns to drive traffic to the site, or drumming up new ideas for sale incentives and product bundles. 

Your time and strategic effort is paying off, but… do your clients know that?

Crafting killer Shopify reports for Shopify store owners takes finesse. You need to be selective with the metrics you monitor, the way you display the data, and the details you include (and the ones you leave out). But the good news is that acing this step means demonstrating your agency’s ROI to clients, and enhancing client loyalty and retention as a result.

This article covers the key components of exceptional Shopify reports, what types of metrics to include in custom reports, common report challenges, and a step-by-step guide for developing best-in-class Shopify reports. Keep reading to nail the process and align your staff for more streamlined, efficient, and effective report generation!

What Makes a Great Shopify Report?

A great Shopify report helps your client understand the performance of their Shopify store, highlighting both what's working well and areas for potential optimization. These reports are an important communication channel between your agency and your clients, demonstrating the impact of your team's efforts on a client's bottom line. They're how you show off your success and investigate unexpected results.

So, what are the key features of an exceptional Shopify store report? What takes an ecommerce report and makes it not just informative, but actionable?

There are a ton of ecommerce analytics metrics that you might choose to put in your report (more on that next)—and there are tons of ways you might analyze that information. Then, there's the recommendations your agency will make based on these outcomes and takeaways. It really is much more than a simple line graph, pie chart, or spreadsheet. At least, it should be.

To make your Shopify reports truly valuable for your clients, your agency should strive for reports that are:

• Clear: Clients should be able to find key information easily, and understand the gist of the report at a glance.

• Accessible: It shouldn't be difficult for clients to access and navigate reports. Ideally, they'll have a user-friendly portal for report access.

• Comprehensive: The report should cover all relevant metrics for your client, and highlight their impact on your client's KPIs.

• Customized: Each report should be tailor-made to take into account the client's specific context and ecommerce goals.

• Actionable: More than simply displaying Shopify store metrics, your report should communicate takeaways for clients and make strategic recommendations for improvement.

• Timely: Reporting should be done in a timely manner, allowing clients to take action while the insights are still relevant and carry potential.

These factors serve as North Stars for your agency's client reporting. Every new report should encompass these elements so that your team is consistently delivering high-value, high-impact Shopify reports. Over time, this will not just strengthen client relationships and trust, but also your team's savvy, thoughtfulness, and confidence in their work.

Types of Data To Include in Your Shopify Report

Choosing your metrics is a tricky step in building any type of report. From payments to transactions to the products being purchased, there's a lot you might include. When your team is selecting what data to feature in client Shopify reports, it's important to consider the goals and objectives they set out with at the start of the project.

Depending on the purpose of the report, here are some of the key Shopify analytics metrics you might decide to include:

• Total Sales: Total customer sales measures a Shopify store's total revenue over a specific time period. It helps clients understand their peak sales periods, most successful products, and buying behaviors.

• Net Sales: Net sales measures the total sales minus discounts, returns, shipping costs, and allowances for damaged goods. It shows the actual revenue and whether it has grown or dipped.

• Sales by Channel: This metric shows the number of sales from various channels. It helps clients understand where sales are coming from, such as social media, email, direct URL entry, search engines, or unknown sources. This is important for understanding the ecommerce sales funnel.

• Orders: This metric measures the number of orders placed within a given date range. Tracking how many orders go through gives clients a better understanding of the user experience and conversion tactics of their Shopify stores.

• Average Order Value (AOV): This metric indicates the average dollar amount spent on each transaction. AOV informs upselling, cross-selling, discount and promotion strategies.

• Online Store Cart Analysis: Including key data points such as cart discounts. Connect to the client's Google Analytics to identify and track other key cart events such as add to cart rate and cart conversion rates.

• Average Inventory Sold: Track individual products sold or product by type and vendor to understand which items drive the most sales.

• Conversion Rates: Conversion rates usually measure how many online store visitors make a purchase, but also monitor conversion actions like when a person clicks an ad, joins a mailing list, or adds items to their cart.

• Refunds: Tracking how many refunds go through is a form of quality assurance. It helps identify products not meeting customer expectations, and balances against the transaction rate as an indicator of overall satisfaction levels.

• Customers: This counts the number of unique customers making purchases through the Shopify store. Segmentation is also available to see returning vs. first time customers.

• Payment Methods: Breaks down sales by the payment gateway used. This helps identify preferred payment method options among customers, allowing clients to improve the checkout and purchasing experience accordingly.

• POS Location: This is a measure of sales made at physical locations. This metric is vital for businesses with both online and brick and mortar shops. Filters are also available for sales made by a specific staff member, enabling commission-based pay.

We report all metrics and are forthright to clients about which are truly meaningful.

Michael Stearns, Founder, Ascend Digital Agency

While there is a wealth of data available to Shopify merchants through the platform, your clients will gain a much more nuanced perspective of performance when metrics are put into context with data from other sources.

Shopify report-building tools like Report Pundit might amplify Shopify-specific reports, but an automated analytics platform like AgencyAnalytics, which is purpose-built for marketing agencies, takes things to a whole other level.

AgencyAnalytics pulls data from Shopify, Google Analytics, social media channels, email marketing platforms, and more than 80 marketing platforms together into consolidated, customized client dashboards.

Automated reports take the legwork away from your team, producing professional and polished client reports in 11 seconds flat!

Common Challenges of Creating Shopify Reports

Even for the most experienced agencies, there are some common pitfalls and difficulties that come along with creating Shopify reports. Here's an overview of challenges you might face, with tips on how to counteract them:

We wanted one platform that connects all the platforms we work with to generate a consolidated report for our clients, i.e. Google Analytics, Google Ads, Shopify, etc. AgencyAnalytics is easy to navigate and friendly user interface allows us digital marketers and advertisers to create dynamic and consolidated reporting dashboard that allows us to analyze data in matter of seconds.

Jerome Gibran de Jesus, Ad Operations Manager, QuickerLeads LLC

7 Steps for Building Shopify Reports

Aligning each staff member at your agency around the same steps for building a client report is one of the best ways to ensure reports are valuable and action-oriented. This is a core component of your agency's client relationship management and communication strategy, so getting people on the same page is paramount. Follow these steps and establish them firmly with your teams to provide the best possible Shopify reports:

1. Establish KPIs and Goals Upfront

Setting ecommerce KPIs and goals at the beginning of a project builds the foundation for alignment and understanding as things progress. Clear goals guide your agency's campaign, advertising, and marketing strategies—and in turn, their report creation. Start with the client's broader company objectives and then narrow down specific KPIs for your agency to target.

If you’re spinning your wheels determining goals for clients, consider using the MASTER framework, to make sure goals are:

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Specific

• Transforming

• Evolving

• Relevant

2. Select Which Metrics to Track

Selecting the right metrics and sales data is the next step once you know what goals you're working towards. Metrics help your agency break down the performance into more granular measurements, helping you pinpoint what's been successful and what needs improvement.

Yes, by combining the customizable Shopify report template with metrics from 80 marketing and analytics platforms, your agency COULD track and report on every Shopify metric under the sun, but the real question is what SHOULD your agency provide in a Shopify report?

Does your client need to understand the granularity of top online store searches, is your agency responsible for inventory reports, or is the main focus of your campaigns online store conversion?

Understanding what needs to be included in an effective Shopify report helps you show clients that you're able to see both the big picture impact and the specific efforts that contributed to the achievement.

3. Choose Your Reporting Frequency

Hey, could you shoot me some quick numbers on the campaign's performance so far?

– Your client, one day after you activated the marketing campaign 🤦‍♀️

To avoid these types of unprompted and urgent report requests, agree on a set schedule that suits your clients in advance. You might decide on something like weekly reports for the first month that a campaign goes live, and then scale back to monthly reports once you've optimized the performance based on the initial results. Whatever the case, being on the same page about when to run reports manages client expectations and reduces reactivity from your staff.

According to the AgencyAnalytics Marketing Agency Benchmarks Survey, the majority of agencies report to clients on a monthly basis.

By setting up automated reports with AgencyAnalytics, your clients receive their reports on time, every time, and your staff stays focused on the work that really matters.

The ability to schedule automated report delivery has been a game-changer for our agency. We can now set up recurring reports to be sent directly to clients on a regular basis, freeing up our team's time and ensuring clients stay informed consistently.

Jessica Crist, Production Manager, High Five Media

4. Build Your Template

A standardized Shopify report template ensures consistency and efficiency. It alleviates the guesswork when your agency employees generate a marketing report, and provides a professional and reliable experience to clients. 

You might select specific, default displays, columns, and metrics to include in reports. When creating your template, consider these factors:

• Include Companion Platforms: Select from the over 80 marketing platform and analysis integrations. For example, include additional data points such as online store speed from Google PageSpeed, Google Analytics 4 to understand returning customer sales and Google Ads to develop customer acquisition reports.

• Use Real-Time Data: Make sure numbers are up-to-date and you're showing the latest performance alongside a historical overview.

• White Label Reports: Adding your agency's branding to reports creates a polished finish and reinforces your expertise.

• Use Data Visualization: Add visuals to communicate the information clearly and effectively, showing trends or comparisons.

AgencyAnalytics templates are not only easy to use as an agency but they are great for our partners to easily view the KPI's and digest the information in a fast efficient way.

Justin Hual, Co Founder + COO, HIP Creative 

5. Choose the Right Chart Types

There are tons of ways to display key metrics: bar graphs, line graphs, pie graphs, tables, and more! It's important to be mindful when selecting the types of visuals you'll use in your report. Ideally, the visuals will help present performance details in a way that makes them clearer and more accessible, rather than more confusing or distorted.

One specific piece of advice I would offer to marketing agencies when it comes to client reporting, especially when using the AgencyAnalytics platform, is to focus on creating reports that are clear, concise, and actionable.

This means using data visualization tools like charts, graphs, and tables to help clients quickly and easily understand the performance of their campaigns and website. It also means providing context and explanations for the data presented, so clients can understand what the data means and how it relates to their business goals.

Daniel Dye, President, Native Rank, Inc.

6. Use Real-Time Data

Each report will typically provide a snapshot of performance in time. You might get the most recent numbers available, and include historical data to contextualize it, but the numbers you're giving will ultimately still be static. This is where reporting dashboards really up the ante. Giving clients access to real-time performance dashboards creates transparency and reduces back-and-forth.

AgencyAnalytics offers client portals with custom access controls, allowing your agency to set up customized client dashboards that track performance in real-time. Add custom fields and pull in data from various sources to provide a comprehensive overview of all the work your agency is doing.

7. Add Goals and Annotations

Adding goals to reports helps bring the results back to the initial objectives and connect them with what you set out to do. If the client wanted to reduce refunds through clearer advertising, you could demonstrate the connection between your ad campaigns, their conversion rates, and total refunds within that customer cohort.

Additionally, including annotations to reports provides context without overwhelming clients. They might give a brief summary of the tactics behind a result, explore potential optimizations, or offer a response to client questions.

Reports created with AgencyAnalytics come with a goals and annotations feature, which allows you to add important information into client reports.

Make Your Agency's Shopify Reports Stand Out

Whether you're tracking payments, transactions, orders, or something else, following the principles and best practices outlined in this article will help make your Shopify reports a success. By honing in on client goals and aligning your staff around a shared approach, you'll provide a more consistent and valuable client experience—a key way to drive satisfaction and retention!