Sales reports

You can use sales reports to see information about your customers' orders based on criteria such as sales over time, by product, or by channel. For point of sale reports, see Retail sales reports.

When you open a sales report, the data is up to date, give or take about 1 minute. You can reopen or refresh the report to show newer data. However, it can take 12-72 hours before sales are reflected in the Sales by discount report.

Sales and returns

Sales reports track the value of products moving between you and your customers as you make sales and process returns.

A sale is made when a customer places an order. The reports include every line item and shipping charge (if applicable) in an order as a separate sale item.

A return is where goods pass from the customer back to you after the customer has bought the goods but decided not to keep them. A return is different from a refund because a return deals with the value of goods, but a refund deals with the value of tender that you issue the customer when you process a return.

Sales appear in your sales reports as a positive value for the day that they were made, and returns appear as a negative value for the day that they were processed. The sales reports include sales and returns from open, archived, canceled, and pending orders, as well as draft orders that have been converted into orders. The sales reports do not include sales and returns from deleted or test orders.

Canceled orders

When you cancel an order, it appears as a sale for the day that it was placed and a return for the day that it was canceled, so your sales numbers are zero for that order overall.

Deleted orders and test orders

Deleted orders and test orders that were placed while Shopify Payments was in test mode aren't included in the sales reports.

Sales versus payments

Sales reports don't track money moving between you and your customers. When a sale is made, the reports show the value of goods included in the sale, not the amount of money that you've received. Depending on how you've set up your payment methods, you might not receive the actual payment until a later date.

Similarly, when you process a return, the reports show the value of goods that you're receiving, not the amount of money that you're issuing to the customer.

Chargebacks are not included in the sales reports.

View your sales reports

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports.
  2. Click Categories.
  3. Click Sales to filter the reports to show only sales reports.

Common sales report terms

The sales reports use the following common terms:

Common sales report terms
Units per transaction Equates to net quantity / total_orders.
Average order valueEquates to gross sales (excluding adjustments) - discounts (excluding adjustments) / number of orders. Adjustments include all edits, exchanges, or returns that are made to an order after it's initially created.
OrdersThe number of orders that were placed on a given date.
Gross salesEquates to product price x quantity (before taxes, shipping, discounts, and returns) for a collection of sales. Canceled, pending, and unpaid orders are included. Test and deleted orders are not included.
Gross profitThe total profit made on the product during the time period of the report. It's calculated by subtracting the product cost from the net sales. Learn more about profit by product.
Discounts
  • Equates to line item discount + order level discount share for a collection of sales.
  • The total dollar value reduction applied to a sale in the form of discounts on specific products or collections, or all products.
  • Discounts that are applied to an all products in an order are proportionally applied to the sales for the order.
  • All discounts are applied before taxes.
  • Discounts are created using discount codes, not the compare-at price.
ReturnsThe value of goods returned by a customer. Returns display as a negative number on the date the return was created.
Return feesThe value that you charge your customers for returning goods, such as restocking fee or return shipping fee. This doesn't include the returned item value.
Net salesEquates to gross sales - discounts - returns.
ShippingEquates to shipping charges - shipping discounts - refunded shipping amounts.
TaxThe total amount of taxes based on the orders.
DutiesThe total amount of duties based on the orders.

Duties appear by default only on applicable reports for stores that have enabled the collection of duties and import tax at checkout. Duties do not currently appear on the following reports:
Total salesEquates to gross sales - discounts - returns + taxes + duties + shipping charges + fees.

Total sales will be a positive number for a sale on the date that an order was placed, and a negative number for a return on the date that an order was returned.

Canceled, pending, and unpaid orders are included in the reports. Test and deleted orders are not included.

Changes to product details

The reports capture the details of an order at the time of the sale. If you change any product details, such as renaming a product or adding a product to a different product type category, then both the original product details and the changed details might appear in a report.

As a result, sometimes you might have a report that seems to list a product or order more than once, or a report that leaves out certain sales. Usually, this happens because a product detail was changed between orders and the report covers a time period that includes orders before and after the change.

Example: On June 1, you sell a product that has the title Coffee mug with logo. The next day, you change its title to Coffee mug - with logo, and then make another sale on June 7. When you open a sales report that includes the date range of June 1 to June 7, the coffee mug orders appear on 2 lines of the report because the product titles were different on the two sale dates.

Example: You sell various types of jewelry on your online store. Last year, you sold a variety of gold rings and silver rings, but none were identified with a Product type. This year, you add some product type values (Gold and Silver) to organize your ring collections. If you view a report that covers the time period both before and after you created the product type values, and that is filtered to include only rings of one of your specific product types, such as Gold, then the report won't include orders of gold rings from last year. They're left out of the report because they didn't belong to the product type category at the time of the sale.

Detailed sales reports

If your store is on the Shopify plan or higher, then you have access to the following sales reports:

Sales over time

The Sales over time report shows the number of orders and the total sales that you've made over time.

You can select a unit of time in the Group by drop-down menu to control how the data is grouped. You can also compare data from different date ranges.

The sales reports use several common terms.

Sales by month

The Sales by month report shows the number of orders and the total sales that you've made each month.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by month report
MonthThe month that the orders were placed.

Sales by day

The Sales by day report shows the number of orders and the total sales that you've made each day.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by day report
DayThe day that the orders were placed.

Sales by product

The Sales by product report shows the breakdown of total sales of your products, but does not include shipping.

Shipping isn't included because an order can consist of several products, but has a single shipping charge. For reporting purposes, the shipping charge can't be apportioned between the products in the order.

Because shipping amounts are filtered out, the tax that is shown in this report does not include taxes on shipping.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by product report
Product vendorThe vendor of your product, if you purchase it from a third party.
Product typeThe type of product you are selling. For example, hats, shirts, or shoes.
Product titleThe name for your product.
Net quantityEquates to number of sold items - number of returned items.

Sometimes the data in the product fields, such as Product type or Product title, is shown as a dash (—). This occurs if the data didn't exist at the time of the order.

Similarly, if any of this data is changed between orders, then the report might show multiple rows for the same product because the identifying information is not exactly the same. The reports always show the original values from the time of the order.

Sales by hour

The Sales by hour report shows a breakdown of sales by hour during a day.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by hour report
HourThe hour that the orders were placed.

Sales by product variant SKU

The Sales by product variant SKU report shows the breakdown of gross sales, but not the shipping cost, of your top-selling products on a more granular level than the Sales by product report.

Shipping isn't included because an order can consist of several products, but has a single shipping charge. For reporting purposes, the shipping charge can't be apportioned between the products in the order.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by product variant SKU report
Product titleThe name for your product.
Variant titleThe name of the product variant.
Variant SKUThe identification code of the product variant.
Net quantityEquates to number of sold items - number of returned items.

Sales by product vendor

The Sales by product vendor report shows your vendors, and the products provided by each vendor.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by product vendor report
Product vendorThe name of the vendor providing a product. Click the name of a vendor to see the list of products that the vendor supplies.
Net quantityEquates to number of sold items - number of returned items.

Sales by discount

The Sales by discount report shows your sales grouped by the name of the discount, such as the automatic discount name or discount code. This report helps you see how often your discount codes are applied and can help you see which discounts are converting into the most sales.

The sales value in this report includes the total order value, not just the discounted items in the order. If you have combinable discounts on your store, then you might see the same order included multiple times. The order appears once in each row for every applied discount.

This report gathers and includes information for sales that you made after May 1, 2017, 12:00am UTC, regardless of your store’s time zone.

It can take 12-72 hours before sales are reflected in the Sales by discount report.

The following terms are used in this report:

Additional terms for the sales by discount report
Discount nameThe name entered when the discount was created in the admin.
Discount IDThe ID in the admin URL for the discount.
Discount class'shipping', 'product', 'order' or 'unknown'.
Discount methodThe way that the discount is applied in the checkout, for example automatically or by entering a code.
Discount typePercentage, fixed amount, free shipping, buy X get Y, or App.
Discount codeThe code that was applied to receive the discount.
Automatic discount titleThe name of the discount that was automatically applied.
Discount amountThe total value of the reported discount.
Other discountsThe total value of other discounts applied to the same orders as this discount.
Other non-shipping discountsWhen multiple discounts apply to orders where the named discount is present, this field shows total value of other non-shipping discounts applied to the same orders as this discount.
Other shipping discountsWhen multiple discounts apply to orders where the named discount is present, this field shows the total value of other shipping discounts applied to the same orders as this discount.
Non-shipping discountsThe total value of all non-shipping discounts on orders with this discount.
Shipping discountsThe total value of all shipping discounts on orders with this discount.
Non-shipping script discounts The total value of product discounts that are the result of a script that is run by the Script Editor app.

This column is shown only if you use Shopify Plus. Script discount amounts are reported for an order only if a discount code was also used on the order.
Shipping script discountsThe total value of shipping discounts that are the result of a script that is run by the Script Editor app.

This column is shown only if you use Shopify Plus. Shipping script discount amounts are reported for an order only if a discount code was also used on the order.
OrdersThe number of orders that the discount was applied to.
Total salesThe total sales of all orders that the discount was applied to.
ShippingThe shipping amount, not including shipping discounts.

Sales by traffic referrer

The Sales by traffic referrer report shows your sales based on the specific site that your customers are coming from.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by traffic referrer report
Traffic referrer source

Indicates how the customer who placed an order reached your online store. Possible values are:

  • Direct: The customer entered your store's URL into their browser.
  • Search: The customer clicked your store from a search engine's results page.
  • Email: The customer clicked a link to your store in an email.
  • Social: The customer clicked a link on social media.
  • Unknown: The referrer source doesn't fit into one of the above cases.
Traffic referrer host

The site of the referral, for example www.google.com where the referrer source is Search, and outlook.live.com where the referrer source is Email.

For Direct sources, if the referrer can't be determined, then the host is shown as a dash. This can occur for many reasons, such as the following situations:

  • A link is clicked from email (depending on the product), a mobile app, an instant message, or a bookmark.
  • The user’s web browser has Do Not Track enabled.
  • The referrer data is blocked by a proxy or firewall.
  • A shortened URL was used as the link.

The report shows the last interaction referrer. For more information about referrers and interactions, which are also called attribution models, see Referrers and interactions.

Sales by billing location

The Sales by billing location report shows you the country or region of the billing address for an order.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by billing location report
Billing locationCountry or region of billing address.

Sales by checkout currency

The Sales by checkout currency report shows you the breakdown of your sales by customer currency used at the checkout.

The Total sales column reports the value of the sales in your local currency.

For example, Sarah's local currency is Canadian dollars, but she accepts payments in Australian dollars and US dollars as well. In her Sales by checkout currency report, Sarah sees Canadian, Australian, and US dollars listed in the Checkout currency column, followed by the number of orders made in those currencies, and the value of those orders in Canadian dollars.

Sales by channel

You can use the Sales by channel report to see the amount of sales for your various sales channels.

The sales reports use several common terms. In this report, the Sales channel name shows the name of the channel or app that the customer used to place their order, such as Online Store or Buy Button. For sales that originated as draft orders, the report shows Draft Orders. If an app that has no name was used, then the report shows Other.

Sales by customer name

The Sales by customer name report shows you the breakdown of orders by customer over a period of time.

The sales reports use several common terms. This report uses the following additional terms:

Additional terms for the sales by customer name report
Customer nameThe name of the customer.
Customer emailThe customer's email address.

Average order value over time

The Average order value over time report shows how the average order value has changed over time.

You can click Group by to select the time unit that you want to view your sales by: hour, day, week, month, quarter, year, hour of day, day of week, or month of year. The time unit specifies how the order values are grouped. You can also compare data from different date ranges.

Customize your sales reports

Use the filtering and editing features to customize your sales reports.

Most of the metrics are the same as the common terms that are used in the sales reports. You can add other columns to a report, such as the following columns:

Examples of columns that you can add to customize your sales reports
Average order value

Equates to gross sales (excluding adjustments) - discounts (excluding adjustments) / number of orders. Adjustments include all edits, exchanges, or returns that are made to an order after it's initially created.

Ordered quantityOrdered quantity = Net quantity + Returned quantity
Returned quantity

The number of items returned.

Purchase option

The type of purchase made by your customer, such as a subscription or a one-time purchase.

Example: Returns for the last 30 days

Suppose you want to see all of your returns for the last 30 days organized by product. You can filter the Sales by product report, and remove some columns that you don't want to see.

The resulting report will show each returned product's title, the returned quantity, the value of the returns, the total tax applied to the returned products, and the total sales number. Since the report deals only with returns, the total sales number for each product will be negative.

To customize the Sales by product report:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports.
  2. In the Sales section, click Sales by product.
  3. For the date range, select Last 30 days.
  4. Click Manage filters.
  5. Click Add filter.
  6. Select a filter of Sale kind from the list, and then select return.
  7. To show fewer columns, click Edit columns and then deselect Product vendor and Product type, Net sales, and Discounts.

The condensed report now shows the value of your returns by product for the last 30 days.

Gift card amounts in the reports

Gift cards are displayed in a few places in your reports. There are specific conditions that affect where they get recorded.

When you issue a gift card from your Shopify admin:

  • It isn't included as a sale in any report, nor in the total sales number in the Home sidebar.

When you sell a gift card:

  • It isn't included in any sales reports, nor the total sales number in the Home sidebar.
  • It's included in the Gift cards sales finance report.
  • The amount paid for the gift card is included in the Payments finance report under the payment method that the customer used, such as Visa or Cash.

When a customer uses a gift card to purchase something from your store:

  • It's included in sales reports. The full value of the item is claimed as sales. For example, a $20 t-shirt with $5 of that purchase paid for by a gift card displays as $20 in sales.
  • The amount paid by or refunded to a gift card is included in the Payments finance report as a gift card entry.
  • The amount paid by gift card is subtracted from the gift card balance, which is displayed in the Gift cards balance finance report.

When a gift card expires:

  • Any remaining outstanding balance on the gift card will continue to count toward your outstanding gift card balance, which is displayed in the Gift cards balance report.

When you deactivate a gift card:

  • Any remaining outstanding balance on the gift card is returned to zero and is removed from the outstanding gift card balance in your Gift cards balance finance report. This adjustment applies from the date the card is deactivated, and doesn't affect historical data.
  • It can take up to 24 hours for deactivated values to display in your Gift cards balance report.

Gift card amounts in custom reports

You can create a custom report that shows gift card gross sales, gift cards sold, and gift card discounts:

  • Gift card gross sales refers to the actual value of gift cards you sold. This represents your outstanding liability.
  • Gift cards sold refers to the amount that you sold the gift cards for, which could be less than their actual value.
  • The difference is the gift card discounts amount.

Example: You sell a $50 gift card for $40. The gift card gross sales amount is $50. The gift card sold amount is $40. The gift card discounts amount is $10.

Gift card sales amounts are not included in other sales reports.

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