In this article, you'll learn:
- How to access Analytics in CommentSold.
- How to read analytics panels.
- How to take action based on your analytics.
About Analytics
Analytics represents the analysis of raw data in a way that uncovers trends and offers insights. For shops like yours, it's the process of transforming your historical data into insights that can help improve future decision-making for your business.
For example, performance data for your various sales channels (e.g., Facebook, webstore, mobile app, etc.) can help you understand which channels are most profitable. If your mobile performance was low, you might choose to focus more marketing efforts and budget on advertising your mobile app.
With CommentSold, you can view several key metrics using interactive visual panels. These panels make it easy to view your business performance, draw inferences, and make impactful decisions for the future of your shop.
How Analytics Benefits Your Shop
- Make faster, more accurate decisions about your business.
- Track key revenue metrics like growth trends by date, margins, and order value.
- Identify revenue trends over time to inform future purchasing decisions and marketing strategies.
- Understand what tools perform well in order to strengthen your conversion rates.
- View fulfillment data and employee performance to maximize efficiency.
Access Your Analytics Panels
- Select Reporting in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
- Select Analytics from the menu at the top of the page.
- By default, your panels will display the last 30 days based on the current date. You can define your Start Date and End Date in the fields provided, then select Retrieve to refresh your panels.
View Total Revenue and All-Time Record Panels
Total Revenue sums sales data across all sales channels (e.g., mobile app, webstore, etc.) and payment methods (e.g., CS Payments, Sezzle, etc.). Revenue includes shipping and sales tax but does not include store credit and discounts.
All-Time Records shows your shop’s top-grossing days and months for the last year.
View a breakdown of total revenue by date. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific date and amount.
Take Action
- Are you hitting your sales goals? Each shop will vary on the sales goals they set and this graph gives you a quick glance at whether you're consistently hitting daily, weekly, or monthly goals. If you are consistently hitting your goals, consider increasing them as a challenge. If you aren't hitting your goals, talk with your Account Strategist and/or consider adding another live sale to your weekly rotation.
- Curious about low-revenue days? Take a look at what events you had during that time and compare them to high-revenue days. Shops that host regular live sales or promotions tend to see higher engagement (and therefore, higher revenue). You might consider creating a Live Selling Schedule to help you increase the frequency of these events.
View the top five grossing days and months for your shop. You can select the Days and Months tab to move between the two lists.
Take Action
- What made these days and/or months so lucrative? Take a look at the sales and activity reports for those days to better understand what events, promotions, and/or live sales you hosted that resulted in high revenue. You can take these learnings and apply them to slower months (i.e., add a few more live sales a month, run a much-anticipated promotion in a traditionally slow month, etc.)
View Margin and Average Order Value (AOV) Panels
Margin displays as a percentage of your product cost divided by revenue from the product. For example, if a shirt costs $10 from a wholesaler and we sell it for $18, the margin is 55.5% ( [10 / 18] * 100 = 55.5%). Here, the analytics panel shows you your margin by date, meaning it's summing total costs for items sold that day and dividing it by the total revenue for those items.
Average Order Value (AOV) calculates and displays the total value of orders placed on a specific day divided by the number of orders for that day. For example, if a shop’s total revenue for a day was $5,000 and it had a total of 32 orders, then the AOV would be $156.25 ( 5,000 * 32 = 156.25).
View a breakdown of your margins by date. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific date and percentage.
Take Action
- What is an ideal margin? Typically, a 50% margin is considered average while 55, 60, and 65% are good, very good, and excellent, respectively.
- Evaluate your pricing strategy. Take a profit-first approach and aim for a 3x markup on every item in your shop.
View a breakdown of average order value by date. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific date and amount.
Take Action
- Are you upselling at checkout? Consider enabling Secondary Offer for your webstore, account page, and app so CommentSold can recommend products during checkout. Recommendations are based on a registered customer’s past shopping history.
- Create a Shop the Look or bundle items. Showcase a complete look or items that complement each other and encourage shoppers to purchase all items in the look (i.e., Got a summer wedding? We've put together the ultimate wedding guest look). Learn more about Shop the Look posts here.
- Consider enabling Sezzle as a payment method. Sezzle is a "buy now, pay later" option that allows shoppers to split payments into four installments, which encourages them to place larger orders. Learn how to enable Sezzle here.
View Order Fulfillment Panels
Orders Fulfilled by Employee displays the total number of orders fulfilled for a specific date and breaks down that total by the number of orders filled by specific employees.
Aggregate Orders Fulfilled by Employee is similar but shows the total number of orders fulfilled by an employee for the entire date range you defined at the top of your Analytics page.
View a breakdown of orders fulfilled by date and employee. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific date and employee totals. Employee names appear to the right of their total and each employee has a color assigned so you can easily locate an employee in the graph.
Take Action
- Is fulfillment matching sales and order volume? Each shop should have and communicate an expected turnaround time on fulfillment (i.e., orders are fulfilled within 24 hours of the purchase) to their employees. Compare fulfillment volume to order volume to determine whether your shop is meeting, exceeding, or falling behind this goal. If you’re falling behind, you can start identifying potential causes (e.g., poor warehouse layout, products not stored in correct locations, employee productivity, etc.).
- Are individual employees meeting their fulfillment goals? View individual employee order fulfillment numbers. If a particular employee looks under their goal, take a look at the day, the length of their shift, etc. to pinpoint any causes. It’s a great coaching opportunity to identify what might be preventing the employee from hitting that communicated goal.
View a breakdown of total orders fulfilled by each employee for your defined date range. Employee names appear to the left of their total and each employee has an assigned color so you can easily locate that employee in the graph.
- Are individual employees meeting their fulfillment goals? View individual employee order fulfillment numbers. If a particular employee looks under their goal, take a look at the day, the length of their shift, etc. to pinpoint any causes. It’s a great coaching opportunity to identify what might be preventing the employee from hitting that communicated goal.
View Revenue by Payment Method Panels
Revenue by Payment Method sums sales data across all payment methods and breaks down that total by individual payment method (e.g., CS Payments, Sezzle, etc.). Revenue does not include store credit and discounts.
Aggregate Revenue by Payment Method is similar but shows the total revenue by payment method for the entire date range you defined at the top of your Analytics page.
View a breakdown of revenue by date and payment method. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific date and payment method totals. Payment method names appear to the right of their total and each method has a color assigned so you can easily locate that method in the graph.
View a breakdown of revenue by payment method for your defined date range. Payment method names appear to the left of their total and each method has an assigned color so you can easily locate that method in the graph
View Revenue by Sales Channel Panels
Revenue by Sales Channel sums sales data across all sales channels and breaks down that total by individual sales channel (e.g., webstore, mobile app, etc). CommentSold also includes the following channels as more refined sources: favorites (in the app), live replays, secondary offers, product lists (on the shopper’s account page), and more. Revenue by Sales Channel does not include discounts.
Aggregate Revenue by Sales Channel is similar but shows the total revenue by sales channel (i.e., payments and revenue, not including discounts, coupons, shipping fees, taxes, etc.) for the entire date range you defined at the top of your Analytics page.
View a breakdown of revenue by date and sales channel. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific date and sales channel totals. Sales channel names appear to the right of their total and each channel has an assigned color so you can easily locate that channel in the graph.
View a breakdown of revenue by sales channel for your defined date range. Sales channel names appear to the left of their total and each channel has an assigned color so you can easily locate that channel in the graph.
View Customer Growth and Viewership Panels
Customer Growth shows both the total number of registered shoppers and purchasing customers over the date range you defined at the top of your Analytics page. In doing so, you can chart whether your growth increases or decreases during that time.
Average Viewership and Revenue Per Minute shows your live sale viewership totals by platform (e.g., Facebook, mobile app, etc.) and the total revenue per minute on those platforms.
View a snapshot of registered shoppers and purchasing customers. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific totals by date. Totals update at the end of the day (e.g., 11:59 PM of your shop’s time zone).
Take Action
- Are you converting registered shoppers to paying customers? Ideally as the number of registered shoppers increases, so should the number of paying customers. If your customer metric is static or declining, you could consider running a promotion or enabling the First Purchase Discount email automation to send those new customers a unique-to-them discount on their first purchase with your shop.
View a breakdown of live sale viewership and revenue totals by platform. You can move your mouse along the graph to view the specific date and totals.
Platform names and data types (e.g., viewership vs. revenue) appear to the right of their total and each data point has an assigned color so you can easily locate that data point in the graph. Viewership metrics appear as dotted lines while revenue totals appear as solid lines.
Learn More
- Create a Live Selling Schedule. Learn how to determine the right number of live sales for your shop, including different types of live sales you can host.
- Run a Report on Sales Channel Activity. Dive deep with a report that looks at the details for sales by various sales channels (e.g., Facebook, webstore, mobile app, etc.).
- Export Shop Data as CSV Export. Export shop data and build your own panels, spreadsheets, and more in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.