WooCommerce Analytics and Reviewing Your Site’s Sales

Look, we previously had a full article where we covered what WooCommerce actually is. Now I want to tell you about a relatively new part of it that I think a lot of people overlook: WooCommerce Analytics. Truth is, one of the things that grows an online store is knowing what’s going on — that is, understanding the data you get your hands on and putting it to use. That’s exactly what WooCommerce Analytics does: it gathers every metric you need to grow your store in one place and presents it in a way that keeps you from getting lost.

Let’s take a look at exactly what we’re dealing with.

What Is WooCommerce Analytics?

There was a time when WooCommerce had a section called “Reports.” You’d go into it via WooCommerce > Reports and get a general overview of your site’s sales. It wasn’t very detailed, though — it mostly gave you a surface-level view.

Now, in newer versions of WooCommerce, a fresh section has been added called Analytics, which does the job of those old reports far more professionally and completely, examining your site’s sales down to the finest detail.

One thing you absolutely need to know: with the addition of the Analytics section, the discounts (coupons) menu has been split off from WooCommerce’s main menu and moved under the Marketing menu. So if one day you go looking for your coupons and can’t find them, don’t be surprised — that’s where they are.

The Three Main Sections of WooCommerce Analytics

This whole tool rests on three main pillars. Let me open each one up for you.

• Performance: Here you can see your sales chart across different time ranges — last week, last month, last year. Its job is to give you a general picture of the situation so you can understand how your store is doing.
• Charts: I like this section. Here you can examine any metric you want separately: total sales, returns, orders, products sold, taxes, and plenty more. Just click on any item. And don’t forget — you can download the data from each section as a CSV file and take it anywhere you like to work with it.
• Leaderboards: This is the last part of the dashboard. Here it shows you which products and which categories performed best. In other words, without you having to sit down and crunch the numbers yourself, it puts your store’s stars right in front of you.

Revenue: Calculating Your Sales

Look, sales are the heart of every business. They’re your store’s pulse. With WooCommerce Analytics, you can compare each month’s sales against the same month in the previous year, and that comes in really handy.

For example, say you tested a new marketing technique this month. How do you know whether it worked? Right here. You go into the Revenue section and see whether your sales went up after this compared to previous months. It’s that simple. You no longer have to guess — the numbers are right in front of you.

Coupons: How Discounts Perform in Your Site’s Sales

Here an important question comes up that a lot of people skip over: those special sales and discounts you launched — did they really affect your sales, or did they just cut into your profit margin?

With this section’s chart, you can see whether there were days when sales and discount usage hit their peak. Then you can go looking for the cause: was it because of a sale? Advertising? Or something else? Once you understand this relationship, you’ll make much better decisions for your future ads and campaigns.

I recommend checking a long-term range too. That way you’ll understand how users responded over the whole period you were offering discounts, and whether they welcomed them at all.

There’s one more thing you can do: expand and widen the chart’s time range. Then you can pinpoint exactly the discounts that drew in the most customers. After that, sit down and study the strengths of those successful discounts so you can come back stronger next time.

Loyal Customers: Who Your Best Customers Are

Take this one seriously. If you know who your top customers are, what they want, and what they need, you can offer them better service — and that has a remarkable effect on your sales rate.

Now here’s a trick: set your chart’s range to a year or more. If you notice that users all spent roughly the same amounts, that’s a warning sign (meaning your customers only bought from you once and never came back — the buying chain has been broken). This is where you need to sit down and think about how to bring them back.

Orders: An Overview of Your Site’s Sales

In this section you can see which items perform best. Focus on those and figure out why they sell well or why they’re weak. On top of that, with the charts you can find out which categories have improved compared to previous years.

For example, one of your products might have been among your bestsellers last year, but its sales dropped this year. So now the question is: what should you do to bring that product back up? This very section helps you answer that question.

Your Store’s Best Products: Products Sold

If your products are seasonal (meaning they’re bought more during a particular time of year), this section is gold. You can use last year’s data to perform better this year.

Let me give an example: suppose you have a winter clothing store. By looking at last winter’s data, you’ll know exactly what sold well and when. Now the key question is: those factors that made one of your products successful last year — can you apply them across all of this year’s products and lift them all up? The answer is usually yes; you just have to read the data correctly.

Wrapping Up

Here’s the gist: with the data and information it gives you, WooCommerce Analytics takes you by the hand and helps you take your store higher. Working with it isn’t hard at all — it’s simple, and the information it gives you is accurate and reliable. So if you haven’t checked it out yet, I suggest opening it up once and playing around with it. I’m sure you’ll learn things about your store you’d never even thought about before. Take care! 🙂

Editorial Staff

This content is produced by the Ertano editorial team. The quality and accuracy of the content have been reviewed and approved by Reza Rad.

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