Shopify

Your Shopify reports are holding you back.

Want to get real insights?

This is the first post in our new series @LazyAnalystBetterReporting on why your e-commerce software’s built-in reports aren’t enough and how you can extract the right data to drive the action your business needs.

We’re starting with Shopify because, let’s face it, it’s the backbone of most e-commerce businesses.

It’s great for storefront management, order processing, and basic reporting.

But when it comes to real business intelligence? Too basic.

While Shopify provides a general view of revenue, orders, and some customer behaviors, it lacks critical insights that you need to optimize acquisition, retention, and profitability.

🚨 Marketing Blind Spots

One major gap is Shopify’s inability to break down LTV by source, leaving you blind to which acquisition channels are bringing in the most valuable customers over time.

Or how about attribution beyond the last click?

I have a whole series @LazyAnalystAttribution about why this is so important.

In Shopify, the entire sale is credited to the final interaction before purchase.

However, most customers engage with multiple touchpoints (ads, emails, organic search, referrals) before converting.

🚨 Revenue & Sales Gaps

One major gap is Profitability by Product or Category.

Shopify does not automatically factor in external expenses like ad spend, transaction fees, or operational costs, meaning you might see a product as profitable when, in reality, its margins are much thinner (or even negative!) once all costs are accounted for.

Another limitation is that Shopify does not offer clear reporting on which recommendations for related products actually result in additional purchases.

You are left guessing whether your upsell and cross-sells are effective…

These are just very few examples of how Shopify’s native reporting leaves gaps in critical e-commerce decision-making.

I have a whole catalog.

If your business is looking to scale effectively, you must extract all that valuable raw data from Shopify and connect it to reporting tools that let you build custom reports.

To unlock even more insights, you need to extract your Shopify data and combine it with marketing, finance, and inventory data from your CRM, accounting tools, email marketing software, etc.

That’s how you move from looking at basic charts to making high-impact changes in your departments.

What’s the biggest reporting gap you’ve noticed in Shopify?

@LazyAnalyst – less work, more insights!

We bring your Shopify reporting to the next level.