Growth Hack – Must have e-commerce business reports

Introduction

Reports in every business is a crucial factor that is driving the business towards success. This is because reports play a vital role in those business decisions that are going to affect the business in the long run. Ecommerce business reports are classified under five major domains: Web traffic, Conversions, inventory, sales, purchases, shipping, and returns.

Lets deep dive into each one of them one by one to better understand why we need them.

Web Traffic

Retail is not about selling stuff online and offline, but more about building your brand. Despite selling on multiple renowned marketplaces, every retailer has its own online ecommerce platform.

Web traffic reports are the key tool to analyze how your brand value is growing in a period. This is calculated in terms of the number of active sessions and pageviews in a period.

Web traffic reports help give an idea to your marketing team on how to improve inbound marketing strategies of your brand and grasp more and more customers.

Conversions

Conversion reports are the fruitfulness of your current marketing strategy. Conversion reports give you a detailed overview of

• The total number of orders placed by the customer.
• Total visits to your store by the customer in the last 30 days
• The origin of the customer’s first visit to your store.
• The total number of visits the customer has made to your store
• The number of days between the first visit and the most recent visit

Analyzing all these details helps you plan out where you lack in your current marketing strategies. Also, a question arises, “ How can we minimize the conversion time of our customers?” Figuring out this answer will help you know whether you need to focus on creating awareness, attracting customers, or need to delight your existing customer.

Inventory

Retail is an art and a science, and inventory reporting is an important piece of that science,” says Chris Guillot of Merchant Method. “They help you tell a compelling business narrative that’s backed by data. That data doesn’t have to be ‘big data’ because directional data is more informative than no data at all.

Inventory Audit Report

A must-have report, Inventory audit report checks to see that the company’s inventory procedures are functioning as they should.

The inventory audit report should be the first report to be analyzed. It helps in analyzing and reporting the actual stock in the inventory at any present-day. It helps you with the tax filing and keep records of all your past inventories.

The frequency of inventory audit depends on the size of your business.

Small Business – Once a year or right before the sales season.    This is helpful for small businesses as they don’t have many products.

Medium Business – Periodic count once every one or two months. Depending upon the warehouse size and the company needs.

Large Business –  For a large business, the cycle method is the most effective solution. In this method, the company may have employees dedicated to doing product count of warehouses on a day to day basis.

Inventory Summary Report

Next is the inventory summary report. It denotes the total quantity of all the stock across different warehouses as well as the value of all the stock. This gives you the exact figure of how much capital you have in your inventory.

This, in turn, helps you in forecasting, budgeting, and do financial planning for your business.

Gives the value of all your stock across different stores

Low Stock Report

Retailers are missing out on nearly $1 trillion in sales because they don’t have on hand what customers want to buy in their stores, according to a study of about 600 households and several retailers conducted last month by IHL Group.

The low-stock report can safeguard you from such losses. As the name suggests, it helps you by reminding you of the stock that is running low in the inventory so that you can replenish the stock on time. This not only benefits in future sales but also on the brand image. As customers generally don’t like it when the thing they want is not available in the store.

Out of Stock Report

When you have no stock left of the particular product in your inventory, it’s termed as out of stock. As the name suggests, out of stock report showcases the same thing.

An “out-of-stock” situation includes empty shelves (encountered by 32% of shoppers), failure to find the staff to help (16%), found staff, but not merchandise (17%) or the price in-store didn’t match an ad (18%), among other reasons (17%). All told, worldwide, shoppers experience $984 billion worth of out-of-stocks, $144.9 billion in North America alone, according to IHL.

The out-of-stock report helps in better management of the resources in the future along with a focus on the warehouse management system, thus saving you from potential losses.

In case you fail to respond to the alarm, you still can know which stock needs to be replenished.

Inventory Velocity Report

Another most crucial report is the Inventory velocity report. It denotes the speed at which the inventory is cycled within a given period for each and individual item.

It is defined as:

Inventory Turns = Cost of Goods Sold / Average Inventory On-Hand

Inventory turnover is one of the most crucial financial ratios for store owners. It is a measure of the liquidity of your inventory and helps you to determine how to increase sales through inventory control.

Particularly useful for buying and reordering decisions

Inventory Batch and Expiry Report

Do you know,

Inventory shrinkage in the retail industry accounts for a loss of $34 billion annually. The primary reason for this is the wastage of the perishable inventory. The retail food business is the one that is profoundly impacted by inventory shrinkage.

Last but not least, every product owned by you comes with a batch number along with the expiry date. The expiry date, as the name suggests, is essential to track the expiration of items. As for the batch number, it helps you to trace down defective products back to where they belong.

This is especially useful for all those perishable inventories, where batch and expiration reports are crucial as it needs to be served as FIFO (First Come First Out) basis.

Sales

Order Summary Report

Order Summary Report or otherwise known as the Order Fulfillment Report, is the in-depth breakdown of all the orders placed within a particular time frame.

A good OSR(Order Summary Report) must contain the status of the order, payment information, payment status, product SKU along with store information from where it is fetched.

Sales by Product Report

Dead inventory is a silent killer to your retail business.

According to a study,Estimates indicate dead inventory is costing the US retail industry $50 billion a year. Because of this, it is of utmost importance to have an in-depth performance report of each product that you have in your inventory. Sales by product report give you precisely that.

The report consists of everything related to each product you sold. Example, product name, no of units sold, no of orders received for the particular product, total discount offered, etc.

This powerful product-specific sales report helps you in figuring out whether you should keep the product in hand or replace it with some other high performing product to minimize the risk of dead stock.

Sales Velocity Report

Every business thrives on sales. The sales velocity report is the measure of your business’s performance.

Sales Velocity = (No of Opportunities x Average deal size  x Conversion rate) / Sales Cycle Length

The above formula gives you the revenue generated by your business each day. More the sales velocity, the more successful your business is.

One can try to increase their sales velocity by either expanding the numerator or try to decrease the sales cycle length. A sales cycle length is the measure of time within which an MQL(Marketing Qualified Lead) is transformed to SQL(Sales Qualified Lead) and finally becomes your paid customer.

Orderhive also offers Sales Velocity Report of each product sold for each store you own.

Sales by Stores

No retailer in today’s competitive market sells products in one store. Instead, they prefer to trade on multiple stores to maximize sales and profit. Selling in multiple stores opens up doors to different buyer groups.

Sales by Stores report showcases the sales in each individual store. They are showcasing gross amount, total tax, and the total discount offered by that storefront.

This helps managers to reshape their sales processes along with planning out future sales strategies. 

Sales by Customer

Customer retention is also important as much as customer acquisition. Customer Engagement is the key to building your brand. Keeping this in mind, sales by customer report is a crucial element in analyzing what your customers are purchasing.

Do you know,

80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a company that offers personalized experiences.

And

59% of customers say that personalization influences their shopping decision. Sales by customer reports are especially helpful in making decisions about personalized offers and discounts as per customer purchasing preferences.

Purchase

Purchase Summary Report

Retail business thrives on import and export or liquidity of goods. The more the flow of goods happens through your business, the more successful your business becomes.

As such, where sales are involved in the business model, then somewhere purchasing of goods is also involved.

The purchase summary report deals with your retail inventory purchases within your retail business. This report will help you get a summary of purchase orders by date, suppliers, and warehouse.

The purchase summary report gives the buying price of every product purchased along with details like SKU, quantity, tax, tax percentage, and payment status along with other details.

Purchase by Product

As the name suggests, purchase by product report delivers the purchasing details of any given product by date. This comes in handy to analyze whether the items you are frequently purchasing are the items that are frequently getting sold or if your purchased products are slowly converting into dead stock within your inventory.

Dead inventory is a silent killer to your retail business.

According to a study,

“Estimates indicate dead inventory is costing the US retail industry $50 billion a year.”

Analyzing this report can prevent a massive loss in your business.

Purchase by Supplier

There is an old proverb, saying, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” It does apply in the business domain too.

Purchase by supplier report showcases the products you have purchased from a specific supplier along with its quantity and gross within a time frame. Apart from that, it is a measure of the relationship/partnership you have with the supplier.

Analyzing the partnership, you had a particular supplier; if you feel, you can propose B2B deals with the supplier. This, in turn, might reduce your purchasing cost of the products you frequently buy through that supplier. 

Product Average Purchase Price Report

No retailer purchases a product from a single supplier. Instead, retailers rely on multiple suppliers for purchasing the top performing products. Different suppliers offer the same product at different prices. Over time, you can lose track of purchasing prizes and could end up buying the products at the market’s high rate.

Product Average Purchase Price Report helps you keep in check from purchasing the products at a high cost. Also, it gives you an in-depth understanding of inflation in product prizes at any given point of time. If the inflation curve of the product is rising exponentially, maybe you should consider hiking the selling price.

Shipping

Shipment Summary Report

According to a study,

“Almost half (40%) of shoppers said delivery is the single most decisive factor in the shopping experience”

Also,

“Delivery issues cost retailers a sum of $333 million every year.” 

Competition in the retail business is tough, especially when you know that customers nowadays have multiple options to buy from, and most of those options are offering free shipment.

Shipment Summary Report provides you with all the necessary details related to the shipment, i.e., shipping carrier, shipping charges, the value of the shipment, shipping country, etc.

Analyzing shipment summary reports have a couple of benefits. Few of them are as follows:

• It helps you in determining the final selling price of the product you are shipping.
• Analyze whether you are losing money by using multiple shipments
• Analyze the shipment cost of different shipping partners for the same destination.
• Track down shipments in case of customer complaints about late delivery.

Shipment by Carriers Report

Shipment by Carriers Report represents the number of shipments by different carriers along with shipment value and shipping cost for a particular time interval.

Different shipping carriers charge different shipping charges. This report is a perfect platform to scrutinize the total shipping cost by each carrier based on the total shipment value. Also, this report helps you to check:

• Which carrier is your prime choice for completing most shipments
• Whether there is an alternative carrier option that is more reliable and affordable than your present carrier options.

Returns

Returns Summary Report

Let’s face it. Every retailer hates to deal with returns. However, returns are the inevitable part of the retail business model. Most customers nowadays expect a simple and free return process.

According to a study,

“92% of consumers surveyed said that they would buy again if the product return process is easy”

A customer can return a product based on many reasons. A returns summary report shows you the product, prize, return date, along with the return reason.

Return summary report helps you analyze the shipping costs you are bearing based on the number of returns you are facing in a particular time frame. 

Returns Reason Report

As the name suggests, returns reasons report showcases the number of returns you are getting based on the reason provided by your customer.

A retail businessman sees return reasons as valuable feedback from the customers and always tends to put efforts to excel in this service.

Knowing the return reason can help you know,

• Whether the issue was regarding the delivery of the product or an issue with the product itself.

• If people are returning products, marking as no reason, then the chances are that you are the prey of the return fraud.
  
• If the issue is on the delivery side, you need to change the delivery process with immediate effect.

Returns by Product Report

Returns by product report archives the product returned data based on date. This allows you clear visibility of which products, quantity, and the value of the returned products in the report data.

If the same products are returned frequently because of damage or quality issues, then QC of those required products needs to be done.

Returns by Customer Report

Last but not least, returns by customer reports show the total number of returns by a specific customer. This is helpful in safeguarding yourself from return fraudulent.

Steve Prebble, president of Appriss Retail, said,

“Return fraud is up 35% over last year, at the same time that retailers are struggling to find a balance between making returns as frictionless as possible and keeping costs in check.”

A study reports,

“The amount of online purchases returned in 2019 is worth $41B.”

If a customer is returning multiple products in a short period of time, the chances are that it’s a case of return fraud. You might want to check the return reasons, and if something comes up fishy, you can file a complaint against the customer for violating your returns policy.

Top Customer Report

This is a unique report. Earlier, we have witnessed sales by customer report where we get to see what are the products the customer is purchasing, and based on that. We can offer them personalized suggestions. This will impact their purchasing decisions.

Top customer report shows which customer purchases from you frequently and what’s the amount they are spending. Frequent customers are your most valuable assets, and this data can help you retain these valuable assets by wooing them with appropriate discounts for being a valuable customer. This creates a customer-retail bonding, and the customer is more likely to stick with you in the long run.