eCommerce Analytics

‍How to Choose the Best eCommerce Analytics Tools in 2026 

How to choose the best eCommerce analytics tools in 2026. Compare profit-first platforms, AI capabilities, SKU-level analytics and omnichannel insights.

In 2025, most brands were still comparing dashboards. In 2026, serious eCommerce operators are comparing decision systems. The market for eCommerce Analytics Tools has matured dramatically. Many of the leading platforms claim some variation of: 

  • AI-powered insights
  • Unified data
  • Real-time reporting
  • Attribution clarity

If you’re evaluating the Best eCommerce Analytics Tools this year, the question isn’t:

“Which one has the nicest dashboard?”

It’s:

“Which system will most reliably improve our profitability and decision velocity?”

This guide walks you through exactly how to choose the best analytics tool, using a 2026-ready, profit-first framework.

Why Choosing an Analytics Platform Is Harder in 2026

Three structural shifts have made the decision more complex than ever.

1. Revenue growth is harder, margin pressure is real

Customer acquisition costs have remained volatile. Paid media efficiency is inconsistent. Discounting is creeping back into many categories. Meanwhile, fulfilment and return costs continue to erode margin quietly in the background. That means the traditional headline eCommerce Performance Metrics - revenue, ROAS, MER - are no longer sufficient.

In 2026, brands that win understand:

  • Contribution margin by SKU
  • True customer payback period
  • LTV by first product purchased
  • Return-adjusted profitability
  • Channel-specific profit distortion

If your analytics tool doesn’t model those properly, you’re making strategic decisions on incomplete information. And incomplete information compounds at scale.

2. AI is everywhere, but not equally useful

Almost every vendor now markets itself as one of the Best AI tools for eCommerce.

But here’s the distinction that matters:

There’s AI that decorates dashboards.


And there’s AI that reduces cognitive load.

The difference?

If your team still exports CSVs to Excel to sense-check numbers, the AI layer isn’t doing its job.

In 2026, meaningful AI inside eCommerce data analysis platforms should:

  • Explain why profit moved
  • Detect anomalies before you notice them
  • Connect product performance to marketing efficiency
  • Suggest budget reallocations
  • Generate cross-team summaries

Anything less is just a chat interface sitting on top of charts.

3. Attribution still isn’t perfect, and never will be

Post-privacy changes, cross-device journeys, and marketplace growth mean perfect attribution remains theoretical. Strong analytics platforms don’t promise perfection.

Instead, they:

  • Offer blended views
  • Provide cohort-level clarity
  • Focus on trend reliability over channel vanity
  • Help you operate despite uncertainty

You’re not buying accuracy. You’re buying decision confidence.

The Profit-First Framework for Evaluating eCommerce Analytics Tools

Instead of starting with feature comparisons, start with this six-part evaluation model. This framework separates reporting tools from strategic operating systems.

1. Profit Intelligence Depth

This is the single biggest differentiator in 2026. Many platforms calculate revenue and ad spend.

Fewer calculate:

  • Cost of goods
  • Shipping & fulfilment
  • Payment processing
  • Marketplace fees
  • Return costs
  • Discount depth impact

And even fewer allow you to analyse those costs at:

  • SKU level
  • Channel level
  • Campaign level
  • Customer cohort level

If your contribution margin visibility lives in a finance spreadsheet rather than your analytics platform, you don’t have integrated insight. You have fragmentation and fragmentation slows decisions.

Book a Conjura demo and learn more about our profit-first analytics platform.

2. Decision-Grade AI (Not Cosmetic AI)

When evaluating the Best Analytics tools for eCommerce, ask a blunt question:

“Will this reduce analysis time by at least 30%?”

Because that’s the real ROI.

Strong AI layers in 2026 should:

  • Surface unexpected profit shifts
  • Highlight SKU-level anomalies
  • Flag inventory risks tied to performance
  • Provide plain-English explanations
  • Allow natural-language querying

If your marketing lead can ask:

“Why did contribution margin drop last week?”

And receive a clear breakdown across product, channel, and return rate that’s decision-grade AI. If they get a graph and have to interpret it manually, that’s still reporting.

Learn more about Conjura’s Owly AI Agent here.

3. Cross-Functional Alignment

One of the most underestimated evaluation criteria.

Marketing optimises for ROAS.


Merchandising optimises for sell-through.


Finance optimises for margin.


Operations optimises for stock.

If those teams operate from different systems, the business fragments.

The strongest eCommerce Analytics Tools unify:

  • Product analytics
  • Marketing performance
  • Customer cohorts
  • Inventory signals
  • Financial metrics

In one operating layer. Because profit lives at the intersection of those disciplines, not inside one dashboard.

4. Attribution Realism & Blended Measurement

In 2026, sophisticated brands are less obsessed with “which platform gets credit” and more focused on:

  • Is performance trending positively?
  • Are new customer cohorts profitable?
  • Is payback improving?
  • Are we scaling profitable SKUs or just high-revenue ones?

Choose tools that:

  • Provide blended reporting
  • Support first-party tracking where possible
  • Allow cohort-level evaluation
  • Emphasise trend direction over platform ego

Attribution clarity should guide action, not spark arguments.

5. Data Infrastructure & Governance

This becomes critical as brands scale.

Ask:

  • How reliable are the integrations?
  • How frequently does data refresh?
  • Is warehouse export available?
  • Are permissions manageable by role?
  • Can we audit metric definitions?

The best eCommerce data analysis platforms reduce the need for shadow spreadsheets and metric disputes. If teams debate numbers weekly, trust is broken and without trust, insight doesn’t get acted on.

6. Speed to Insight

Perhaps the most overlooked metric.

Analytics doesn’t create value when it’s accurate. It creates value when it’s timely.

In 2026, leading teams expect:

  • Automated performance summaries
  • Scheduled profit reports
  • Slack/email alerts
  • Shareable dashboards
  • Quick scenario modelling

If insight arrives after the decision window has passed, it’s decorative.

Learn more about how Conjura’s daily updates and slack alerts can help your business keep in the loop.

The Best Analytics Tools for eCommerce in 2026

If you’re researching the Best eCommerce Analytics Tools in 2026, the landscape can look fairly crowded. But once you evaluate based on profit intelligence, AI depth, and operational usability, the shortlist becomes much clearer. Here are five platforms genuinely shaping how modern brands approach eCommerce data analysis this year, starting with the one built specifically for profit-driven operators.

1. Conjura – The Profit Intelligence & AI Decision Platform

If 2026 is about moving from dashboards to decision engines, Conjura is leading that shift.

Conjura is designed around one core philosophy:

Revenue is vanity. Profit is strategy.

Unlike many analytics tools that stop at revenue + ad spend, Conjura models true SKU-level profitability, giving brands clarity on:

  • Contribution margin by product
  • Profit by channel
  • Campaign-level margin impact
  • Return-adjusted performance
  • Inventory-linked sales dynamics

What makes Conjura different?

1️⃣ SKU-Level Analytics That Actually Drive Decisions

Conjura doesn’t just show which products generate revenue. It shows which products generate profit, after COGS, shipping, fees, and returns. That changes merchandising decisions instantly. Many brands discover that their “hero product” is quietly eroding margin once return rates and fulfilment costs are factored in.

That level of visibility is where strategic leverage lives.

2️⃣ Omnichannel Analytics in One Operating Layer

Modern brands don’t sell in one place.

They sell across:

  • Shopify or DTC stores
  • Amazon & marketplaces
  • Paid social
  • Google
  • Email & CRM
  • Retail partners

Conjura pulls that fragmented ecosystem into a unified profit view. Instead of reconciling numbers across platforms, teams operate from one consistent financial truth. That alone eliminates hours of spreadsheet work per week.

Read our full Discounted Sunglasses Case Study here and find out how we optimized their omnichannel sales strategy.

3️⃣ Owly AI: Decision-Grade Artificial Intelligence

Owly AI moves Conjura beyond reporting.

It allows teams to:

  • Ask natural language performance questions
  • Instantly generate reports
  • Surface anomalies automatically
  • Receive strategic recommendations
  • Understand why profit moved — not just that it moved

This is where Conjura stands apart from traditional Best AI tools for eCommerce claims.

Owly AI isn’t decorative. It’s operational.

If your Head of Marketing can ask:

“Why did margin drop last week across paid social?”

And get a breakdown by SKU, discount depth, and return rate, that’s real AI leverage.

4️⃣ Cross-Team Alignment

Conjura serves:

  • Marketing
  • Merchandising
  • Finance
  • Leadership

Because profit lives at the intersection of those teams. That’s why many fast-scaling brands treat Conjura as their profit operating system, not just an analytics dashboard.

2. Northbeam – Advanced Attribution & Media Measurement

If your primary concern is paid media performance and attribution modelling, Northbeam has become one of the most respected platforms in that niche.

Northbeam focuses heavily on:

  • Multi-touch attribution
  • Media mix modelling
  • Blended performance reporting
  • Channel incrementality

It’s particularly strong for brands spending heavily across Meta, Google, TikTok, and emerging paid channels.

However, Northbeam is attribution-first, not profit-first. While it excels in marketing measurement, it doesn’t offer the same SKU-level operational profitability modelling as platforms built specifically for holistic analytics.

Best for: performance marketing-heavy brands optimising media allocation at scale.

3. Daasity – Data Infrastructure for Mid-Market Brands

Daasity sits closer to the “analytics infrastructure” category.

It consolidates:

  • eCommerce data
  • Marketing data
  • Inventory data
  • Operational sources

And provides customisable reporting layers.

Where Daasity shines is flexibility. Brands with internal analysts can build fairly robust models and dashboards on top of the unified data.

But this flexibility comes with complexity. It often requires more hands-on management than plug-and-play platforms.

Best for: brands with in-house data resources that want strong control over modelling.

4. Peel Insights – Lightweight Profit Visibility for Shopify Brands

Peel has grown in popularity among Shopify-native brands seeking clearer marketing and product performance visibility without enterprise complexity.

It offers:

  • Marketing efficiency reporting
  • Product-level performance
  • Blended views of ad spend

Peel tends to be simpler and more focused on clarity rather than advanced modelling.

However, compared to deeper profit intelligence platforms, it can be lighter on granular cost modelling and cross-functional operational depth.

Best for: smaller-to-mid brands wanting accessible performance clarity without heavy setup.

5. ThoughtMetric – Attribution-Focused Analytics for DTC Brands

ThoughtMetric focuses strongly on attribution accuracy and marketing performance transparency.

It’s designed to give brands:

  • Cross-channel attribution
  • Revenue allocation insights
  • Campaign clarity

Like Northbeam, it leans heavily into attribution reliability.

But it is less positioned around SKU-level contribution modelling or inventory-linked analytics.

Best for: DTC brands looking to tighten attribution confidence.

Why Conjura Ranks #1 in 2026

Many platforms can tell you which channel drove revenue.

Fewer can tell you:

  • Which product is truly profitable
  • Which cohort will pay back CAC fastest
  • Which SKU is draining margin through returns
  • Where marketing spend is amplifying low-margin products
  • How inventory constraints distort channel performance

Conjura’s strength is connecting all of those layers.

That’s why, when evaluating the Best Analytics tools for eCommerce, brands increasingly prioritise:

  • SKU-level profitability
  • Omnichannel integration
  • AI-powered decision support
  • Cross-team alignment

Rather than isolated reporting dashboards. In 2026, analytics isn’t about more data. It’s about clearer profit intelligence. And that’s where Conjura leads.

Common Mistakes Brands Make When Choosing

Choosing based on demo polish

The slickest dashboard isn’t necessarily the deepest model.

Overweighting attribution precision

Perfect attribution doesn’t exist. Operational clarity matters more.

Underestimating cost modelling complexity

Shipping tiers, return costs, marketplace fees, and discounting materially distort margin.

If those aren’t accounted for, reported profitability is inflated.

Buying for marketing only

The right analytics system should serve:

  • Paid media
  • CRM
  • Merchandising
  • Finance
  • Leadership

If finance doesn’t trust the numbers, adoption will stall.

The Real Question to Ask in 2026

Instead of:

“Is this one of the Best eCommerce Analytics Tools?”

Ask:

“Will this platform increase our profitable decision speed?”

Because that’s what drives competitive advantage.

Not prettier charts. Not more data. Better decisions, made faster, with margin clarity.

Unlock SKU-level, AI-powered eCommerce analytics and book your Conjura demo.

Subscribe to Conjura News 🗞️

Discover the latest eCommerce guides, articles and tips to help your brand grow.

Thanks for subscribing! 🔥
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
See Conjura in action
Book a demo 👋

Book A Demo

We'd love to show you around

Book a demo with one of our team to discover the power of Conjura and how it can transform your business.

Book a Demo

4

0

0

0

0

1

8

2

3

4

5

6

%

Revenue Increase

"I’m a big fan of Conjura and there’s so much more for us to keep getting from it.”

Kayla Wilson, Marketing Director @ Furniturebox

Explore the

Platform

Conjura Demo Graphic

plans

Get Started

plans

plans

Related articles

Our platform is designed to empower businesses of all sizes to work smarter and achieve their goals with confidence.

‍How to Choose the Best eCommerce Analytics Tools in 2026 

How to choose the best eCommerce analytics tools in 2026. Compare profit-first platforms, AI capabilities, SKU-level analytics and omnichannel insights.

Read full blog

eCommerce Inventory Management: Best Practices and Tools for Profitable Growth

Master eCommerce inventory management with best practices and top tools. Learn how to align stock and use AI forecasting to drive profitable growth.

Read full blog

Retail Demand Planning: A Complete Guide for Operations Teams

Read our complete retail demand planning guide, specifically crafted to support operations teams in eCommerce businesses.

Read full blog