Shopify Analytics and Reporting: How to Get More Out of Your eCommerce?

Running your eCommerce business on Shopify makes a lot of sense. It’s user-friendly, flexible, and packed with built-in tools that help you get started quickly. One of those tools, Shopify Analytics, gives you a helpful snapshot of how your store is performing. It’s useful for identifying trends, tracking traffic, and getting a high-level view of your sales activity.

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But here’s the catch: Shopify’s out-of-the-box reports only take you so far...

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If you’re looking to make razor-sharp decisions such as where to cut ad spend, which products actually drive profit, or how to reduce waste - Shopify Analytics leaves some big and questionable gaps. It doesn’t give you access to important metrics like product-level contribution profit, SKU-level ad spend, or accurate customer lifetime value. That’s the kind of data you need to truly scale.

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That’s where Conjura comes in!

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By plugging directly into Shopify (and your ad platforms, ERP, Marketplaces and OMS), Conjura fills in the gaps. We turn siloed data into actionable insights so you can make smart calls, whether that’s increasing prices, stopping ads on underperformers, or doubling down on your bestsellers.

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What’s Included in Shopify Analytics

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Shopify Analytics offers a set of reports and dashboards to help you monitor performance. These include:

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• Overview dashboard: A top-line view of sales, orders, and store sessions.
  
  
• Sales reports: Breakdown of revenue by channel, location, or time period.
  
  
• Customer reports: Insight into new vs returning customers.
  
  
• Product analytics: Best-selling items, units sold, and revenue by product.
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It’s a great starting point, but it’s not built for deep dives. Advanced users often find themselves stitching together exports, guessing at profitability, or trying to plug in third-party tools.

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Shopify Analytics: What You’ll Find in the Overview Dashboard

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The Shopify Overview Dashboard is a handy place to start. It gives you quick access to key metrics like:

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• Total sales and orders
  
  
• Online store sessions
  
  
• Average order value (AOV)
  
  
• Conversion rate
  
  
• Top-performing products
  
  
• Returning customer rate
  
  
• Funnel performance
  
  

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It’s designed to give you a day-by-day snapshot of your store’s activity, which is great for keeping tabs on trends and checking performance at a glance.

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Shopify Reports: What You Get Depends on Your Plan

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Shopify also offers a suite of reports that dig deeper into different areas of your business. But...and it’s a big but...what you can access depends entirely on which plan you’re on:

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• Basic Shopify: You’ll get the Overview Dashboard and some basic financial reporting.
  
  
• Shopify Plan: Adds customer, product, and sales reports.
  
  
• Advanced Shopify: Unlocks more detailed filters, custom reports, and deeper customer insights.
  
  

If you want the full picture (well what Shopify called the full picture anyways), you'll need to be on a higher-tier plan. Otherwise, you might find yourself missing vital data points when you’re trying to make decisions that impact profit.

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Why Many Shopify Brands Still Look Beyond Shopify Analytics

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Shopify’s built-in tools are useful, but they’re not designed to give you complete visibility. They won’t show you product-level profitability, true customer lifetime value (LTV), or SKU-level ad performance. And that’s a problem if you’re serious about scaling.

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That’s where Conjura comes in.

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Conjura pulls together your Shopify, marketing and operations data into a single platform, giving you the power to track what really matters. We give you a clear view of product contribution profit, customer cohorts, LTV vs CAC, and where your ad budget is driving actual returns (or not).

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Put simply: Shopify shows you what’s happening. Conjura shows you why and what to do about it.

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Shopify Plans: Pros, Cons, and the Gaps You Need to Know About

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As with most things in eCommerce, your choice of Shopify plan should come down to what your business actually needs. Some merchants only require basic reporting - sales totals, traffic, customer overviews - and for them, Shopify’s built-in analytics might be enough. But if you're aiming for smarter growth, tighter profit margins, or data-led decision making, it quickly becomes clear that you’ll need more firepower.

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Here’s a breakdown of the strengths, and the blind spots, across Shopify’s analytics plans.

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Pros of Shopify Analytics

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• Real-time reporting: All plans provide access to real-time data, so you can monitor performance as it happens and react quickly to changes.
  
  
• Out-of-the-box setup: No complicated setup required - Shopify starts tracking your store’s activity as soon as it’s live.
  
  
• User-friendly interface: Clean visuals and intuitive dashboards make it easy to understand your performance at a glance.
  
  
• Basic insights at lower tiers: The Basic and Standard Shopify plans include traffic sources, product sales, and some customer info—useful for foundational reporting.
  
  

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Cons and Limitations

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• Very limited customisation: You can’t tailor metrics or reports to fit your specific goals or business model. That’s fine for the basics, but frustrating once your questions get more sophisticated.
  
  
• No profit calculation: Shopify doesn’t calculate contribution profit. It shows revenue, but not how much you keep. That’s a big gap if you’re making decisions on pricing, stock, or marketing.
  
  
• Weak attribution: Shopify shows where sales come from, but it doesn’t link them to ad spend or customer lifetime value (LTV). This makes it tough to know which campaigns are actually profitable.
  
  
• No cross-platform visibility: You’re limited to Shopify data only. If you’re running ads, using third-party logistics, or selling on multiple platforms, you’ll be missing vital context.
  
  
• Basic cohort tracking: There’s no real cohort analysis, no LTV by acquisition channel, and no way to measure retention or repeat rate over time. Which, let’s be honest, are some of the most important growth levers in eCommerce.
  
  

What to Do If You’ve Outgrown Shopify Analytics

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Shopify’s native tools are a solid starting point. But as your business grows, so does the complexity of your questions and the risk of making decisions with incomplete data.

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That’s where Conjura steps in. We integrate with Shopify and your wider tech stack to give you a single, unified view of your performance. From SKU-level profitability to campaign-level ROAS to customer retention by product, Conjura helps you unlock the insights that drive real, profitable growth.

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Where Most Brands Hit the Analytics Ceiling with Shopify

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Shopify Analytics is a solid starting point. It gives you visibility into sales, traffic, and customer basics - enough to get your business off the ground. But as brands grow, they often find themselves running into the same wall: they simply can’t get the depth or granularity needed to scale intelligently.

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Here’s where most merchants hit that ceiling:

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• No customer lifetime value (LTV) tracking: You can see how many purchases a customer has made, but not how much they’re worth over time. There’s no segmentation, no LTV by channel, and no way to track repeat purchase behaviour. That makes it nearly impossible to optimise your LTV:CAC ratio.
  
  
• No SKU-level profitability: Shopify doesn’t show you which products are actually making you money. You can’t track contribution profit or identify SKUs with negative margins. Discounts? No insight into how they’re impacting your bottom line either.
  
  
• No cross-platform data: Shopify can’t show you performance from TikTok, Amazon, Walmart or eBay. You’re operating in silos, unable to compare data across channels and that’s a huge blind spot if you’re marketing or selling across multiple platforms.
  
  
• No CAC or ROI per channel: Want to know how much you’re spending to acquire customers and whether it’s worth it? You won’t find that in Shopify. Understanding return on ad spend (ROAS) and CAC by channel is critical for profitable growth, but Shopify doesn’t go there.

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Why Advanced Insights Matter for Growth and Profitability

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If you want to scale, you need to go beyond the basics. Advanced analytics provide the clarity required to make smarter decisions and achieve bigger results. With a platform like Conjura, you can identify your most profitable customers and understand where they come from, uncover which products drive real revenue (and which ones quietly erode your margins), and track repeat purchase patterns, customer lifetime value (LTV), and retention over time. You’ll be able to spot early signs of performance decline and act before it impacts your bottom line. Plus, you can optimize your ad spend at every level - by channel, campaign, and even down to individual products. In short, you stop guessing and start knowing. And that’s the edge that fuels sustainable, profitable growth.

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When to Upgrade Your Analytics Stack: Key Use Cases for Conjura

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At some point, most growing eCommerce brands outgrow Shopify’s built-in reporting. That’s when it’s time to bring in a tool like Conjura, designed to give you deeper insights and smarter decision-making power. Here are some of the most common (and valuable) use cases:

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Spot Underperforming Products

Not all poor performers are obvious. Some products sell well but have low margins or sky-high return rates. Conjura gives you visibility into SKU-level profitability, helping you decide whether to adjust pricing, reduce ad spend, or cut them altogether.

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Fine-Tune Your Discounting Strategy

Are discounts driving real value or just eroding your margin? With Conjura, you can test the impact of discounting, bundling, and loyalty programmes, then double down on what actually moves the needle.

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Reduce Inventory Waste

Shopify tells you what’s selling, but not what’s worth keeping in stock. Conjura combines sell-through rates with return rates and retention data, so you can avoid overstocking low-margin, low-repeat products.

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Unlock Smarter Customer Segmentation

Group customers by acquisition source, lifetime value, repeat rate, and more. Discover which audiences are worth acquiring and which ones are dragging down your ROI.

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Optimize Ad Spend Across Channels

Conjura tracks ROAS and CAC across Shopify, Meta, Google, TikTok, and more. Know where to invest, where to cut, and how to scale profitably.

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How to Add Conjura Analytics to Shopify (It’s Easy)

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Getting started with Conjura takes just a few clicks. Here’s how:

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1. Connect your platforms Link your Shopify store, ad platforms, marketplaces, and Google Analytics. Conjura syncs data automatically and securely.
   
   
2. Clean and unify your data
   Our system de-duplicates records, fills in gaps, and aligns metrics across platforms—ensuring consistency in attribution, SKU naming, and performance data.
   
   
3. Start tracking the metrics that Shopify misses
   You’ll instantly unlock a whole new layer of insight with no messy spreadsheets or data stitching.
   
   

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The Metrics You Can’t Get in Shopify, But You Can in Conjura

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Once you’re set up, here’s what you can track that Shopify can’t give you:

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• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by channel, campaign, audience, and time period
  
  
• Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) at the cohort, product, or channel level
  
  
• Contribution Profit at SKU level (including ad spend and refund impact)
  
  
• Cohort and Retention Analysis to understand repurchase behaviour and loyalty
  
  
• Channel Benchmarking to compare performance across sales and marketing channels
  
  
• Payback Periods to understand when customers become profitable
  
  

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All of this feeds into a clearer picture of where your business is headed and how to steer it.

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Let’s wrap it up!

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Shopify is a great eCommerce platform, but it’s not an analytics platform. If you’re aiming for profitable growth, you need more than just surface-level stats.

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Conjura adds the depth, flexibility, and intelligence you need to move from insight to action, fast. You’ll gain confidence in your decisions, uncover hidden opportunities, and drive long-term profitability.

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Start with better data. Grow with Conjura. Connect Conjura to your Shopify store now!

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