How to Build an Ecommerce Dashboard in Shopify Admin

An ecommerce dashboard is a single screen of metric cards that shows what moved in your Shopify store and which report to open next. Build it in Shopify Analytics by grouping cards into four labeled sections: sales pulse, traffic and conversion, products, and inventory.

Shopify documents that the Analytics page displays sales, sessions, and fulfillment metrics, updated within about 1 minute. You can add, remove, rearrange, and resize cards, and organize them into labeled sections. Main analytics features are available on any Shopify subscription plan. Staff need Analytics permissions to open dashboards and reports.

This article is the layout and setup. For metric definitions, use the ecommerce performance metrics checklist. For the report-by-report Monday loop, use how to use Shopify analytics.

What an ecommerce dashboard should do

A useful ecommerce dashboard answers three questions in under a minute: Did revenue move? Did traffic or conversion move with it? Which product or stock report do I open next? Everything else belongs in Reports, not on the home screen.

Shopify’s overview dashboard is a collection of data cards. Each card shows a quick value, such as Net sales by channel or Sessions by device type. Click the card title to open the matching report. Custom reports you save also create a card in the metrics library, so a view you reuse every week can sit on the dashboard.

One date range and one comparison period for the whole screen.
Four labeled sections, not a long scroll of unrelated cards.
Each card maps to a named report you will actually open.
A target gauge for the number you refuse to miss this month.

Shopify’s default date range on the overview is the last 90 days. Switch it before you read anything. Last 7 days answers what changed this week. Last 30 days answers what is durable. Use the comparison menu so a one-day spike does not look like a new bestseller.

A 4-section ecommerce dashboard layout

Use this layout as a reusable template. Create four sections in Customize, then search the metrics library for the report names below and drop those cards into the matching section. If a name does not appear, add the closest card in that category and pin the report from Analytics, then Reports.

Section 1: Sales pulse (top of the screen)

This row is the warning light. Read it first, then leave it. Shopify defines net sales as gross sales minus discounts minus sales reversals. Total sales then adds taxes, duties, shipping charges, and fees. Rank products on net sales. Use total sales when you want the all-in figure.

Net sales (and Net sales by channel if you sell on more than the online store).
Orders.
Average order value.
A target card for this month’s net sales or order count, if you set one.

Sales report data is up to date give or take about 1 minute when you open the report. Refresh if you just processed a refund. Gift card product sales do not belong in sales reports. Shopify records them in finance reports instead. Deleted orders and Shopify Payments test-mode orders are excluded from sales reports.

Section 2: Traffic and conversion

This row explains whether a sales change came from more sessions, a different device mix, or a conversion drop. Shopify counts a session as ending after 30 minutes of no activity, and at midnight UTC. One visitor can produce several sessions, so do not treat session count as unique people.

Sessions (and Sessions by device type).
Conversion rate.
Sessions or sales by referrer, so you can see Direct, Search, Email, Social, and Unknown.
Add-to-cart or checkout cards if they appear in the library, as a funnel check before you buy more traffic.

Shopify notes that online store session metrics hide if you do not use the Online Store channel. Point of Sale metrics hide if you do not use POS. That is expected, not a broken dashboard.

Section 3: Products (the work list)

Store-wide cards cannot name a SKU. Put product sales on the dashboard as a shortcut into Total sales by product and Total sales by product variant. Shipping is excluded from those reports because one order can hold several products and a single shipping charge.

Total sales by product card, then click through and sort by net sales and net quantity.
Total sales by product variant when you sell sizes or colors. Reorder the variant that sold, not the parent product in bulk.
Total sales by referrer next to product sales when paid traffic is in the mix.

Shopify captures product details at the time of the sale. If you renamed a product mid-period, the same item can appear on two rows. Treat that as a labeling issue, not two SKUs. Product conversion (orders versus product-page sessions) is the promote-or-pause rule once you leave this screen. That method lives in the product conversion rate guide, not as a store-wide card.

Section 4: Inventory cover (protect next week’s sales)

Sales cards still look healthy while a bestseller is already inside its lead time. Put inventory on the same dashboard so reorder work happens before you celebrate last week’s net sales. Filter Reports by Category, then Inventory, if you need the full tables.

Inventory remaining per product. Shopify calculates days of inventory remaining as ending quantity divided by average units sold per day, using the last 28 days of sales. Variants with no sales in that window show N/A. Negative ending quantity is treated as 0 days remaining.
ABC product analysis. Shopify grades each variant on revenue share over the last 28 days. That window cannot be changed. A-grade variants collectively account for 80% of revenue, B-grade the next 15%, C-grade the last 5%. Cost is not part of the grade.
Products by sell-through rate. Shopify calculates sell-through as units sold divided by (units sold plus units still in inventory). The newest complete window is about two days behind the current date because of processing time.

Historical data for inventory-based metrics only goes back to October 1, 2023. Deleted locations do not keep historical inventory in these reports. Compare days remaining to supplier lead time yourself. A SKU with 12 days of cover and a 21-day lead time is already late. For alert setup around low stock, follow Shopify inventory alerts.

How to build this layout in Shopify Analytics

Shopify’s customize instructions are the implementation. Do this once, then only add a card when it earned a place in last week’s review.

From Shopify admin, go to Analytics.
Open the horizontal menu and click Customize to enter the dashboard editor.
Click Add section four times. Name the sections Sales pulse, Traffic and conversion, Products, and Inventory cover.
Search the metrics library (it is organized by category, such as Acquisition, Behavior, or Customers) and drag cards into the matching section. Each card can appear only once.
Resize the sales and conversion cards so the numbers are readable without scrolling. Keep product and inventory cards large enough to scan.
Click Reorder sections and put Sales pulse first, Inventory cover last.
Click Save. Use Reset to default only if you want the original single “Dashboard” section back.

Then pin the views you reuse. Shopify lets you filter columns, change date ranges, and save a modified default report as a custom report. That custom report gets a metric card in the library. Add those cards to Products and Inventory cover so Monday does not start in a blank Reports list.

Save a 7-day Total sales by product view with net sales and net quantity only.
Save Inventory remaining sorted by fewest days of cover, limited to tracked variants.
Save Sessions by referrer or Total sales by referrer for last 7 days.
Export only when someone outside admin needs the file.

Put one target on the dashboard

A target is a numeric goal for one metric over a fixed period, such as net sales for this month or orders for this quarter. Shopify lets you create a target from Analytics, then add a gauge card to the overview. That card keeps its own time period. Dashboard-level date range and comparison menus do not change it.

Targets support only fixed amounts. Growth rates, ratios, and pacing are not supported on the target itself. You can add only one filter per target, for example a sales channel or a product. Put the gauge in Sales pulse. One target is enough. A row of gauges is a second dashboard you will ignore.

How to read the ecommerce dashboard in 15 minutes

Set Last 7 days and compare to the previous period. If today is included and you need the screen to stay current, Shopify’s auto-refresh updates the dashboard every 60 seconds. Insights can appear at the top for stores that average at least 10 orders per week over the last 6 months. You can receive up to 5 insights per day, and they expire after 24 hours.

Read Sales pulse. Write one sentence on what moved (net sales, orders, or AOV).
Read Traffic and conversion. If sessions rose and conversion fell, you likely bought lower-intent traffic. If both fell, check availability and merchandising before you raise spend.
Click Total sales by product. Copy the top 10 SKUs by net sales for 7 days and for 30 days. A product that ranks in both windows is a working seller.
Open Inventory remaining per product for those SKUs. Anything inside supplier lead time goes to the top of the action list. Confirm ABC grade before you spend cash replenishing C-grade stock.
Open Sessions by landing page from Reports when a collection URL has traffic and weak sales. Collection sort order is a merchandising job, not a fifth dashboard section. Fix the grid in the collection editor, then come back to this same four-section screen next week.