A-Z of Advanced Shopify Reports

In the world of Shopify, data and reports play a critical role in everyday decision-making.

Be it a small decision such as correcting a demographic in an ad campaign or a pivotal one as changing payment gateways for a better user experience; gathering actionable insights before making such decisions is the first step a merchant takes.

During this process of discovery, Advanced Shopify Reports have always been a reliable resource to merchants as they provide precise data and information when required.

That’s one of the reasons why these reports are highly sought after.

However, there is a thin line of difference between Advanced Shopify Reports and advanced level reporting in Shopify (sounds a bit confusing, but you’re in good hands).

So, in this A to Z guide, we will explain what Advanced Reports really are. We will also look at how they work, what makes them useful, and what their limitations are. By the end, you will have a clear picture and a better understanding of how to use them for your store.
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As Shopify Advanced reports consist of the following reports:

• Acquisition reports
• Behavior reports
• Customers reports
• Finance reports
• Fraud reports
• Inventory reports
• Marketing reports
• Order reports
• Profit reports
• Retail sales reports
• Sales reports
  

Each of these reports is covered in-depth in our Complete Guide to Shopify Reports. Do read it for a better understanding.

Now, let’s quickly understand what advanced reporting in Shopify means.

What is Advanced Level Reporting in Shopify?

Any Shopify plan stores can access the advanced reports in Shopify. These advanced reports provide a much detailed insights to store’s performance. And give you the flexibility to customize reports so they match your unique business goals.

In simple words, Advanced Reporting changes numbers into actionable insights to grow your businesses understand exactly what drives performance 

Some of the main benefits are:

• It access to the most detailed and comprehensive reports.
• Custom report to your business needs.
• Predicted values to forecast trends and performance.
• Support for up to 15 staff accounts for collaborative analysis.
• 24/7 priority chat support.

The advanced reporting in Shopify is available through custom reports.

Custom reports in Shopify provide the flexibility to go beyond default reporting by adjusting existing reports or creating entirely new ones from scratch. With this feature, you can filter data, add or remove columns, choose different time ranges, and save your changes as custom reports for future use. 

Available on all Shopify plans, including Shopify Plus, custom reports let you focus on the metrics that matter most to your business.  You can create and modify these reports directly through the configuration panel or, for more advanced customization, by using the ShopifyQL query editor in your Shopify admin. This level of control ensures that your analytics are always customized to your unique business needs.

Just like every coin has two sides, Shopify’s custom reports also come with certain limitations. Let’s understand these limitations.

• Filtering and editing restrictions – Some reports can’t be modified, such as all Finance reports (except U.S. sales tax), all Fraud reports, and most Orders reports (except Shipping labels and Shipping labels over time).
  
  
• Row limit – The reports are limited to a maximum of 1,000 rows. To see more, you will have to export the data.
  
  
• No metafield support – Metafields cannot be used in Shopify’s built-in analytics or the ShopifyQL query editor.
  
  
• Currency display – Reports can show data in another currency, but conversions use the historical rate from the transaction date.
  
  
• Incompatible metrics and dimensions – Some data points cannot be combined in the same report due to system limitations.
  
  
• Historical data limits – Session-based metrics are only available from October 1, 2022, onward.
  
  

And because of these restrictions, you may need to export reports or depend on third-party apps like Report Pundit for more simple analysis.

Comprehensive Breakdown of Advanced Plan Reports

In the Advanced and Plus Reports, you can gain access to a wide range of report categories that provide detailed insights into different areas of the business. Each category focuses on a specific aspect of store performance, helping you analyze everything from customer behavior to financial health.

• Acquisition – The report shows how visitors discover your store to highlighting traffic sources and visitor trends over time.
  
  
• Behavior – This report provides insights into customer actions, such as conversion rates, on-site searches, and the effectiveness of product recommendations.
  
  
• Customers – The customer report analyzes customer activity, including new vs. returning buyers, sales patterns over time, and customer segmentation.
  
  
• Finances – The finance report gives detailed breakdowns of profits, payouts, taxes, and store credit transactions.
  
  
• Fraud – This shopify report flags high-risk orders and reports on chargeback trends.
  
  
• Inventory – This report shows current stock levels, daily product sales, and remaining inventory.
  
  
• Marketing – The marketing report evaluates sales driven by marketing campaigns and tracks campaign performance.
  
  
• Orders – Gives report on order volume, fulfillment times, returns, and order trends.
  
  
• Performance – The report helps you to monitor website performance, including loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability
• Profit Margin – gives you the details of gross profit by product, order, or sales channel.
  
  
• Retail Sales – The report breaks down sales by physical store location and staff performance.
  
  
• Sales – The sales report covers overall sales trends, including sales by product, channel, or discount codes.
  
  
• Store – This report provides general store-level performance metrics and analytics.

Why Report Pundit is better than Native Reports

Advanced Shopify Reports are indeed very useful, but they have their limitations, as mentioned at the beginning of this article.

However, using apps like Report Pundit will always add a competitive edge as well as help you create thousands of bespoke reports. Merchants employ Report Pundit for a variety of custom reporting queries, including the following:

• How to compile a list of customers who used a specific promotional code and made a purchase?
• How to generate a report depending on delivery dates.
• How long does it take for customers to place a second order?
• How to create a Payouts report by Shipping Country.
• Reports for customers who have placed three or more orders in 2019 OR who have spent more than $1500 in 2019.
• Reports on several orders based on ZIP codes.
• Reports on how much a merchant had to pay each vendor.
• Reports based on specific tags.
• Line item attributes and meta fields reports.
• Report on the best and worst-selling products
• Products that have not sold for a specified length of time
• Inventory snapshot to fetch the data of the daily ending product. And much more.

With over 100+ pre-made advanced templates with unlimited options for customization, Report Pundit remains one of the best choices for more than 40,000 Shopify stores.

Let’s take a glimpse at some of the advanced report requests that we got last week, based on the category.

Reports based on Schedules

Reports can be scheduled to run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly with full control over timing and format, such as Excel, CSV, PDF, or Google Sheets. In the Schedules tab, you can track and edit all active or past schedules, including their frequency and delivery details. Reports can then be automatically shared by email, FTP, Google Sheets, Slack, and more, so your team always gets updates without manual work.

So, this helps in- 

• Setting up a report to be sent out every two weeks or sooner

• Schedule reports in Google Sheets with the ability to overwrite or append
• Based on the pick-up and delivery dates, you can schedule a report.
• Reports based on SKU can be scheduled for any day of the week

Most commonly scheduled reports

• Sales Reports (detailed sales, sales by product, region, time period, or staff)
• Inventory Reports (stock levels, variant tracking, low/in-stock alerts)
• Tax Reports (tax collected, by region, or by order)
• Payout and Financial Reports (Shopify Payments, PayPal, transaction summaries)
• Fulfillment & Shipping Reports (order status, delivery, shipping cost breakdown)
• Customer Reports (new/repeat customers, cohorts, behavior analytics)
• POS Reports (point-of-sale sales and activity)
• Marketing and Custom Reports (campaign performance, attribution, segmentation)

Note: Scheduling frequency and the number of active schedules may depend on your chosen Report Pundit subscription plan.

At Report Pundit, requests for advanced reports are very common. That’s why the best way to know if it works for you is to try the free trial and see the results yourself.

Conclusion

Advanced Shopify Reports give you amazing insights into your store, but they come with some limits that can hold you back as your business grows. That’s where Report Pundit stands out. With unlimited customization, pre-built templates, scheduling options, and advanced features, it takes reporting far beyond Shopify’s defaults. 

Whether you need a simple payout report or a highly custom analysis, Report Pundit helps here. And the best part is you can try it for free and see the difference for yourself.