What Is the Shopify Sales by Channel Report?
The Sales by Channel report groups your Shopify orders by the channel each sale came through, then shows the money tied to each one. Channels include the Online Store, Shopify POS, Buy Button, draft orders, and any connected marketplace or app.
For the date range you choose, every channel gets its own row showing order count, gross sales, discount, returns, net sales, shipping, tax, total duties, and total sales. That puts each channel in a single table instead of separate views you have to line up by hand.
One distinction is worth holding onto before you read it. Net sales is the channel's product revenue after discounts and returns are taken out, while total sales adds tax, shipping, and duties on top. The two columns can rank your channels differently, and knowing which one you are reading is what keeps the comparison honest.
Which Fields Are Included in the Sales by Channel Report?
These fields let you judge each channel on both order volume and real revenue, not just the top-line number.
You can customize the pre-made report by adding, removing, or reordering columns so the view matches how you review your channels.
Important Insights You Can Find in This Report
Is a channel buying its volume with discounts?
Read the Discount column next to Gross Sales and Net Sales for each channel. A channel that leans on heavy promotions shows a large discount value against its gross, and its net sales land well below what the top line suggested. If two channels post similar gross sales but one carries a far bigger discount total, that channel is paying for its volume. Knowing which one it is tells you where a pricing or promotion change would protect the most margin.
Which channel is quietly carrying the returns?
Returns rarely spread evenly across channels. Compare the Returns column against each channel's Gross Sales and Net Sales. A channel with strong gross sales but heavy returns can net out worse than a smaller, cleaner channel that keeps most of what it sells. When one channel absorbs most of the refunds, it is worth checking whether it is a product mix, a fit or sizing issue, or a fulfillment problem specific to how that channel sells.
Where do your resources actually pay back?
Look at Order Count and Net Sales together across channels. A channel with a rising order count and healthy net sales is where added attention, whether in-store promotion or online spend, tends to return the most. A channel with plenty of orders but thin net sales after discounts and returns may be absorbing effort without giving much back. This is the read that tells you whether to push in-store, online, or a newer connected channel next.
THE ANALYST'S READ: The Signal Most Merchants Miss
Total Sales is the column most people rank channels on, and across channels it can quietly mislead, because it bundles Tax, Shipping, and Duties on top of product revenue, and those pieces vary a lot by channel.
A POS channel usually charges no shipping and may handle tax differently, while a cross-border Online Store channel can carry real shipping and duties. So a channel can post a bigger Total Sales figure partly because of freight, tax, and duties collected through it, not because it sold more product. The channel leading on Total Sales is not always the one generating the most demand.
The check is simple. Rank the channels once by Total Sales and once by Net Sales. When the order changes, the difference is being driven by shipping, tax, or duties rather than product sales. Use Net Sales when you are deciding which channel truly sells, and keep Total Sales for cash and reconciliation.
How Can You Automate the Sales by Channel Report?
Once the channel view reads the way you want, you do not need to rebuild it. Save the report, then set it to run and send on its own, daily, weekly, monthly, or on a custom schedule. You can deliver it as Excel, CSV, or PDF, or push it to Google Sheets and Google Drive, and send it to more than one recipient so your team, VA, or accountant get the same channel numbers without asking. Your filters and column choices carry over each time, so the scheduled copy always arrives grouped the way you left it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a sales channel in this report?
Any source your store sells through: Online Store, Shopify POS, Buy Button, draft orders, and connected apps or marketplaces. Each order is matched to the channel it was placed through.
What is the difference between Net Sales and Total Sales by channel?
Net Sales is a channel's product revenue after discounts and returns. Total Sales adds tax, shipping, and duties on top. A channel can lead on one and not the other, which is why the report shows both.
Does this report show which products sold on each channel?
No. It groups totals by channel, not by product. For a product-level view, use the Sales by Product report, or customize this report to add a second grouping.
How is this different from the Channel Performance report?
Sales by Channel groups actual Shopify orders and their revenue by the channel the sale was placed through. Channel Performance is a Google Analytics report that measures traffic channels using sessions and conversions. One shows where sales happened; the other shows which sources brought visitors in.
Are draft orders counted as a channel?
Yes, they appear as their own channel. Decide whether to include or exclude them, and keep that choice consistent so comparisons across periods stay honest.
Can I focus the report on one channel or period?
Yes. Filter to a single channel to study it on its own, set any date range you need, then save that view so it reruns the same way on a schedule.