What Is the Shopify Sales by Product Variant (existing SKUs) Report?
This report breaks sales down to the individual variant and shows only the SKUs that still exist in your Shopify catalog. Deleted or discontinued products are left out, so every row is a variant you can still reorder, restock, or promote today.
The distinction that trips people up is variant versus product. A single product title, say a hoodie, can hold many variants across size and color. Product-level reports total all of those together. This report keeps each variant on its own row, matched to its SKU, so you can see which exact option carried the sales rather than assuming the whole product performed evenly.
The other distinction is existing versus historical. Because the report is scoped to current SKUs, it reconciles cleanly against your live catalog. That makes it well suited to buying and replenishment decisions, where a variant you have already retired is noise rather than signal.
Which Fields Are Included in the Shopify Sales by Product Variant (existing SKUs) Report?
These fields let you judge each variant on both demand and revenue quality.
You can customize the pre-made report by adding, removing, or reordering columns so it matches how you review your catalog.
Important Insights You Can Find in This Report
Which variant is actually carrying a product that looks like a bestseller?
Group the rows by Product Title and compare each variant's Net Quantity Sold and Total Net Sales. A product can look healthy overall while two or three variants generate most of the demand and the rest barely move. Once you see the split, your next purchase order can lean into the sizes and colors customers keep buying instead of repeating an even spread that leaves slow variants sitting in stock.
Is a variant's revenue propped up by discounting?
Compare Total Gross Sales against Total Discount for each variant. A variant with strong gross sales but an unusually large discount share is selling on price, not on preference. That is worth investigating before you reorder heavily, because the demand may not hold at full price. Variants selling well with little discount are the cleaner candidates for restocking and promotion.
Where do units and revenue disagree?
Look for variants with high Net Quantity Sold but low Total Net Sales, and the reverse. High units with low net sales usually points to a low-priced or heavily discounted variant that moves volume without contributing much margin. Low units with high net sales flags a premium variant that quietly earns. Ranking on units alone would hide both.
THE ANALYST'S READ: The Signal Most Merchants Miss
Because this report lists only SKUs that currently exist, a variant that once sold well but has since been deleted simply disappears from it. That is helpful for reorder planning, but it can distort period-over-period comparisons. If a product suddenly looks like it is shrinking, check whether one of its strong variants was discontinued rather than assuming demand fell. When you need the full historical picture including retired variants, compare this against the Sales by Variant report, which does not restrict to current SKUs.
How Can You Automate the Shopify Sales by Product Variant (existing SKUs) Report?
Open the pre-made report in Report Pundit and the columns are already set, so you can save it as is. Set a date range, apply a filter if you want to focus on one product or option, and schedule it to email on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis so it never has to be rebuilt by hand. The same schedule can send it to your team, VA, or buyer, and you can export it to Excel, CSV, or PDF, or push it to Google Sheets or Google Drive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this report only show existing SKUs?
It is scoped to variants that still exist in your Shopify catalog, so deleted or discontinued variants are excluded. This keeps the report aligned with SKUs you can still act on. If a past variant is missing, it was removed from the catalog. Use the Sales by Variant report when you need historical variants included.
How is this different from the Shopify Sales by Variant report?
Both report at the variant level, but Sales by Variant includes historical and deleted variants and carries extra columns such as returns and shipping. This report restricts to current SKUs and keeps a tighter field set focused on units, discounts, tax, and net sales for variants you still stock.
What is the difference between Total Gross Sales and Total Net Sales here?
Total Gross Sales is variant revenue before any discounts or returns. Total Net Sales is that figure after discounts and returns are subtracted. The gap between the two, alongside Total Discount, tells you how much of a variant's headline revenue is being given back.
Can I find my best and worst selling variants quickly?
Yes. Sort by Net Quantity Sold or Total Net Sales in descending order to surface top variants, or ascending to bring slow movers to the top for review.
Can I add fields like cost or vendor to this report?
The pre-made version uses the eight fields listed above, but you can add columns or request a tailored view. If you need variant cost, margin, vendor, tags, or collection alongside these sales figures, the Report Pundit support team can set that up.