Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Understanding the Shopify Reporting Ecosystem
- How to Get Sales Report From Shopify: The Manual Process
- Decoding Key Metrics: What the Numbers Actually Mean
- Advanced Reporting: Going Beyond the Basics
- Practical Scenarios: Using Reports to Build a Digital Powerhouse
- The Tevello Difference: Why Native Reporting Wins
- Managing Recurring Revenue and Memberships
- Common Reporting Pitfalls to Avoid
- Building Your Curriculum Before You Pay
- The Future of Your Shopify Store
- Conclusion
- FAQ
Introduction
Did you know that the global e-learning market is projected to soar past $460 billion by 2026? For the modern Shopify merchant, this isn't just a statistic; it’s a massive opportunity to diversify revenue beyond physical inventory. However, many store owners are flying blind, unaware of how their data can actually dictate their next big move. They might see a total revenue number on their dashboard, but they struggle to answer the deeper questions: Which products are driving the most profit? Where are the hidden costs eating into the margins? Most importantly, how can this data be used to launch high-margin digital products?
The purpose of this blog post is to demystify the process of generating and interpreting sales reports within Shopify. We will walk through the manual steps of pulling data, explore the nuances of different report types, and discuss how to leverage these insights to build a sustainable, multi-faceted business. At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We believe that merchants should own their customer data and brand experience entirely. This is why we’ve built a solution that ensures your customers stay on your own URL, creating a seamless ecosystem where physical products and digital courses live side-by-side.
By the end of this guide, you will not only know how to get sales report from Shopify but also how to use that information to increase your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and create recurring revenue streams. The key to long-term e-commerce success isn't just selling more—it's understanding what you've already sold to predict what your customers will want next.
Understanding the Shopify Reporting Ecosystem
Before we dive into the "how-to," it is essential to understand that Shopify offers a variety of reporting levels based on your subscription plan. While every merchant has access to basic financial summaries, the depth of the data increases as you move up the tiers.
Sales Reports vs. Retail Sales Reports
One common point of confusion for merchants is the difference between standard sales reports and retail sales reports.
- Sales Reports: These are focused on your online store operations. they provide insights into web-based transactions, digital downloads, and remote orders.
- Retail Sales Reports: These are specifically designed for "brick and mortar" operations. If you use Shopify POS (Point of Sale) to sell in a physical location, these reports will help you track in-person performance, staff sales, and register shifts.
For the purpose of this guide, we will focus primarily on the online sales reports, as these are the lifeblood of the digital creator and e-commerce entrepreneur. Understanding these reports is the first step toward keeping customers at home on the brand website rather than losing them to third-party marketplaces.
Why Data Ownership Matters
At Tevello, we advocate for a "Native Shopify Integration" approach. Many third-party course platforms require you to send your customers away from your store to a different URL. This fragments your data. When you use a native solution, your sales reports remain unified. You don't have to piece together data from three different platforms to see your total revenue. Everything—from your latest physical product drop to your newest "Masterclass" series—appears in your Shopify admin, allowing for a truly holistic view of your business health.
How to Get Sales Report From Shopify: The Manual Process
While we always recommend automation for long-term efficiency, knowing how to pull a manual report is a fundamental skill for any store owner. Whether you are prepping for tax season or doing a deep-dive into last month's performance, here is the step-by-step process.
Step 1: Log into Your Shopify Admin
Start by accessing your store's backend. This is where all your data lives securely. It is always a good idea to ensure you have the necessary permissions if you are working within a larger team; specifically, you need "Analytics" permissions to view and export these documents.
Step 2: Navigate to the Analytics Section
On the left-hand sidebar of your Shopify admin, you will see a tab labeled "Analytics." Click this to reveal a dropdown menu, and then select "Reports." This page is the command center for your store's performance metrics.
Step 3: Select Your Specific Report Type
Shopify categorizes reports into several groups: Sales, Acquisition, Customers, Behavior, and Finances. To find out exactly how much money is coming in, you’ll want to look under the "Sales" category. Common reports include:
- Sales over time
- Sales by product
- Sales by channel
- Sales by billing location
Step 4: Define Your Date Range
Accuracy in reporting depends entirely on the timeframe. Use the date picker in the top right corner to select the specific period you want to analyze. Whether it’s a "Last 30 Days" snapshot or a custom range for a specific holiday promotion, ensure the dates align with your goals.
Step 5: Export for Deeper Analysis
While Shopify’s built-in charts are helpful, many merchants prefer to work in Excel or Google Sheets for more advanced filtering. Click the "Export" button to download your data as a CSV file. This allows you to manipulate the data, create pivot tables, and share findings with your accounting team. To ensure you are getting the most out of your store, you can install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today to see how digital product sales integrate directly into these exports.
Decoding Key Metrics: What the Numbers Actually Mean
Pulling the report is only half the battle. The real value lies in interpreting the metrics. If you see a high "Gross Sales" number but your bank account doesn't seem to reflect it, you need to look at the secondary metrics that Shopify tracks.
Net Sales: The Truth-Teller
Gross sales represent the total value of the goods sold. However, "Net Sales" is the figure that truly matters. Net sales are calculated by taking your gross sales and subtracting discounts and refunds. If your discounts are too aggressive, your net sales will suffer, even if your order volume is high.
Taxes and Shipping
Sales reports also break down the amounts collected for taxes and shipping. Remember, these are "pass-through" costs. You collect them, but you eventually have to pay them out to the government or shipping carriers. When calculating your actual take-home pay, always ensure you are looking at figures net of these expenses.
Returns and Refunds
A high refund rate can be a red flag for product quality or customer expectations. By monitoring the "Sales by Product" report and cross-referencing it with returns, you can identify if a specific item is causing more trouble than it’s worth. Interestingly, digital products—like the ones you can host with Tevello—often have much lower return rates than physical goods, as there are no "fit" issues or shipping damages to contend with.
Advanced Reporting: Going Beyond the Basics
If you are on the Shopify plan or higher, you have access to "Detailed Sales Reports." These provide a more granular look at the "how" and "why" behind your revenue.
Sales by Product Vendor and Type
For stores that carry a wide variety of items, knowing which category or vendor is performing best is crucial for inventory planning. If you notice that a specific "How-To" book is a top seller, it might be the perfect time to turn that content into an interactive video course. This is a common strategy we see among our most successful users. If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.
Sales by Traffic Source
Where are your best customers coming from? Is it organic search, Instagram ads, or your email newsletter? Shopify’s sales reports can link transactions back to the original referral source. If you find that your email list has a 10% conversion rate while social media is at 1%, you know exactly where to spend your marketing budget.
Average Order Value (AOV) over Time
Increasing your AOV is one of the fastest ways to grow without needing more traffic. By looking at this report, you can see if your upselling and bundling strategies are working. For example, a merchant selling art supplies might bundle a set of brushes with a "Beginner's Watercolor" course. This increases the total transaction value without increasing the shipping cost of the physical box. We have seen how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses effectively using this exact method.
Practical Scenarios: Using Reports to Build a Digital Powerhouse
Let's look at how these reports translate into real-world business decisions. Data is just noise until it's applied to a strategy.
Scenario A: The Fitness Equipment Specialist
Imagine a merchant selling high-end yoga mats and resistance bands. By pulling a "Sales by Product" report, they notice that 60% of their customers are first-time buyers who never return. This indicates a "one-and-done" purchase problem.
To solve this, the merchant uses Tevello to launch a "30-Day Strength & Mobility" membership. Now, when a customer buys a set of bands, they are offered a monthly subscription to follow-on workouts. By generating revenue from both physical and digital goods, the merchant transforms a single $40 sale into a recurring $29/month relationship. Their Shopify sales reports will now show a mix of one-time physical sales and predictable, recurring digital revenue.
Scenario B: The Photography Store
A merchant selling camera lenses and filters notices through their "Sales by Billing Location" report that they have a huge cluster of customers in Northern Europe. They decide to create a "Landscape Photography in the Arctic" digital course specifically targeting this demographic.
By generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers, they prove that their current audience is their best source of new revenue. Instead of spending thousands on new customer acquisition, they simply offer more value to the people who already trust their brand. This strategy is highly effective for driving 50% of sales from repeat course purchasers.
The Tevello Difference: Why Native Reporting Wins
When you decide to expand into digital products or memberships, the tool you choose determines how easy your reporting will be. Many Shopify owners fall into the trap of using "External" course platforms. While these platforms might look flashy, they create a reporting nightmare. You end up with two separate sets of customer data, two different tax configurations, and a disjointed brand experience.
Everything in One Place
At Tevello, we are committed to providing an all-in-one ecosystem where physical products, digital courses, and community engagement live side-by-side. Because we offer a "Native Shopify Integration," your checkout experience is handled entirely by Shopify. This means:
- Your sales reports include your course revenue automatically.
- You use the payment gateways (Shopify Payments, PayPal, etc.) you already trust.
- Customer accounts are unified; a user logs in once and sees both their physical order history and their digital course access.
This unified approach provides all the key features for courses and communities while keeping your admin tasks simple. You don't need a PhD in data science to understand your business when all the numbers are in one dashboard.
Predictable Pricing for Growing Businesses
We believe in transparency. As your store grows, your software costs shouldn't eat up all your profits. While other platforms charge "success fees" or take a percentage of every sale, Tevello does not.
Our Unlimited Plan is a flat $29.99 per month. This includes:
- 0% Transaction Fees: You keep 100% of your earnings.
- Unlimited Courses and Students: Scale as much as you want without a price hike.
- Unlimited Video Hosting and Bandwidth: No hidden costs for your content.
- Community Features: Social feeds, member directories, and profiles to keep users engaged.
By choosing predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, you can accurately forecast your margins. When you pull your Shopify sales report, you’ll know that the number you see is the number you get to keep, minus your fixed subscription costs.
Managing Recurring Revenue and Memberships
One of the most powerful features of modern e-commerce is the membership model. Traditional sales reports show you "spikes" of revenue based on launches or holidays. Membership revenue, however, creates a "floor" of income that you can count on every month.
Tracking Churn and Retention
When you sell a physical product, "retention" means the customer comes back to buy something else. In a membership model (powered by Tevello’s community and drip content features), retention means the customer doesn't cancel.
Your Shopify reports will show these recurring charges. By monitoring these, you can identify "Churn" (the rate at which people leave). If you see a dip in revenue in a specific month, you can look at your Tevello analytics to see if engagement in your community has dropped. This allows you to be proactive. Maybe it’s time to release a new "drip" module or host a live Q&A session to re-engage your members.
This level of insight is only possible when you have a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members, allowing you to focus on engagement rather than worrying about the cost of each new user.
Common Reporting Pitfalls to Avoid
As you become more comfortable with seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify, be careful to avoid these common mistakes that can lead to bad business decisions.
1. Ignoring the "Discounts" Column
It’s easy to get excited about a high gross sales number during a Black Friday sale. However, if your "Discounts" column is nearly as large as your "Gross Sales" column, you aren't actually making much profit after you factor in the cost of goods and shipping. Always look at the net impact of promotions.
2. Failing to Reconcile Payouts
Your sales report shows what you sold, but your "Payouts" report shows what actually hit your bank account. These numbers will differ due to processing times and transaction fees. Ensure your accounting team (or your automated bookkeeping software) is looking at both to ensure no money is falling through the cracks.
3. Not Segmenting by Customer Type
Are your sales coming from new customers or returning ones? A healthy business has a balance of both. If 100% of your sales are from new customers, you are on a "treadmill" of constant acquisition. By introducing digital products or a community, you can shift that balance toward high-margin repeat business.
Building Your Curriculum Before You Pay
One of the unique advantages of working with us is our commitment to your success before you even spend a dollar. We offer a 14-day free trial that allows you to fully explore the platform.
You can:
- Upload your entire video curriculum.
- Set up your community forums and social feeds.
- Schedule your "drip" content.
- Design your quizzes and student assessments.
We encourage you to build your entire course before you start your paid subscription. This removes the pressure and allows you to launch with confidence. Our goal is to ensure that by the time your trial ends, you already have the data in your Shopify sales reports to justify the investment.
The Future of Your Shopify Store
The most successful Shopify stores of the next decade won't just sell "stuff." They will sell "results." Whether you are selling a physical product that requires instructions or a transformation that requires coaching, digital content is the glue that holds your brand together.
When you master the art of pulling and reading your sales reports, you begin to see patterns. You see the customer who bought a yoga mat and then three weeks later bought a yoga block. That is a customer who is hungry for knowledge. By offering them a "Yoga for Beginners" course directly on your Shopify store, you are providing a better service while increasing your own profitability.
This holistic approach is why we built Tevello. We want to remove the technical barriers that prevent merchants from scaling. You shouldn't have to be an IT expert to host a video or manage a community. You should be able to focus on what you do best: creating great products and engaging with your customers.
Conclusion
Understanding how to get sales report from Shopify is a vital skill, but it is merely the starting point. The real magic happens when you use those reports to identify opportunities for growth, specifically through the high-margin world of digital products and memberships. By keeping your data native to Shopify, you ensure a clear, unified view of your business that allows for better decision-making and a more professional customer experience.
At Tevello, we provide the tools to help you transition from a simple e-commerce store to a comprehensive digital learning powerhouse. With our Unlimited Plan at $29.99 per month and 0% transaction fees, you have a clear path to scaling your revenue without the stress of hidden costs. Whether you are upselling physical goods with digital courses or building a thriving subscription community, the data you find in your Shopify reports will be the roadmap to your success.
To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. You can start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now, ensuring you have everything in place to maximize your brand's potential.
FAQ
1. Can I see sales reports for digital products specifically?
Yes. By using the "Sales by Product" report in Shopify, you can filter by product type or title. If you use Tevello, your digital courses are treated as products within your Shopify admin, allowing you to track their performance alongside your physical inventory seamlessly.
2. Why does my sales report show more revenue than my bank account?
This is usually due to three factors: transaction fees from your payment processor, shipping costs you’ve paid out, and the delay between a customer’s purchase and the payout hitting your account. Always compare your Sales Report with your Payout Report for a full financial picture.
3. Do I need a specific Shopify plan to see detailed sales data?
While all plans offer basic financial summaries, the "Sales by..." reports (like Sales by Product or Sales by Channel) generally require the Shopify plan ($105/mo) or higher. However, basic sales overviews are available on all plans, including Basic.
4. Can I track how many students are active in my courses through Shopify reports?
Shopify reports focus on financial transactions. To see student engagement, progress, and community activity, you would look at the analytics dashboard within the Tevello app. This gives you a specialized view of how your digital content is actually being consumed by your buyers.
