Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Strategic Importance of Regional Sales Data
- How to Access Built-in Shopify Sales Reports by State
- Manual Data Extraction: The CSV Method
- Understanding Sales Tax and Regional Compliance
- Using Regional Data to Launch Digital Products
- Why Native Integration is Key for Your Data
- Strategic Marketing: Localized Ad Campaigns
- Diversifying Revenue with Tevello
- Analyzing Regional Customer Behavior
- The Financial Benefits of a Digital-Physical Hybrid
- Selecting the Right Tools for Regional Growth
- Future-Proofing Your Shopify Store
- FAQ
- Conclusion
Introduction
Did you know that according to recent e-commerce growth data, over 70% of high-growth merchants attribute their success to granular data analysis rather than just broad market trends? While many store owners focus on total revenue or average order value, the most successful brands are digging deeper into the "where" of their business. They aren’t just looking at the country level; they are looking at specific regions, provinces, and states to understand where their most loyal advocates reside. If you are operating a store and haven't yet mastered the ability to pinpoint exactly which states are driving your profits, you are essentially flying blind through a storm of marketing costs and logistical challenges.
The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a definitive roadmap on how to see sales by state on Shopify. We will cover everything from utilizing built-in analytics and manual CSV exports to leveraging this data for advanced marketing strategies and diversifying your revenue with digital products. Whether you are navigating the complexities of state-level tax nexus or trying to decide where to launch your next localized ad campaign, understanding your regional performance is the first step toward building a more resilient business.
At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We believe that once you understand where your customers are, you can serve them better—not just through physical goods, but through high-value digital experiences. By the end of this article, you will have a clear, actionable plan to extract your regional sales data and use it to propel your brand into its next phase of growth.
The Strategic Importance of Regional Sales Data
When you first launch a Shopify store, every sale feels like a victory. However, as you scale, the "noise" of general data can hide massive opportunities. A merchant might see $100,000 in monthly sales and feel satisfied, but without a sales by state report on Shopify, they might miss the fact that 40% of their returns are coming from a single region with high shipping costs, or that a specific state is seeing a massive organic surge in interest that hasn't been tapped into by paid ads.
Identifying Growth Hubs
One of the primary reasons to learn how to see sales by state on Shopify is to identify your brand's "hot spots." Growth hubs are specific geographic areas where your brand resonance is higher than average. This could be due to local culture, climate-specific needs (like selling winter gear to residents in Montana), or even a local influencer who happened to share your product. By identifying these hubs, you can double down on what’s working. If Texas is suddenly showing a 20% month-over-month increase in sales, it might be time to look for local partnership opportunities or host a regional community event.
Optimizing Marketing Spend
Advertising platforms like Meta and Google allow for extremely granular targeting. If your data shows that California and New York provide a significantly higher Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) compared to the Midwest, you can reallocate your budget to these high-performing states. Conversely, if you notice a state has high traffic but low conversion rates, you might investigate whether your shipping times or costs to that specific region are deterring customers. This level of optimization is what separates profitable brands from those that eventually burn through their capital.
Inventory and Logistics Planning
For merchants selling physical goods, regional data is the backbone of logistics. Shipping from a single warehouse in Florida to a customer in Washington state is expensive and slow. By analyzing your Shopify sales by state, you can make data-driven decisions about where to open your next fulfillment center or which 3PL (third-party logistics) provider has the best coverage for your top-performing regions. Faster shipping isn't just a convenience; it is a primary driver of customer satisfaction and repeat purchase rates.
How to Access Built-in Shopify Sales Reports by State
Shopify provides several ways to view your sales data, though the depth of reporting often depends on the plan you are subscribed to. For those on the Shopify, Advanced, or Plus plans, the process is relatively straightforward.
Using the Sales by Billing Location Report
The most direct way to find your regional breakdown is through the "Sales by billing location" report. This report uses the billing address of the customer to categorize the sale, which is generally more accurate for tax and financial reporting than the shipping address.
- Navigate to Analytics: From your Shopify admin, click on Analytics and then Reports.
- Find the Sales Category: Scroll down to the Sales section and click on Show all.
- Select Billing Location: Look for the report titled Sales by billing location.
- Adjust the Date Range: Use the date picker to select the specific timeframe you want to analyze—be it the last quarter, the last year, or a custom range.
- Filter by Region: You can click on the "Billing country" to drill down into "Billing province/state."
This report provides essential data fields, including gross sales, discounts, refunds, net sales, and taxes. It is a powerful tool for seeing exactly which states are contributing most to your bottom line.
Limitations of Basic Reports
If you are on the Basic Shopify plan, you may notice that some of these advanced reports are restricted. Merchants on the entry-level tier often have access to "Total Sales" but may lack the ability to drill down into regional specifics within the dashboard. This doesn't mean you can't see your data; it just means you have to work a little harder to get it. Understanding how to see sales by state on Shopify even on a budget is vital for early-stage growth.
Manual Data Extraction: The CSV Method
When built-in reports aren't available or when you need to perform custom data manipulation, the manual export method is your best friend. This approach allows you to take your raw data and use tools like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel to create your own custom sales by state report in Shopify.
Exporting Your Orders
The first step is to get the raw data out of Shopify.
- Go to Orders: Click on the Orders tab in your Shopify admin.
- Filter Your Data: Use the filter tool to select the date range you are interested in. You might also want to filter for "Paid" and "Fulfilled" orders to ensure you are looking at completed transactions.
- Click Export: In the top right corner, click Export. Choose "Orders by date" and select the CSV format.
- Check Your Email: Shopify will email you a link to download the CSV file once it has been generated.
Sorting and Filtering in Spreadsheets
Once you have your CSV file, open it in your preferred spreadsheet software. To see your sales by state, you will focus on specific columns:
- Shipping Province/State: Look for the column that lists the state code (e.g., NY, CA, TX).
- Total Sales: This column provides the final price paid by the customer.
To create a summary, you can use a Pivot Table. Select your entire data range, insert a pivot table, and set "Shipping Province" as the Row and "Total" as the Value (set to Sum). This will instantly give you a clean list of every state and the total revenue generated from each. This manual process, while slightly more time-consuming, ensures that even merchants on the most basic plans can access the insights they need to grow.
Understanding Sales Tax and Regional Compliance
One of the most practical reasons to master the sales by state report on Shopify is for tax compliance. In the United States, "Nexus" refers to the connection a business has with a state that requires them to collect and remit sales tax.
Economic Nexus Thresholds
Since the South Dakota v. Wayfair decision, most states have implemented "Economic Nexus" laws. This means that even if you don't have a physical office or warehouse in a state, you may still be required to collect sales tax if you exceed a certain threshold of sales or transactions (often $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions).
By regularly reviewing your sales by state, you can monitor how close you are to these thresholds. Shopify's native tax settings are robust, but they require the merchant to manually "activate" collection once nexus is reached. Missing these thresholds can lead to significant back-tax liabilities and penalties.
Preparing for Tax Season
When tax season arrives, your accountant will likely ask for a breakdown of sales and taxes collected by state. Having a repeatable process for generating these reports saves hours of administrative headache. If you are also using Tevello to sell digital products, you'll find that our all the key features for courses and communities include seamless integration with Shopify’s tax engine, ensuring that your digital sales are tracked and taxed just as accurately as your physical goods.
Using Regional Data to Launch Digital Products
Once you have a firm grasp on where your customers are located, you can begin to use that information to diversify your revenue. This is where the intersection of physical products and digital learning becomes incredibly powerful.
The Hybrid Business Model
Imagine a merchant selling high-end gardening tools. After checking their Shopify sales report by state, they notice a massive concentration of customers in the Pacific Northwest. This region has a specific climate and unique gardening challenges. Instead of just selling more shovels, the merchant could use Tevello to create a "Mastering the Pacific Northwest Garden" video course.
This approach offers several advantages:
- Zero Shipping Costs: Digital products have no logistics overhead.
- Higher Margins: Once the content is created, the cost of selling to the next student is essentially zero.
- Increased Lifetime Value (LTV): You are moving from a one-time transaction to an ongoing educational relationship.
You can see how merchants are earning six figures by adopting this very model. By targeting your digital offerings to the specific needs of your highest-performing regions, you create a personalized brand experience that is difficult for competitors to replicate.
Localized Communities
Regional data also allows you to build localized digital communities. If you have a large cluster of customers in a specific state, you can use Tevello’s community features to create a "state-specific" group. This fosters a sense of belonging and allows customers to share local tips and experiences related to your products. Building this level of brand loyalty is much easier when you know exactly who your customers are and where they live.
Why Native Integration is Key for Your Data
When choosing tools to help grow your store, the way they integrate with Shopify matters immensely. Many platforms redirect your customers to a third-party URL to access courses or digital products. This is a mistake for two reasons: it confuses the customer and it fragments your data.
Keeping the Customer Journey Seamless
At Tevello, we believe in a "Native Shopify Integration." This means that when a customer buys a course, they stay on your URL. They use the same login they used to buy your physical products. From a data perspective, this is vital. When your digital sales happen within the Shopify ecosystem, they show up in your sales by state reports just like any other order.
If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.
By keeping everything under one roof, you don't have to stitch together data from three different platforms just to see your total revenue by state. You get a holistic view of your business, which allows for better decision-making. We have seen firsthand how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses with their existing products, all while keeping their reporting clean and centralized.
Owning Your Data
When you use a native solution, you own your customer data. You aren't "renting" your audience from a third-party platform that might change its terms or pricing at any moment. You have the freedom to export your data, run your own reports, and communicate with your customers exactly how you see fit. This autonomy is essential for long-term brand stability and growth.
Strategic Marketing: Localized Ad Campaigns
Armed with your Shopify sales by state data, your marketing strategy can shift from a "spray and pray" approach to a "sniper" approach. Localized marketing is one of the most effective ways to lower your customer acquisition costs (CAC).
State-Specific Ad Copy
If you know that a particular state is a top performer, you can create ad copy that speaks directly to those residents. Use local landmarks, mention regional weather patterns, or reference local events. This small touch of personalization can significantly increase click-through rates. Customers feel seen when a brand acknowledges their specific context.
Regional Promotions and Sales
You can also run sales that are exclusive to certain regions. For example, if you want to boost sales in the Midwest during a slow month, you can create a discount code that only works for customers with a billing address in those states. This allows you to stimulate growth in specific areas without discounting your entire store and eroding your global margins.
Influencer Partnerships by Region
Regional data can also guide your influencer marketing efforts. If you see a spike in sales in Georgia, look for influencers based in Atlanta or Savannah. A local influencer’s endorsement carries more weight within their own community, and because you already have a proven product-market fit in that state, the likelihood of a successful campaign is much higher.
Diversifying Revenue with Tevello
As you analyze your sales and realize the potential of different regions, you might find that some areas are more interested in the knowledge behind your products than the products themselves. This is the perfect time to introduce digital products.
Predictable Revenue Streams
Physical product sales can be seasonal and unpredictable. Digital products, particularly memberships and recurring courses, provide a layer of stability. Tevello’s model is built on predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, meaning you can accurately forecast your costs as you scale.
Whether you are teaching a craft, a business skill, or providing a fitness program, the ability to add a recurring revenue stream to your Shopify store is a game-changer. It shifts the focus from "finding the next customer" to "nurturing the current one."
Scaling Without Friction
The beauty of the digital model is that it scales effortlessly across state lines. While you might need to worry about the logistics of shipping a physical item from Maine to California, a digital course is delivered instantly to every state with the same level of ease. By keeping customers at home on the brand website, you ensure that the transition from a physical buyer to a digital student is as frictionless as possible.
Analyzing Regional Customer Behavior
Beyond just looking at total sales, a deeper dive into regional data can reveal fascinating insights into customer behavior. Are customers in California more likely to buy your premium products? Do customers in the South use discount codes more frequently?
Tailoring Your Product Mix
By understanding these regional nuances, you can tailor your product mix. You might decide to feature different items on your homepage based on the visitor's location (using Shopify apps that allow for geo-targeted content). If your sales by state report on Shopify shows that New England customers are buying a specific accessory at a high rate, you can bundle that accessory with your main product for those specific visitors.
Improving Customer Support
Regional data can even impact your customer support strategy. If you know that a large portion of your customers are in a different time zone, you might adjust your support hours or hire a remote representative in that region. This level of responsiveness builds immense trust and keeps customers coming back. We have seen many success stories from brands using native courses to provide automated onboarding and support, which reduces the burden on their human team while still providing a high-quality experience.
The Financial Benefits of a Digital-Physical Hybrid
The ultimate goal of analyzing your Shopify sales by state is to build a more profitable and sustainable business. The hybrid model—combining physical goods with digital products—is one of the most effective ways to achieve this.
Boosting Profit Margins
When you add a digital component to a physical sale, your overall order margin increases. For example, a merchant selling art supplies might sell a $50 watercolor kit. If they also offer a $20 "Introduction to Watercolors" video course at checkout, and that course has no additional fulfillment cost, their profit margin on that order jumps significantly. This is the power of generating revenue from both physical and digital goods simultaneously.
Reducing Reliance on New Customer Acquisition
It is much cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to find a new one. By offering digital content to your existing customer base in high-performing states, you are effectively mining more value from the relationships you’ve already built. You aren't just selling a product; you are providing a solution, and that shift in perspective is what leads to long-term brand loyalty.
Selecting the Right Tools for Regional Growth
As you look to implement these strategies, the tools you choose will be your foundation. You need a system that is robust enough to handle your current volume but flexible enough to grow with you.
Why Tevello Stands Out
When we built Tevello, we did so with the Shopify merchant in mind. We knew that you didn't need another complicated platform to manage; you needed a tool that felt like a natural extension of what you were already doing. This is why we focus on seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify as our primary technical advantage.
Our pricing is also designed to be merchant-friendly. We reject the complicated tier structures and transaction fees that punish you for being successful. Instead, we offer a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members, so you can scale your digital empire across every state without worrying about your software bill eating your profits.
Features That Drive Results
Beyond just hosting videos, Tevello provides a suite of tools designed to engage your students and build your community:
- Drip Content Scheduling: Release lessons over time to keep students engaged and coming back to your store.
- Quizzes and Assessments: Ensure your students are actually learning and getting value from your content.
- Member Directories: Allow your customers to connect with one another, creating a thriving community around your brand.
These features, combined with the data you get from your Shopify sales reports, provide everything you need to dominate your niche.
Future-Proofing Your Shopify Store
The e-commerce landscape is constantly evolving. What worked two years ago might not work today. By mastering your regional sales data and diversifying into digital products, you are future-proofing your business.
Adapting to Economic Changes
Physical goods are often subject to supply chain disruptions and fluctuating material costs. Digital products provide a hedge against these risks. If shipping costs spike or a supplier goes out of business, your digital revenue remains unaffected. This stability is invaluable in an uncertain economy.
Building an Intellectual Property Asset
When you create courses and educational content, you are building intellectual property (IP). This is an asset that has value beyond just the revenue it generates. A business that has a loyal, educated community and a library of proprietary content is much more attractive to potential buyers or investors than a simple dropshipping store.
Ready to take the next step? You can install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today and begin building your first course during our 14-day free trial.
FAQ
1. Can I see sales by state on the Basic Shopify plan? While the Basic Shopify plan does not include the advanced "Sales by billing location" report in the analytics dashboard, you can still access this data. You can export your orders to a CSV file and use a spreadsheet program like Google Sheets or Excel to sort your sales by the "Shipping Province/State" column. This allows you to see your regional breakdown without upgrading your plan.
2. Is the billing state or shipping state more accurate for reports? It depends on your goal. For tax purposes and financial compliance, the billing state is usually the standard. However, for marketing and logistics planning—such as deciding where to warehouse inventory—the shipping state is a better indicator of where your products are actually going.
3. How does selling digital courses through Tevello affect my state sales tax? Digital products are subject to different tax rules in each state. However, because Tevello integrates natively with Shopify, your digital sales go through the same Shopify checkout as your physical products. This means Shopify’s tax engine will automatically calculate and collect the correct tax based on your nexus settings and the customer's location.
4. Can I offer state-specific discounts for my online courses? Yes. Since Tevello uses Shopify's native discount system, you can create discount codes and then use apps or custom scripts to restrict those codes to specific geographic locations or customer segments based on their address data.
Conclusion
Understanding how to see sales by state on Shopify is more than just a technical skill; it is a strategic necessity. By diving into your regional data, you gain the clarity needed to optimize your marketing, streamline your logistics, and ensure your business remains compliant with complex tax laws. More importantly, this data serves as a roadmap for expansion. It reveals where your most engaged customers live and what they care about, providing the perfect foundation for launching high-margin digital products.
At Tevello, we are committed to helping you turn those regional insights into a thriving digital ecosystem. Whether you are looking to add a single "how-to" video for your best-selling product or you want to build a massive subscription-based community, our platform is designed to make that transition seamless. Remember, our Unlimited Plan at $29.99 per month comes with 0% transaction fees, meaning you keep every cent of the revenue you generate. You can build your entire curriculum and community during your 14-day free trial before ever paying a subscription fee.
To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. Empower your store, own your data, and turn your Shopify brand into the digital learning powerhouse it was meant to be.


