Marketplace - Sales Metrics Period Comparison Dashboard

Use this dashboard as supplemental information to the Sales Metrics & Activity and Geo Fulfillment & Sales Activity dashboards, you can compare sales metrics for any two time periods.  The purpose of this dashboard is to allow you to drill deeper into your data; there are any number of business needs that you can answer here.  At a high level you are able see comparisons of critical sales KPIs on a monthly trend as well as by comparison of two time periods. The ability to select and drill deeper allows you to see your data at whatever level is important to your current need, right down to the item level.

You will see a link to this document in the heading of the dashboard, click on Dashboard Help to access the document.

At the top of the dashboard are line graphics that show the trend for the past 12 months; the graphics represent monthly metrics and will filter to the attributes on the dashboard - category, fulfillment location and brand / manufacturer.  Use these as a starting point to notice your overall trends, and as you filter other sections of the dashboard use the graphics to see how specific areas of your business are performing.

To the right of the dashboard are two date filters, First Date and Second Date; choose the two time periods that you want to compare.  You may want to look at performance at the close of a month or quarter, or you may want to look at performance specific to a location or other attribute.  You are able to mix the types of date ranges, for example you might choose last month as the first date and this week as the second date.  The date filters control the data tables under Category Comps, Fulfillment Location Comps and Brand / Manufacturer Comps.

You are able to select a specific category, location or brand by right clicking on one of them, and choosing Select.  This will cause the rest of the dashboard to filter to that attribute.  For example, if you Select the category Miscellaneous, you will see only that category on the graphics and in the data sections.  Likewise, if you select a specific fulfillment location, you will see only that location's data on the dashboard.  Remember that the graphics represent monthly metrics regardless of the date filters, though they will filter to attributes that you select.

You are also able to drill deeper from the Category section, to Extended Category, Primary Type and Item Name. Do this by right clicking on a category and choosing the level of detail under Drill.  Simply drilling to deeper data will not filter the dashboard, though Selecting a specific attribute will cause the rest of the dashboard to filter to that level of detail. You might want to compare data for a new category or item, or perhaps see the impact of a new location on the KPIs.  You may have a specific brand that has deteriorating sales, or one that you have been promoting in your marketing; you will be able to compare metrics for relevant time periods to discover where the impact is occurring.  

The data sections of the dashboard are in three sections, Category, Fulfillment Location and Brand / Manufacturer.  In each of these sections you will see two columns representing the KPIs for the dates you choose in the date filters, and a variance column that reflects the growth, or deterioration, between the two time periods.  If you hover to the right of the field names, you will see an arrow that allows an ascending/descending sort.

Sometimes a variance percentage can be misleading, when there is a large percentage variance and a small numeric variance; pay attention to both of these things when looking at your data.  These tables can be exported to work with the data outside the dashboard. Do this by clicking on the 3 dots at the top right corner of the widget, choose Download and export an image or file.  The recommended file type for a spreadsheet is CSV.