Sales & Transactions

The Sales & Transactions dashboard represents the building blocks of the activity driving your business. Here you have multiple filters and dimensions that will allow you to slice your data and visualize it in various ways, depending on your analytical needs. Your analysis will start with two sets of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), based on a Review and Comp Date that you select. You are able to see these KPIs in many slices, item categories, locations, and sales channels to name a few. Customer behavior between new and existing customers is displayed, as well as transaction types and when that activity occurs.

It is important to note that the data considered begins with the date on the heading panel of the dashboard, under Earliest Transaction Date.  This means that your trends and filtered data will start with the transactions on this date.

Keep in mind that your data may include non-merchandise items and activity such as shipping, services, etc. You can use the filters on the dashbaord to include / exclude data as needed.

You will see a link to this document in the top of the dashboard, under the heading Dashboard Help. 

KPIs

At the top of the dashboard, a selection of KPIs appear in two rows. The top row represents the "Review Date" metrics, and the bottom row represents the "Comp Date" metrics; these date periods are controlled with the filters to the right of the dashboard. Here you can compare the KPIs for two time periods to gauge performance, as well as to measure initiatives you may be testing. You can watch the metrics to be sure your expected performance is on track for the period, and make adjustments as needed.  As you initiate operational changes and set goals to measure success, you can use this section of the dashboard to know how the results compare with your goals and with previous results.  You are able to filter the KPIs to activity related to certain categories & items, or to specific promotions.  You are also able to filter to specific stores to further narrow the focus.  When you need to analyze your activity based on how your customers are shopping, say In Store or Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS), you are able to filter to that data.

You are able to filter this dashboard to see store sales, including online orders that are fulfilled by the store such as BOPIS/Curbside or Same Day Delivery. Use the filters to the right of the dashboard to narrow Store Name to the store(s) you want to see, plus your online "location" i.e. xyz.com. Then use the Location Name for Online Orders filter to select the location id of the store(s) you are analyzing. For example, if you want to analyze Store #1 ABC: on the Store Name filter choose ABC and xyz.com; on the Location Name for Online Orders choose ABC. This will reflect the In-Store sales for that location plus the online orders that the store fulfilled.

The KPIs are relatively straightforward, and will respond to the Review Date and Comp Date filters, as well as any of the other more specific filters. You may want to see how a specific category compares with the previous quarter or year - maybe you have seasonal type merchandise and are getting ready to order the next round, maybe you are considering an in-store promotion and want to set expectations. Use the filters here to understand at a high, or granular level how your sales are performing.

Graphic Displays

Below the KPI panels, you will see a high level comparison by category - at a quick glance you can see if certain categories are materially different from your Comp period. Perhaps you have a store that recently changed it's floor layout, or maybe you marketing team offered a new type of promotion - you can see at a high level how the performance changed and then dig into the details as you move through the dashboard. Next to the graphic there is a table of metrics that correspond to the KPI panel - you will see it organized by product type to understand which categories are performing well, and which might need some extra attention. You can right-click on either the graphic or the table to switch dimensions.  Be sure to pay attention to the collection of metrics, a single indicator may not tell the whole story.

Graphics will often tell a story about your business or operations that is not obvious when looking only at metrics.  Look for trends in the data, where the different metrics intersect, and which metrics seem to impact the others.  You can make more informed decisions about your business when you combine what your data is telling you with the knowledge you have about influencing factors such as promotions and initiatives.

New vs. Existing Customers

This section defines a new customer as one who shopped 30 days since their customer record was created. The KPIs and graphics in this section reflect sales, transactions and average transaction value for the date range you chose in Review Date, for all customers and how new customers performed against existing customers. You will see the percentage of sales and transactions that were generated by new and existing customers, and you wil see the trends in these major indicators. Note that you can click on the legends of the graphics to toggle them on and off - this can help sharpen the focus.

Here you want to use the power of the filters - did transactions spike in a particular month unexpectedly? Did your overall sales trend behave higher than you anticipated? Start digging here by using the various filters - you'll be able to get closer to the factors that impacted your trends. Maybe you "know" why your sales performed a certain way - check your assumptions here, you may be surprised at what you find. Pay attention to the ebbs and flows of the trends - you will want to be aware of seasonality, special events and other causes for the spikes and dips.

You can also switch dimensions on these graphics between date granularities and sales channels. For example, you can look at your trends by month, then switch to sales channels - you can look at days, weeks, months, quarters and years; you will need to switch from a date to sales channels before you can switch to a different date granularity.

Weekday and Hourly Distribution

This table will reflect your metrics as of weekdays, and you are able to add additional pivot rows for store name, originating store name and hours. In combination with the graphics in the next section, you can use this to inform labor allocations as well as where to position staff during the high & low impact periods. It can also be useful for marketing purposes where you can see incentive opportunities to increase business during the slower days or hours.  Ask yourself questions about the days and times when certain categories, specials, promotions tend to sell - is this similar in each location? Are your locations staffed appropriately during the busiest times? Are you offering incentives to shoppers to visit on the slowest day of the week? To add the pivot rows, right click in the header area and add or remove what you need for your analysis.

Note that your date range should include the same number of each weekday when using this table. For example, use a date range that starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday.

Next to the table is a line graphic that will show you sales dollars and average transaction value by hour. The date range is waht you select for Review Date and you will notice that each metric is represented on its own axis of values. This will allow you to see how your customers are spending over the course of the day - think about staffing levels during these hours, are your locations properly staffed? You can compare the sales trends against the average transaction values during the same hours - are your customers more likely to spend more on the way home from work hours, or during lunchtime? Are your employees in place at the right hours to support customer needs? Consider your store hours here as well - if you see sales (and further down on this dashboard) general transactions tapering off well ahead of closing hours - this could be an opportunity to re-stock shelves or perhaps adjust the store hours.

Transactions

The transaction section will give you top level KPIs for not only sales activity, it will also show send & receive activity plus a line graphic of all transaction types. You are able to look at this data by transaction type, store name or originating location for online sales if you operation includes this. Switch the dimension by right clicking on the graphic to get the switch dimension menu. As with other graphics, click on the legend descriptions to toggle them on and off.

When analyzing by transaction type, you will of course see your sales activity and be able to understand how to best allocate labor - you can use the dashboard filters to look at this one store at a time, or in many other specific slices. Maybe you want to analyze this for all locations that opened in the past couple of years, do this with the Store Open Date filter. Maybe you want to look at this for all locations of a certain size, do this with the Square Footage filter.

You might want to see other transactional trends, for example the volume of credit card transactions and which ones are used. If your operation includes buying used goods from customers, are there certain times of the day where this type of transaction is concentrated? 

The data table at the bottom is a pivot table that allows fields to be added and removed. You can choose values of # of Transactions, Total Quantity and Total Revenue.  There are additional row and colum dimensions to choose. You can also use the dashboard level filters to affect this table. Each column can be sorted for ascending or descending values by hovering in the header and using the arrow.

Any data tables can be quickly exported to a spreadsheet for further analysis. 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.