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Running a manufacturing business on Shopify requires more than just tracking sales. You need deep insights into inventory movements, production costs, profit margins, and demand patterns to make informed decisions. The right reports can transform raw data into actionable intelligence that drives operational efficiency and profitability.
This guide explores the essential Shopify reports that manufacturing businesses should leverage to optimize their operations and scale sustainably.
Manufacturing businesses face unique challenges compared to traditional retail operations. You're managing raw materials, tracking work-in-progress inventory, calculating complex product costs, and coordinating production schedules. Without proper analytics, you're flying blind.
Shopify's reporting capabilities, especially for Shopify Plus users, provide powerful tools to monitor every aspect of your manufacturing operation, from raw material procurement to finished goods delivery.
Inventory management is critical for manufacturers. Running out of raw materials halts production, while excess inventory ties up capital and warehouse space.
Inventory Snapshot Report
This report provides a complete view of your inventory at a specific point in time. For manufacturers, this is invaluable for:
Inventory Sold Daily by Product
Understanding daily sales velocity helps you:
Inventory Adjustments Report
Manufacturers constantly adjust inventory for:
This report helps you maintain accurate inventory records and identify patterns in waste or quality issues.
Product Inventory Levels Report
Set up alerts when stock levels hit critical thresholds. This helps you:
Use Shopify's inventory tracking in combination with SKU variants to separate raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods. This creates clearer visibility into your production pipeline.
Sales reports go beyond simple revenue tracking. For manufacturers, they reveal which products justify production costs and which markets are most profitable.
Total Sales Report
Track overall revenue trends to:
Sales Over Time
This report shows trends by day, week, month, or year. Manufacturers can use this to:
Sales Attributed to Marketing
Understanding which marketing efforts drive sales helps you:
Sales by Product Variant
For manufacturers producing multiple variants (sizes, colors, configurations), this report shows:
Cross-reference sales reports with production lead times. If a product takes 4 weeks to manufacture, use sales velocity data to trigger production 6 weeks before anticipated demand spikes.
Revenue means nothing if you're not profitable. Manufacturing businesses must track costs meticulously to ensure healthy margins.
Profit by Product Report
This report is essential but requires accurate setup. You must:
The report reveals:
Profit by Variant Report
Different variants often have different cost structures. A larger size might use more material, or a specialized color might require expensive dye. This report helps you:
Profit by POS Location
If you sell through multiple channels (online, wholesale, retail locations), this report shows:
For manufacturers, "cost per item" should include:
Update these costs quarterly or whenever supplier prices change significantly.
Not all products are created equal. ABC analysis categorizes products based on their contribution to revenue:
Focus Production Resources on A Products
These are your bread and butter. Ensure:
Optimize B Products
These products have potential. Consider:
Evaluate C Products
These products may be:
The key is not to spread production resources too thin across products that don't contribute meaningfully to profitability.
While Shopify doesn't have a dedicated "demand forecasting report," you can build forecasts using historical sales and inventory data.
Step 1: Analyze Historical Sales Patterns
Export sales data from the past 1-2 years and identify:
Step 2: Factor in Lead Times
Add your production and procurement lead times to the forecast:
Step 3: Set Safety Stock Levels
Based on variability in demand and lead times, determine:
Step 4: Create Production Schedules
Use forecasts to create rolling production schedules:
Consider integrating Shopify with:
Manufacturing businesses often overlook customer data, but it's crucial for production planning.
Customers Over Time
Growing customer base indicates you should:
Returning Customers Report
High repeat purchase rates suggest:
Customers by Location
Geographic concentration helps you:
While Shopify's default reports provide excellent baseline insights, manufacturing businesses often need custom reports tailored to their specific operations. Shopify's Analytics Exploration feature gives you the flexibility to create exactly the reports you need.
Analytics Exploration is Shopify's powerful custom reporting tool available to merchants on all Shopify plans. It allows you to:
To start an exploration, navigate to Analytics > Reports in your Shopify admin and click New exploration. The interface includes an AI assistant that helps you build queries by understanding your reporting needs in plain language.
Shopify's Analytics Exploration works with your store's native data, including sales, orders, inventory, and customer information. Manufacturing businesses can create valuable custom explorations such as:
Inventory and Sales Analysis
Profitability Reports
Order Fulfillment Insights
Detailed manufacturing and supply chain metrics are not available in Shopify's native data. To track the following, you'll need to integrate with manufacturing ERP systems or specialized apps:
Production Efficiency Metrics
Supply Chain Reports
To achieve these manufacturing-specific reports, consider:
Let's say you want to identify which products are selling quickly but running low on inventory, so you can prioritize production. Using Analytics Exploration, you can:
This type of custom analysis helps you prioritize which products need immediate production attention based on actual sales data and current stock levels, preventing stockouts of your most popular items.
Consider connecting Shopify with:
Ensure that:
Material costs change frequently. Outdated costs lead to:
Solution: Review and update costs monthly or quarterly.
Overproduction ties up capital and warehouse space.
Solution: Use ABC analysis and inventory turnover reports to identify slow movers and adjust production accordingly.
High revenue with low margins doesn't sustain a business.
Solution: Prioritize profit reports and margin analysis over pure sales numbers.
Many manufacturers get caught off-guard by seasonal demand.
Solution: Analyze multi-year sales patterns and build production schedules that anticipate seasonal peaks.
Manually compiling data from multiple sources wastes time and introduces errors.
Solution: Automate report generation and delivery using Shopify Flow or n8n for more complex workflows. Schedule reports to run automatically and email stakeholders.
Track how product lines perform over their lifecycle:
This helps you plan new product introductions and phase out declining items strategically.
Go beyond gross profit to understand:
Use historical data to model scenarios:
Track these metrics consistently:
Operational KPIs
Financial KPIs
Customer KPIs
Manufacturing businesses that leverage Shopify's reporting capabilities gain significant competitive advantages. By consistently monitoring inventory, sales, profitability, and demand patterns, you can:
Start with the core reports (inventory, sales, and profit) and ensure your data is accurate. Then expand into ABC analysis and demand forecasting. Finally, build custom reports tailored to your specific manufacturing operations.
Remember: The best report is the one you actually use. Start simple, establish routines, and gradually expand your analytics capabilities as your team becomes more data-driven.
Your manufacturing business deserves better than gut-feel decisions. Let Shopify's analytics guide you to smarter, more profitable operations.
Ready to optimize your manufacturing analytics? Start by auditing your current Shopify reports and ensuring your product costs are accurate. That single step will unlock the insights you need to make better production and pricing decisions.
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