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The store owner's dashboard

| Article: 2 min read | Analytics

A dashboard is a single page with a few of the business's main indicators, which the owner opens daily or weekly to quickly understand what's going on and decide where to look next. A good dashboard answers a few specific questions rather than showing everything the system can do.

In plain words

Reports from analytics, advertising and the accounting system show hundreds of numbers. The owner needs five to ten that change decisions. A dashboard puts them together, in a fixed order, so that changes are visible.

What to show

The set depends on the questions you are answering. A typical order for an owner:

  1. Money: revenue, average order value, gross margin.
  2. Customers: number of orders, conversion rate, share of repeat purchases (repeat purchases).
  3. Acquisition: ad spend, customer acquisition cost, ROAS or ROMI.
  4. Warehouse and fulfillment: products running out, unpaid and returned orders (stock, returns).

More on choosing indicators is in the articles Key metrics and Online store KPIs.

Principles

  • One question, one number. Show a comparison next to the number: the previous period or the same period last year.
  • Summary first, then details. The main indicators at the top, the breakdown by source and category below.
  • The same definitions. "Revenue" in the dashboard must match the accounting system. Otherwise the team will argue about numbers instead of decisions.
  • The update date in plain sight.
  • No more than one page for the owner. Details go on separate pages for marketing and the warehouse.

Dashboards can be narrative, analytical or embedded, so first decide what the dashboard is for, and then choose the form.

What to build it from

There are usually three data sources: analytics (GA4), ad accounts, and the accounting system or CRM. There are free tools for collecting and displaying them: for example, Google Looker Studio is described in its documentation as a free tool for building informative dashboards with drag-and-drop, viewer filters and sharing (Google documentation); there are others too. When there's a lot of data or it comes from different systems, it's easier to collect it in a data warehouse than to stitch it together by hand.

An example (hypothetical numbers)

An accessories store, the first screen of the dashboard for a week:

Metric

This week

Last week

Revenue

410,000 UAH

385,000 UAH

Orders

520

490

Average order value

788 UAH

786 UAH

Conversion

2.1%

2.3%

Ad spend

62,000 UAH

55,000 UAH

Revenue is up, but conversion has dropped and advertising got more expensive. That's a reason to look at the funnel, not to celebrate.

Common mistakes

  • A dashboard with 40 charts that nobody opens.
  • Different definitions of the same metric in different parts of the dashboard.
  • Showing only revenue without margin and costs: revenue can grow while profit falls.
  • Not stating the period and the source of the data.
  • Trusting AI's automatic explanations without checking: AI for data analysis.

FAQ

What should be on an online store's dashboard? Revenue, number of orders, average order value, conversion, acquisition costs, margin, repeat purchases, stock.

How often should I look at it? The main figures weekly; operational ones (stock, unpaid orders) daily.

Which tool should I choose? One that connects to your data sources and lets the team see the same numbers. There is no single "best" platform.

Does a small store need a dashboard? Yes, but one table of five indicators, updated weekly, is enough.

Sources

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