# Read your analytics and reports

Level: Beginner. About 30 minutes. Plans: Main features on all plans; Advanced adds custom reports. Checked against Shopify's documentation on 2026-10-08.

**Short answer:** From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics to see the dashboard of metric cards, set the date range and compare it with an earlier period [1][2]. Click a card title to open its report, or go to Analytics > Reports for the full list grouped by category [2][3]. Analytics > Live View shows visitors and orders as they happen [4].

## Before you start

Shopify Analytics has three parts. The **Analytics** page is a dashboard of metric cards. **Reports** give deeper data on one metric or set of metrics, as a chart and a table. **Live View** shows your online store traffic as it happens [1].

- **Plan.** Shopify says the main features of Shopify Analytics are available on any subscription plan [1]. The Advanced plan adds custom reports and predicted values for some reports [5].
- **Staff access.** Staff members need **Analytics** permissions to see reports and dashboards [1].
- **How fresh the data is.** Dashboard data is updated within about 1 minute [6].
- **How sessions are counted.** Sessions and visitors are based on cookies, and a session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity [2].

Worked example: a candle shop selling 40 products in the US and Canada wants to know whether last month beat the month before, and which candles sold best.

## Steps

1. **Open the dashboard.** From your Shopify admin, go to **Analytics** [2]. On desktop, the dashboard shows the last 90 days by default. In the Shopify app, it shows today compared with yesterday [2].
2. **Set the date range.** Click the date range menu (calendar icon). Choose a preset in the sidebar, select **Custom range** for fixed dates, or use the **Last** section for a rolling range. Click **Apply** [2]. For the candle shop, pick last month.
3. **Compare with an earlier period.** Open the comparison menu, select **Previous period** or **Previous year**, or click **Custom** to set your own dates, then click **Apply** [2]. Select **No comparison** to remove it [2].
4. **Open the report behind a card.** On desktop, click the title of a metric card to go to its report [2]. Each report shows its data as a chart and a table [3].
5. **Browse all reports.** Go to **Analytics** > **Reports**. Reports are grouped by subject, and you can filter the list by category [3]. Shopify's default categories are Acquisition, Behavior, Customers, Finance, Fraud, Inventory, Marketing, Order, Profit, Retail sales and Sales [7]. To see only Shopify's own reports, filter by **Created by** and select **Shopify** [7].
6. **Change a report's dates.** In a report, click the calendar icon, or click the **Date range** value in the **Filters** menu of the configuration panel. Choose a range and click **Apply** [8].
7. **Compare a report with the past.** Click the **Compare to** or **No comparison** indicator in the upper-left corner, then click **Comparison to past**. Select **Previous period**, **Previous year** or **Custom range**, then click **Apply** [8].
8. **Make the dashboard yours.** On a desktop computer, go to **Analytics** and click the horizontal menu icon > **Customize** [9]. Drag cards to move them, drag the lower-right corner to resize, drag a card in from the metric library sidebar to add it, and click **X** on a card to remove it. Click **Save** when you're done [9]. Changes show on desktop and mobile [9].
9. **Group cards into sections.** In the dashboard editor, click **Add section**, type a name and press Enter, then add cards to it and click **Save** [9]. The candle shop could keep one section for sales and one for traffic.
10. **Watch Live View on a busy day.** Go to **Analytics** > **Live View** [4]. Live View needs the Online Store sales channel [4]. It shows visitors right now (active in the past 5 minutes), total sales, sessions and orders since midnight, and customer behavior in the last 10 minutes [4].
11. **Export a report.** Go to **Analytics** > **Reports**, click the report, then click the horizontal menu icon > **Export**. If the **Export report** dialog offers a choice, pick a file format, then click **Export** [10]. Formats include CSV, XML, JSONL and Parquet [10].

## Check your work

- Your dashboard shows the cards you chose, in the order you set, after you reload the **Analytics** page [9].
- A report with a comparison shows both periods for the same dates you picked on the dashboard [2][8].
- An exported file opens in a spreadsheet program and has more rows than the report shows on screen when the report is large [3][10].

## Common problems

- **"My report stops at 1,000 rows."** Reports show at most 1,000 rows on screen, though totals cover all rows. Export the report to get every row [3].
- **"Sessions and conversion rate changed but my traffic didn't."** Shopify rolled out a session measurement update from September 21 to 23, 2026. Session-based metrics such as sessions and conversion rate might change after it reaches your store, even if traffic and orders didn't [6].
- **"My visitor count doesn't match another analytics tool."** Counts differ because of counting windows, bot filtering, JavaScript or cookie settings and time zones [4].
- **"Live View shows lots of visitors in Kansas."** Visitors whose location can't be resolved within the US may appear at a default point in Kansas. This usually reflects bots, crawlers or VPN traffic [4].
- **"I can't customize the dashboard in the app."** Customizing is only possible in the Shopify admin on a desktop computer [9].
- **"I don't see insights at the top."** Insights are generated daily only for stores that average at least 10 orders a week over the last 6 months [2].
- **"A staff member can't see reports."** Give them **Analytics** permissions [1].

## Further reading

- [Using the Analytics overview dashboard](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard/using-the-overview-dashboard) [2]
- [Default Shopify reports](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/report-types/default-reports) [7]

## Sources

1. [Shopify Analytics](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
2. [Using the Analytics overview dashboard](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard/using-the-overview-dashboard), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
3. [Reports](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/report-types), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
4. [Live View](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/live-view), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
5. [Advanced Shopify plan](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/shopify-advanced-plan), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
6. [Analytics overview dashboard](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
7. [Default Shopify reports](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/report-types/default-reports), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
8. [Setting and comparing time ranges for your reports](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/using-reports/time-ranges), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
9. [Customizing the Analytics overview dashboard](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard/customizing-overview-dashboard), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08
10. [Exporting reports](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/using-reports/export-reports), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-10-08

Source page: https://webmerchants.net/guides/read-your-analytics