Compared to traditional brick-and-mortar stores, running an ecommerce store comes with numerous advantages that can help retailers of all kinds achieve success.
For example, you can keep overhead to a minimum by launching your ecommerce store from home and reduce growing pains associated with expanding overhead. You can also even sell products around the clock.
However, even after you’ve successfully completed the items on your ecommerce checklist when launching your new venture, your store still requires constant oversight to maximize its performance.
You must actively monitor your site so that you can identify important trends and improve how you manage your operation.
Through Google Data Studio, you can more easily access and analyze metrics that are relevant to your operational decisions.
What is Google Data Studio?
Today’s ecommerce store owners have a true advantage through data collection and analysis. You can obtain a wide range of stats about your store, your marketing campaigns, and more from multiple reliable sources.
In the process, you can determine the health of your business, identify concerning trends before they become problematic, and understand what your customers want. Unfortunately, you can sometimes get bogged down in so much data to the point where it becomes difficult to analyze.
Google Data Studio is a free application that you can access as soon as you have a Google account. If you don’t already have a Google account, you can set one up within minutes at no cost.
Google Data Studio pulls together data from multiple sources, and it gives you easy access to customizable reports and dashboards.
By doing so, Google Data Studio helps you to make sense of all of the valuable data points that you have at your disposal and empowers you to run your business well.
How can Google Data Studio benefit your ecommerce store?
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you look at the tremendous amount of data to which you have access. You can just as easily feel frustrated when you can’t put that data to good use.
When the data comes from multiple sources, you must determine how to integrate the data together to extract the most accurate and useful insights.
Google Data Studio brings all of your data from connected sources together cohesively and comprehensively. It then saves you valuable time by producing visuals that enable you to clearly see the full power of your data.
So, what can you learn from your Google Data Studio charts and dashboards?
You can obtain information regarding average order value, customer lifetime value, total sales, bounce rate, and conversion rates. In addition, you can learn about abandoned shopping cart behaviors, your top referring sources, and more.
These are only some of the many valuable insights regarding your store’s performance that Google Data Studio can obtain for you. This information is vital in supporting thoughtful operational decisions, involving everything from your marketing strategy to your product line.
How do you create a Google Data Studio ecommerce dashboard?
While the mere thought of data analysis may generate stress for some entrepreneurs, keep in mind that Google Data Studio is designed to simplify your life.
Once you learn the quick and easy steps to create an ecommerce dashboard and charts, you can quickly draw insights from your data.
1. Add your ecommerce data to Google Data Studio
Once your Google account is established, you can log into that account through the Data Studio platform to get started. The first screen that you’ll see after logging in is the “Reports” page.
No reports will be listed on this screen initially. After you’ve created reports from your various data sources, though, they’ll be shown on this page for easy viewing.
To begin importing your data, you’ll click “+Create” in the upper-right portion of the screen. This will open up a popup screen.
Click on “Data Source” on the popup window. This action will take you to a list of various connectors that you can use to tie into your data source.
One of the choices available is “Google Analytics,” which will be used as an example here. However, regardless of the options that you use, the next few steps are relatively similar.
After you click on the “Google Analytics” selection, you’ll choose your account as well as the property and view. Then, select “Connect” followed by “Create Report.”
Through these actions, your selected data source will be connected to Google Data Studio.
2. Insert a table to display your product metrics
The next step after your data has been connected to Google Data Studio is to make a customized table. On the “E-Commerce Dashboard” screen, click on the “Insert” tab at the top of the screen.
This will open up a long menu of options, from which you’ll select “Table.” After completing this step, you’ll see your data source and your new table on the dashboard.
When you click on the table that you’ve recently created, you’ll be prompted to select the metrics and dimensions that you desire for your analysis from a panel screen that opens to the right. This then creates a table that pulls together all of the information from your linked data source.
3. Show product metrics by adding a bar chart
At the top of the screen underneath the main menu bar, you’ll see a toolbar that contains a link for “Add a Chart.” This will reveal many options for pie charts, bar charts, maps, and more.
To create a bar chart, simply click on the style that you want to use. Through a drag-and-drop motion, place the preferred icon inside the dashboard.
You can easily customize the look of your bar graph through the properties under the “Style” tab.
It’s also possible to adjust the data shown in the graph through the “Data” section. Take note of the options to “Add Metric” and “Add a Field” toward the bottom of the “Data” section menus.
4. View revenue relationships with a line chart
Some analytics are easier to understand through a line chart rather than through a bar version, such as revenue relationships. Creating a line chart with Google Data Studio is equally simple.
First select “Add a Chart” from the top menu on the screen. When you see the lengthy list of options, pick your preferred style.
To add the line chart to your dashboard, drag and drop the icon to the data section on the dashboard. As is the case when you create a bar chart, you’ll need to adjust the metrics and dimensions via the panel shown.
5. Observe revenue in relation to countries by using a geo map
Another helpful analytical tool that may benefit many ecommerce businesses is a geo map. With a geo map, you can see which areas of the world your revenue is coming from. This in turn can help guide your decisions regarding ads and other forms of product promotion.
The process of creating a geo map begins in the same way. Choose “Insert” from the top bar on the dashboard screen. Select the “Geo Map” option.
Use the same dragging motion to drop the icon inside the dashboard and create the map. You can then manipulate the map through your selection of dimensions, metrics, and fields.
Conclusion
As you work with Google Data Studio, be aware that the data connection function doesn’t allow you to view real-time ecommerce data from your sources.
The data showing on your charts and dashboard will be current as of the last time you imported the data. To update the data in a report, you’ll need to reconnect to your data sources.
Keep in mind that the reports that you create through Google Data Studio can easily be shared with your business partners and employees. By sharing your analysis via bar charts, line charts and other tools, you can ensure that your entire team is on the same page.
If you’re not currently using Google Data Studio, you may be wasting time trying to identify critical insights or missing those insights altogether.
Now is the perfect time to get more familiar with Google Data Studio’s many practical features to optimize the performance of your online store to better serve your customers!
