6 Ways to Use Shopify Analytics for CPG Growth

Want to grow your Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) business? Shopify Analytics can help. It turns raw data into actionable insights, helping you track sales, improve product pages, understand customers, optimize marketing, manage inventory, and boost customer loyalty. Here’s a quick overview of the six key ways to use Shopify Analytics for growth:

• Track Sales Data: Spot trends, identify best-sellers, and monitor seasonal patterns.
• Improve Product Pages: Fix underperforming products, optimize descriptions, and enhance visibility.
• Study Customer Data: Segment customers, measure lifetime value, and create personalized campaigns.
• Measure Marketing Results: Track ROI, find top-performing channels, and refine your budget.
• Control Inventory Better: Predict stock needs, prevent stockouts, and fine-tune inventory levels.
• Keep Customers Coming Back: Monitor repeat purchases, re-engage at-risk customers, and build loyalty programs.

Quick Comparison:

Use these strategies to make smarter decisions and drive your CPG business forward. Let’s dive into the details!

Shopify Analytics 2025 For Beginners: Everything You Need To Know

1. Track Sales Data

Shopify Analytics helps you make informed decisions about inventory, marketing, and product development. Start by exploring your Sales Dashboard to uncover key performance trends.

1.1. Understand the Sales Dashboard

The Sales Overview dashboard highlights important metrics that can guide your strategy. Key performance indicators include total sales, conversion rates, and average order value. Here’s what to focus on:

1.2. Spot Best-Selling Products

Identify which products drive the most revenue to refine your product mix and marketing efforts. For example, Becky Shuck, owner of Stript Cosmetics, used sales data to boost her top seller’s visibility:

"Our Stay Fab Bath Bomb had been far outselling everything else in its category, so I moved it to our homepage to get more attention. The number of views to that product page rose significantly and so did our conversion rate – now it sells out on a regular basis!"

Use the "Sales by Product" report to pinpoint your top-performing items. Focus on:

• Product variant performance
• Trends within specific categories
• Search terms that lead to sales

1.3. Watch for Sales Patterns

After identifying key products, keep an eye on seasonal buying trends to manage inventory efficiently. Aim to maintain base stock at 70% of maximum capacity to prevent stockouts and avoid overstocking costs .

Key indicators to monitor include:

• Year-over-year sales comparisons
• Geographic sales trends
• Peak shopping times
• Behavior of different customer segments

Leverage Live View to track real-time activity. This tool shows visitor behavior as it happens, helping you address issues like:

• Cart abandonment
• Traffic spikes
• Regional shopping trends
• Popular product views in real time

2. Improve Product Pages

2.1. Understand Product Metrics

Shopify Analytics provides valuable data to help refine your CPG product pages. Pay attention to these key metrics from product reports:

These metrics help pinpoint areas needing improvement, so you can address weak spots on your product pages.

2.2. Address Underperforming Products

For products that aren’t selling well, Shopify’s behavior reports can highlight specific problems.

Common Description Issues:

• Vague ingredient lists
• Missing size details
• Lack of clear usage instructions

Visual Content Problems:

• Poor-quality photos
• No lifestyle images
• Limited product angles
• No clear size references

"The paramount goal for your product pages should be to build user confidence by providing all the information necessary for a purchasing decision and making the process as intuitive and straightforward as possible." – Rosara Joseph, Content Strategist at VentureWeb

2.3. Boost Product Visibility

Once you’ve tackled performance issues, focus on making your products easier to find and more appealing. Domu Brands achieved a 201% higher ecommerce conversion rate by enhancing their search functionality .

Tips to Improve Visibility:

• Use "Top online store searches" data to align product titles with popular search terms.
• Compress images to reduce load times and improve conversions.
• Highlight bestsellers in prominent areas of your store.
• Bundle popular items with slower-moving products.
• Include detailed product information: ingredients, usage instructions, high-quality multi-angle photos, customer reviews, and trust badges.

"Descriptions don’t have to be bland. Invest the time and energy to speak to your users… You have about .02 seconds to make an impression on them, so make it a lasting one by owning your voice!" – Maria Bonello, Director of Strategy at SMAKK Studios

3. Study Customer Data

Once your product pages are optimized, it’s time to dig into your customer data to better understand and engage with your audience.

3.1. Group Customers Effectively

Shopify’s segmentation tools allow CPG brands to organize customers into groups based on their purchasing behavior. These dynamic, rule-based customer lists can help create personalized campaigns that increase ROI by up to 20% .

Here are some common customer segments:

Tools like ShopifyQL let you use natural language queries to analyze customer data, while Shopify Flow automates actions for each group . Once your customers are segmented, evaluate their value to decide where to focus your efforts.

3.2. Measure Customer Value

Customer lifetime value (CLTV) represents the total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their relationship with your brand. To ensure profitability, aim for a CLTV-to-customer acquisition cost ratio of around 3:1 . Keep track of these metrics:

• Average order value
• Purchase frequency
• Customer lifespan
• Predicted purchase value
• Total orders per customer

These insights help you prioritize your marketing strategies and allocate resources effectively.

3.3. Create Personal Marketing

With segmented data and customer value metrics in hand, you can craft personalized marketing campaigns using Shopify’s tools. For example, Mac Duggal leveraged Shopify Audiences‘ Retargeting Boost to reduce cost per purchase by 3.6 times and double their return on ad spend (ROAS) .

Did you know that 91% of shoppers prefer brands that offer tailored recommendations ? Here’s how you can use personalized marketing to your advantage:

• Shopify Audiences: Identify high-intent shoppers.
• Targeted Shop Campaigns: Focus on specific customer segments.
• Product Recommendations: Offer tailored suggestions.
• Location-Based Offers: Customize promotions by geography.
• Loyalty Programs: Collect zero-party data while rewarding customers.

Brands using targeted Shop Campaigns have reported up to 24% growth in new customer acquisition . These strategies can help you connect with your audience on a deeper level and drive better results.

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4. Measure Marketing Results

Building on sales and customer data, tracking campaign performance plays a key role in driving CPG growth.

4.1. Check Campaign Results

Shopify Analytics helps you identify what’s working by tracking sales drivers and customer engagement.

Here are some key metrics to monitor:

"The investors have prioritized efficiency over growth at all costs, and brands have been forced to do the same."
– Meghan Hardy, fractional CMO for ecommerce and D2C brands and founder of Happening Ideas

After reviewing these metrics, dig deeper to uncover which sources are driving the traffic and refine your strategy.

4.2. Find Top Traffic Sources

The "Top Traffic Sources" report helps you figure out which channels bring in your best customers. By analyzing traffic volume and conversion rates, you can identify the channels that deliver results.

Using UTM parameters is a smart way to attribute sales to specific channels, like email campaigns or social media ads.

"Our biggest challenge in attribution is cross-device tracking. We partially solved that by using user ID tracking, which has increased attributed conversions by 40%. We also use unique phone numbers and promo codes for offline conversions, enabling us to connect 85% of in-person sales to digital touchpoints."
– Jose Gallegos, growth marketer and founder of Jose Angelo Studios

These insights help you decide how to allocate your marketing budget more effectively.

4.3. Adjust Marketing Spend

Shopify’s Channel Performance report is a great tool to assess your marketing ROI and guide spending decisions. While a 2:1 ROI is considered acceptable, hitting a 5:1 ROI or higher is often seen as exceptional .

It’s important to consider both short-term and long-term effects. For instance, an SEO campaign with a $10,000 investment in January might not show much return initially but could bring in $50,000 by December as rankings improve .

"Look beyond campaign-level ROI to program-level impact. A seemingly low-ROI top-of-funnel campaign might be essential for feeding high-ROI bottom-funnel activities."
– Jose Gallegos, growth marketer and founder of Jose Angelo Studios

To stay on top of your campaigns, generate weekly or monthly reports that include:

• Key performance metrics
• Conversion rates for each channel
• Customer acquisition costs
• Revenue attribution by source
• ROI calculations for each campaign

These reports will give you a clear picture of what’s working and where to focus your efforts.

5. Control Inventory Better

Shopify Analytics can help you keep your stock levels on point, avoiding costly stockouts and ensuring smoother operations.

5.1. Predict Stock Needs

Shopify Analytics uses historical sales data and seasonal trends to help you predict inventory needs. This is a big deal, as stockouts cost retailers in the U.S. and Canada a staggering $350 billion every year .

Here’s how you can use this data to anticipate demand:

• Look at past sales during similar periods, considering seasonal patterns, promotions, and special events.
• Track purchase trends to identify what drives demand.

"You will never get your inventory buying right. The goal is to be less wrong. The biggest thing to focus on is always to be a bit more conservative with your buying. Buying too little and running out will just slow your growth and create a sense of urgency with your customers. Buying too much can put you out of business." – Lanai Moliterno, founder of Sozy

These insights can help you make smarter decisions and avoid inventory headaches.

5.2. Prevent Stock Problems

Stockouts are a common issue, affecting shoppers every third trip . Shopify Analytics offers practical tools to minimize these disruptions:

"Products going out of stock are probably the biggest ‘silent killer’ of growth I see in ecommerce." – William Harris, CEO and DTC Media Buyer at Elumynt

By using these tools, you can stay ahead of stock issues and keep customers happy.

5.3. Set Better Stock Levels

Once you’ve tackled stockouts, the next step is to fine-tune your inventory. Shopify’s features can help you strike the right balance between meeting customer demand and managing storage costs.

For example, Healf, a consumer packaged goods brand, cut their stockouts from 4% to just 1% in two months using advanced analytics. This adjustment brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra annual revenue .

Here’s how to optimize your stock levels:

• Aim for an 80% sell-through rate .
• Use Shopify’s reports to identify slow-moving items.
• Set up automated reorder points based on past sales data.
• Adjust inventory levels in line with your marketing campaigns.

"With Prediko’s insights, we’ve been able to stay ahead of the curve! Prediko has been instrumental in helping us never run short of their most sought-after SKUs while preventing overstocking on less popular ones." – Jonathan Penna, Co-founder & CEO at Azio Beauty

6. Keep Customers Coming Back

Once you’ve fine-tuned your sales, product pages, customer data, marketing, and inventory, it’s time to focus on keeping customers loyal. Retaining customers helps cut down on acquisition costs and creates steady growth . Tools like Shopify Analytics can help you build loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.

6.1. Track Repeat Orders

Keep an eye on repeat purchase trends with the ‘Returning Customers’ report. This data can help you spot your most valuable shoppers .

These numbers can guide your strategies to increase repeat sales effectively.

"Customer analytics allow you to collect data, interpret it, and make decisions about how to best serve your target audience." – Shopify Staff

6.2. Find Leaving Customers

Use predictive analytics and cohort analysis to identify customers who might be slipping away. Cohort analysis groups buyers based on when they made their first purchase, giving you insights into customer behavior over time .

RFM analysis can also help you categorize customers:

• Recency: How recently did they make a purchase?
• Frequency: How often do they buy?
• Monetary: How much do they spend?

These segments allow you to create customized campaigns to re-engage at-risk customers.

6.3. Build Customer Programs

Loyalty programs can significantly increase repeat purchases. For instance, DoggieLawn saw a 33% jump in conversions after improving its loyalty program during a Shopify Plus migration .

Key features for successful loyalty programs include:

"At the end of the day, customers just don’t buy from brands anymore. They buy from relationships with real people." – Alex McEachern, Head of Marketing at Repeat

Conclusion: Making Analytics Work for Your CPG Business

Using Shopify Analytics to shape data-driven strategies can give your CPG business a competitive edge in today’s fast-changing market.

These focus areas provide a roadmap to drive growth. As Kat Kavner, Cofounder of Heyday Canning, highlights:

"The key metric in CPG is velocity. How many units in a given store in a given week for each item are you selling?"

To get the most out of your analytics:

• Combine Tools: Pair Shopify Analytics with Google Analytics for a broader view of performance .
• Speed Up Your Store: Compress images and use AMP pages to enhance site speed.
• Refine Search Results: Update product titles to match popular search terms.
• Leverage Cart Data: Build targeted email campaigns for cross-sell opportunities.

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