Data reporting turns your scattered business numbers—sales, site metrics, ad performance, customer feedback—into clear answers about what’s working and what’s not. Without structured reports, you may be left guessing which products drive profit, which marketing channels deliver return on investment (ROI), and where to focus your next improvement.
With the right reports, your team can spot trends faster, track progress more clearly, and make confident decisions backed by evidence.
Keep reading to see how you can build reports that reveal which products drive profit, which marketing channels deliver ROI, and where to focus your next improvement effort.
What is data reporting?
Data reporting is the process of collecting and organizing information about your business performance into structured, easy-to-understand formats. With data reports, you and your team have better insight into operations and a foundation for making decisions that impact the business.
To help with decision-making, businesses often pair data reporting with tools, such as data visualization or data analytics, to explain numbers and offer suggestions on what to do next.
Here’s how these three elements work together:
1. Data reporting includes numbers about your performance and goals.
2. Data visualization turns raw numbers into graphs, charts, dashboards, and other visuals to make them more digestible.
3. Data analytics explores the “why” behind these numbers—identifying trends, patterns, and narratives to inform your strategic planning. Analytics tools are designed to generate projections, test hypotheses, and devise meaningful insights.
In short, data reporting summarizes what happened, while analytics and visualization explain why it happened. Reporting provides the facts; analytics and visualization turn those facts into understanding.
Types of data reports
Various types of data reports focus on different aspects of your business. Below are some of the most common examples used in ecommerce.
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Financial reports summarize revenue, expenses, and cash-flow data to track overall business health. They help forecast growth, manage budgets, and identify areas where costs can be reduced or reinvested.
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Marketing reports compile campaign data such as impressions, clicks, conversions, and customer acquisition cost. These reports reveal which channels and messages generate the strongest return on investment, helping teams see which campaigns are delivering the best results.
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Customer and sales reports combine transaction data, product performance, and customer demographics to highlight purchasing trends. They show which products are selling, how customers are buying, and where demand is increasing or slowing over time.
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Operational reports use internal data such as fulfillment times, inventory turnover, or employee productivity to monitor day-to-day efficiency. They highlight where processes slow down or where resources are underused, giving teams visibility into performance across operations.
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Executive or performance reports combine high-level metrics from multiple areas—such as revenue, customer acquisition cost, fulfillment times, and net profit margin—into a single view. These reports give leaders a quick snapshot of overall business performance and help align teams around shared goals.
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Ad hoc reports pull together data on specific questions or emerging issues—for example, a sudden drop in conversions or a spike in product returns. These on-demand reports give teams immediate visibility into unexpected changes, allowing them to respond quickly without waiting for the next full reporting cycle.
Most businesses use a mix of these report types rather than relying on one. For example, a marketing report might feed into an executive dashboard, while operational reports inform financial projections. Understanding how these reports overlap helps ensure data consistency and prevents departments from drawing conflicting conclusions.
How to build a data report
- Set your goals
- Choose your format and frequency
- Collect, clean, and organize your data
- Build and review the report
Creating a useful data report takes more than pulling numbers into a spreadsheet. Each step—from goal-setting to review—ensures your report is accurate, focused, and actionable.
1. Set your goals
Begin by defining your report’s purpose and audience. Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your business goals, such as conversion rate, revenue growth, or customer retention. Clarify what questions the report should answer and how stakeholders will use it. A single, clear statement of purpose helps keep the scope focused and measurable.
2. Choose your format and frequency
Select the reporting format that best fits how and how often your audience needs updates.
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Dashboards work for daily or weekly monitoring.
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Spreadsheets or PDFs are ideal for detailed monthly or quarterly reviews (like financial reviews).
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Slide decks suit executive summaries or presentations.
Establishing a consistent reporting schedule—daily, weekly, or monthly—helps track trends over time and prevents ad hoc reporting overload.
3. Collect, clean, and organize your data
Pull data from reliable, connected sources such as ecommerce platforms, analytics tools, or customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Before building the report, validate your data to catch duplicate, missing, or outdated entries. Organize metrics around your KPIs to create a logical flow that highlights key insights. Many reporting tools include built-in templates or automation features that save time and reduce manual errors.
4. Build and review the report
Assemble your findings into a clear, consistent format that makes it easy for readers to grasp the results. Double-check your data and verify that each section supports your original purpose statement. If possible, have a colleague or stakeholder review your report to confirm it answers the right business questions. Once finalized, save an official version for future use and tracking progress over time.
A well-built report doesn’t just display data—it tells a story. Include brief summaries or key takeaways that highlight what’s changed since the last report or what action items the data suggests. Even a one-sentence insight under each chart helps non-technical stakeholders quickly understand what the numbers mean.
Best practices for data reporting
Once your reporting process is in place, consistency and clarity become just as important as the data itself. These best practices can help ensure every report you produce is accurate, easy to understand, and valuable to your team.
Stay simple and focused
A data report should be a clear and concise summary of your findings. Strong reports stay focused on their goals and key metrics, avoiding unnecessarily complex information that can obscure the main takeaways. For each data report, ask what question it’s meant to answer and whether the data clearly supports that answer. For example, instead of tracking every marketing metric, an ecommerce store might focus a weekly report on three KPIs—conversion rate, average order value, and return-on-ad-spend—to see whether its latest campaign is driving profitable traffic.
Automate your data reports
Automated data reporting tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce time-consuming or repetitive tasks, such as transporting data between platforms or creating visuals, so your team can focus on strategic work. For example, you might use automation to send a daily sales summary email, eliminating the need to pull business performance numbers manually. You can also create real-time, interactive dashboards for your team that source data from multiple sources in one location—ensuring decisions are based on the latest information.
Use consistent formatting
Consistent data reporting makes it easier to compare results over time. Use the same data sources, terminology, and measurement units across reports, and keep visual formats—like chart types or color schemes—uniform. Regularity builds trust and helps stakeholders track progress accurately.
For example, if monthly inventory reports always use the same color palette for in-stock versus out-of-stock items, warehouse staff and buyers can spot changes at a glance.
Best data reporting tools
These platforms help businesses transform raw information into clear, well-structured reports that make data easier to understand and act on. Some are dedicated data reporting platforms or broader business intelligence (BI) tools built for advanced data analytics and visualization capabilities. Others include integrated reporting features that make it easy to track performance directly within your ecommerce platform or accounting system.
Shopify Analytics and Reporting
Best for: Shopify ecommerce stores.
Shopify’s built-in Analytics and Reporting Dashboard has access to your business’s sales and performance data and transaction history. The dashboard displays up-to-date and accurate data for easy access and includes ready-made templates to produce sales, marketing, customer, and inventory reports, among others. You can also create reports using custom templates. For seamless reporting, Shopify integrates with other tools like QuickBooks.
Pricing: Included with Shopify plans (starting at $29 per month when paid annually).
Looker Studio
Best for: Google Workspace users.
Formerly Google Data Studio, Looker Studio is a business intelligence (BI) platform designed for use with other Google services, including Google Workspace and Google Analytics. The platform is easy to navigate, comes equipped with multiple data report templates, and integrates well with Google’s data analytics and website tracking tools. It’s particularly effective for creating shareable, visual dashboards that connect multiple Google data sources.
Pricing: Free for the basic version; $9 per user per month for the professional version.
Zoho Analytics
Best for: Small teams needing quick visual insights.
Zoho Analytics combines data reporting with robust visualization tools. Users can build charts and dashboards through a drag-and-drop interface and leverage Zoho’s AI assistant to generate predictive reports automatically from your business’s raw data. Zoho Analytics integrates with a wide range of third-party apps—including Shopify, Google Ads, and HubSpot—making it a strong option for smaller businesses looking for simplicity, visualization, and automation.
Pricing: Plans start at $48 per month when paid annually.
Tableau
Best for: Advanced visual analysis and business intelligence.
Salesforce’s Tableau is a feature-rich BI platform that specializes in data visualizations, as well as data reporting and data analysis. The platform is compatible with multiple other services and has a clean interface, though the learning curve may be steep for some users. Tableau stands out with its customizable and interactive data visualization options and is a popular tool for midsize and large businesses.
Pricing: Plans start at $15 per user per month when paid annually.
QuickBooks Online
Best for: Accounting and financial reporting.
QuickBooks Online is widely used for accounting, financial monitoring, and detailed financial reporting. The platform is compatible with Shopify and most major data platforms and offers ready-made and highly customizable data reporting templates such as profit and loss reports, sales reports, and multiyear financial comparisons. While QuickBooks focuses primarily on financial data, it complements other BI tools for businesses that need accurate accounting and profitability insights alongside broader performance metrics.
Pricing: Plans start at $38 per month.
What is data reporting FAQ
What does it mean to report data?
Data reporting means transforming raw data from your business’s data collection into clear, structured reports that support decision-making and uncover actionable insights. You can enhance data reporting with further data analytics and data visualizations, such as graphs and charts.
What is an example of financial reporting?
A profit and loss (P&L) report uses financial and transaction data to provide an overview of business performance during a specific period. It summarizes revenue, expenses, and net income to help assess profitability and financial health. Because P&L reports follow standard formats, they can be compared across periods to identify trends in growth and performance.
What are data reporting skills?
Effective data reporting skills include organizing and cleaning data, formatting reports clearly, and communicating findings with purpose and precision. Effective reporters also track key performance indicators tied to specific business goals, such as revenue or conversion rates.
