Cumulative Sales
Cumulative Sales shows a running total of your Total Sales across the date range. It answers whether you’re ahead of or behind where you were at the same point last year.
How It’s Calculated
The cards at the top show Total Sales and Orders for the date range, not the running total. The chart draws Cumulative Sales for each period. The table has one row per period.
Cumulative Sales starts with the first period’s own Total Sales. Each later period adds its own Total Sales to the total before it. On the last period that has started, the line equals the Total Sales card.
The other columns are the same as in Total Sales: Orders, Gross Sales, Discounts, Shipping, Tax, Total Returned, Net Sales and Total Sales. The table adds 2 more:
- Average Order Value: the period’s sales before returns, divided by its orders.
- Distinct Customers: the number of different customers who ordered in the period.
The length of the date range sets how long a period is:
- 3 days or less: one row per hour
- Up to 93 days: one row per day
- Longer: one row per month
What Counts
- Sales count on the day the order was placed. Refunds count on the day they were made, so a refund can pull a period’s Total Sales down, and the line with it. Refunds on orders placed more than 2 years before the start of the date range aren’t counted.
- Orders that were canceled, or whose payment was voided or expired, don’t count.
- Days follow your store’s time zone, and every amount is in your store’s currency.
- If your date range ends in the future, periods that haven’t started show 0 under Cumulative Sales.
- Use Sales Channel, Segment and Filters to narrow the report down.
What Good Looks Like
A steady upward slope that is at or above last year’s line. Set Compare to 1 year ago to draw both lines. A line that sits above the comparison line means you’re ahead of that pace.
The line goes down when a period’s refunds are larger than its sales. It also drops to 0 at the right edge for periods that haven’t started yet. A flat stretch is a run of periods with few or no sales.
What to Do About It
- Behind last year: open Total Sales to see which part fell, then Orders Over Time to see whether it’s fewer orders or smaller ones.
- A steep step up: a launch, a sale or a large order. Check Sales by Discount Code to see what the sale cost.
Where to Find It
- Cumulative Sales: open Reports and look under Sales.
- Total Sales: the same sales, period by period.
- How to Choose a Date Range: date ranges, including Year to date, and comparisons.