What Reports Should Every Ecommerce Brand Have?

The 12 Customer Reports That Actually Drive Growth

Introduction

Most ecommerce brands have plenty of data but very little clarity.

Sales data lives in your ecommerce platform. Marketing data lives in your email platform and ad accounts. Customer data sits across multiple tools.

Platforms like Shopify provide useful dashboards, but they rarely answer the most important business questions:

• Are our customers becoming more valuable?

• Are we retaining customers well?

• Which marketing channels bring the best customers?

• Are we growing sustainably?

The difference between brands that grow sustainably and those that struggle is often the quality of their reporting.

Below are the 12 reports every ecommerce brand should have.

Customer Reports

1. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Customer Lifetime Value estimates how much revenue a customer generates over their lifetime.

Why it matters:

• Determines how much you can spend on acquisition

• Shows the real value of different channels

• Helps predict long-term growth

Many brands calculate LTV incorrectly by using averages instead of cohort-based LTV, which tracks how real groups of customers behave over time.

Equally, a lot of brands lack the ability to predict LTV as it currently stands, because they use historical data which is often out of date; taken from times when prices, promotional strategy and the product mix were different from today.

2. Repeat Purchase Rate

Repeat purchase rate shows what percentage of customers place more than one order.

A high repeat purchase rate usually means:

• strong product-market fit

• good customer experience

• healthy retention

Low repeat purchase rate often indicates that growth depends too heavily on paid acquisition.

3. Customer Retention Cohorts

Cohort analysis tracks how groups of customers behave over time.

For example:

Customers acquired in January vs February vs March.

Cohort reporting shows:

• whether retention is improving

• whether marketing quality is improving

• whether product changes are working

This is one of the most powerful reports an ecommerce brand can have.

4. First vs Returning Revenue

This report shows the share of revenue coming from:

• new customers

• returning customers

Healthy brands gradually increase the proportion of revenue from returning customers.

Marketing Reports

5. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC measures how much it costs to acquire a customer.

It includes:

• paid media

• creative costs

• marketing tools

CAC should always be analysed alongside lifetime value.

6. Payback Period

Payback period measures how long it takes to recover acquisition costs.

For example:

If CAC is £50 and the average customer generates £25 in their first order, payback takes two purchases.

Short payback periods support faster growth.

7. Channel Quality (by LTV)

Not all marketing channels deliver equal customers.

For example:

Customers acquired through email may behave differently from customers acquired through social advertising.

Platforms like Klaviyo often show campaign results, but rarely show long-term customer value by channel.

This report connects acquisition channels with long-term value.

Product Reports

8. Product Repurchase Rate

Which products bring customers back?

Products with high repurchase rates are often the foundation of long-term retention.

9. Cross-Sell Behaviour

Understanding which products customers buy together helps improve:

• merchandising

• email recommendations

• bundles

10. Time Between Purchases

This report helps brands understand their natural purchase cycle.

For example:

• supplements: 30–60 days

• coffee subscriptions: 2–4 weeks

• skincare: 45–90 days

Knowing this allows marketing teams to trigger retention campaigns at the right time.

Business Health Reports

11. Revenue by Customer Cohort

This report shows how revenue evolves for groups of customers over time.

It helps answer questions like:

• Are newer customers more valuable?

• Are acquisition channels improving?

12. Customer Growth vs Order Growth

A surprising number of ecommerce brands grow orders faster than customers.

This can indicate:

• over-reliance on discounting

• weak acquisition

• declining new-customer growth

Tracking both metrics together helps identify sustainable growth.

Why Many Ecommerce Brands Struggle With Reporting

Even though these reports are powerful, most brands struggle to build them.

Common challenges include:

• data spread across tools

• disconnected marketing platforms

• data duplication or uncleanliness

• limited analytics in ecommerce platforms

• manual spreadsheets

Many brands try to build dashboards using tools like Looker Studio, but the underlying customer data often isn’t structured correctly.

What a Good Ecommerce Reporting Setup Looks Like

A modern reporting setup usually includes:
→ centralised customer data
→ reporting dashboards
→ data feeds to marketing platforms

This structure allows teams to analyse and act upon customer behaviour across the entire lifecycle.

Final Thoughts

Great ecommerce brands don’t just track revenue — they track customers.

Understanding how customers behave, how valuable they are, and how they evolve over time provides the insights needed to grow sustainably.