WooCommerce collects various sales data while the store is running. This allows you to see, for example, how many orders have been received, which products are selling, what the revenue is, or how refunds and coupons affect your sales.
You can find the current evaluations in the WordPress backend under:
Analytics
There, WooCommerce provides various reports for sales, orders, products, customers, coupons, taxes, and inventory.
Important: WooCommerce Analytics is a tool for evaluating your shop data. The figures do not replace accounting and tax returns. Depending on the metric, taxes, shipping costs, discounts, and refunds, for example, are taken into account differently.
Understanding the analytics dashboard #
If you Analytics you open it, you will get an overview of your shop's key performance indicators.
Depending on the configuration, the following values may appear there, for example:
| Key figure | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Total revenue | The total value of sales taking into account refunds, vouchers, taxes, and shipping. |
| Net sales | Product revenue after refunds and vouchers, excluding taxes and shipping. |
| Orders | Number of orders taken into account in the selected time period. |
| Average order value | Net sales divided by the number of orders included. |
| Sold products | Number of sold items or units. |
| Refunds | Value of refunded products and services. |
The dashboard can be customized. Depending on the WooCommerce version, individual metrics and sections can be shown or hidden, or rearranged.
Why total revenue and net revenue are different #
One of the most common questions in WooCommerce Analytics is: Why do total sales and net sales not match?
The reason lies in the calculation.
WooCommerce defines the Total revenue loosely translated as:
Gross revenue – refunds – vouchers + taxes + shipping
The Net sales on the other hand, takes into account product sales after deducting refunds and voucher discounts, but excluding taxes and shipping.
A simplified example:
| Position | Amount |
|---|---|
| Products | CHF 100.00 |
| Voucher | - CHF 10.00 |
| Shipping | CHF 9.00 |
| Tax | CHF 7.00 |
In this simplified example, the net sales would be CHF 90.00. Shipping and taxes are taken into account additionally in the total sales.
Therefore: Do not compare numbers from different reports at random. First, check which components the respective metric actually contains.
Use the sales report #
Under Analytics → Revenue Did you find the revenue report?.
This report shows how sales, refunds, vouchers, taxes, and shipping costs impact your total revenue.
Among the metrics available there are, inter alia:
- Gross revenue
- Refunds
- Vouchers
- Net sales
- Taxes
- Shipping
- Total revenue
You can select a time period and, depending on the report, compare it with a previous period or the previous year.
This can be used, for example, to see whether sales have increased or decreased compared to the previous month.
Select period and comparison correctly #
Almost all important WooCommerce analytics reports use a selectable time period.
Depending on the selected time period, WooCommerce can summarize the data by day, week, month, quarter, or year, for example.
A comparison is particularly helpful when you want to evaluate a trend rather than just seeing an absolute number.
For example:
1. until August 31, 2026
compared to
until July 31, 2026
or:
August 2026
compared to
August 2025
This makes it much easier to spot trends than with a single revenue total.
Analyze orders more precisely #
Under Analytics → Orders you will find a detailed analysis of your orders.
There, among other things, you can filter by various criteria. These include, for example:
- Order Status
- Products
- Promo codes
- Customer type
- Refunds
- Tax rates
- Product Features
Multiple filters can be combined. Depending on the setting, either all conditions must be met simultaneously or at least one of the conditions.
For example, you can use this to investigate which orders contain a specific product or how many orders were placed with a specific coupon.
The actual processing of individual orders continues to take place under Managing WooCommerce orders: status, payment, and shipping. Analytics is primarily used for evaluation.
Which order statuses are taken into account in Analytics #
Not every WooCommerce order status is included by default in every analytics report.
You can find the settings for this under:
Analytics → Settings
WooCommerce excludes by default, among others, the statuses Payment pending, Cancelled and Failed out.
Orders with In progress, Waiting and Completed are included by default.
The relevant settings can be changed. Additional order statuses from extensions may also appear there.
Important: If an order is present in the „Orders“ section, that does not automatically mean it is counted in every Analytics revenue metric. When seeing unexpected numbers, also check the excluded order statuses.
We explain what the individual WooCommerce statuses mean in the article WooCommerce Order Status Simply Explained.
Evaluate products #
Under Analytics → Products Can you analyze the sales performance of individual products?.
The report contains, among other things:
| Value | What you recognize from this |
|---|---|
| Units sold | How often the product was sold. |
| Net sales | What product revenue the product generated after refunds and voucher discounts. |
| Orders | How many orders contained the product. |
| SKU | The item number of the product. |
| Stock status and inventory | Current stock level or available quantity. |
You can display a single product or compare multiple products with each other.
This makes it possible to see, for example, which products generate high sales and which ones are sold frequently but account for only a small share of revenue.
Evaluate variants separately #
When you use variable products, the report Analytics → Variants particularly helpful.
WooCommerce can evaluate individual variants separately there.
For example, with a T-shirt you could see whether:
Black / L
is sold significantly more often than:
Blue / S
The variant report shows, among other things, units sold, net sales, orders, SKU, as well as stock status and inventory of each individual variant.
We explain how variants are generally set up under Creating variable products: Sizes, colors and other variants.
Evaluate vouchers #
If you use discount codes, you can find them under Analytics → Vouchers a corresponding evaluation.
There you can see, for example:
- how often a coupon was used in orders,
- how high the granted discount was,
- which orders used a specific coupon.
A high coupon volume does not automatically mean that a campaign was successful. For example, it is also crucial whether this generated additional orders or merely discounted sales that were planned anyway.
WooCommerce provides the sales data for this. You must perform the economic evaluation based on your business model.
We cover the setup of discount codes in the article Creating coupons and discount codes in WooCommerce.
Evaluate taxes #
Under Analytics → Taxes WooCommerce shows the tax amounts recorded in the shop.
There you will find, among other things:
- total tax
- Tax on order line items
- Shipping tax
- Orders by tax code
- applied tax rates
Multiple tax codes can be compared with each other.
Do not replace tax return: The WooCommerce tax report shows the data calculated by your store. Whether these figures can be used fully and correctly for an official tax return depends on your accounting and the regulations applicable to your business.
We explain the technical tax configuration at Properly setting up taxes and VAT in WooCommerce.
Monitor inventory levels with analytics #
WooCommerce has under Analytics → Inventory their own camp report.
There you can filter products and variants by stock status, for example:
- In stock
- low stock
- out of stock
- on backorder or reordered
The table shows product or variant, SKU, stock status, and stock level.
This allows you to quickly see which items require action.
Products without enabled quantity-based inventory management can also appear. In this case, WooCommerce can, for example, for inventory quantity N/A display while the general stock status remains available.
We cover inventory management itself in detail under Manage inventory, SKU, and delivery status in WooCommerce.
Analyze customer data #
WooCommerce also provides a customer overview. In current versions you can find it under WooCommerce → Customers.
This evaluation includes registered customers and guest customers and can display information on orders, total revenue, average order value, and location, among other things.
This allows you to see, for example, which customers have already ordered multiple times or what their previous sales volume is.
With guest orders, WooCommerce can associate multiple orders with the same email address to the same customer record.
We explain how guest orders and customer accounts generally work in the article Setting up customer accounts and guest checkout in WooCommerce.
Download reports as CSV #
Many WooCommerce analytics reports can be downloaded as a CSV file.
This is practical if, for example, you want to analyze the data further in a spreadsheet or make it available to another authorized person.
The downloaded CSV contains the data of the respective report or the current analysis.
If you have previously set filters, you should therefore check which dataset you are actually exporting.
Observe data protection: Analytics exports may contain business or personal data. Handle such files with corresponding care and only share them with individuals who actually need them.
Why analytics numbers sometimes do not add up immediately #
WooCommerce Analytics processes a large amount of shop data. To prevent the reports from having to recalculate all orders every time they are accessed, WooCommerce uses prepared and cached analytics data.
As a result, it may happen that a report temporarily does not show the expected status.
If the displayed numbers obviously do not match your actual orders, WooCommerce first recommends clearing the analytics cache.
You can find the corresponding function under:
WooCommerce → Status → Tools → Clear analytics cache
Check the report again afterwards.
Import historical data #
In a normal new shop, new orders are automatically processed for analytics.
However, historical data may be missing, for example, if old orders already existed before the current analytics database was set up, or if orders were imported from another system.
Under:
Analytics → Settings → Import historical data
Can WooCommerce import existing orders and customer data for analytics?.
You can select a time period or import all available historical data. The process runs in the background, so you do not need to keep the page open.
For large shops: Very extensive historical data can also be imported in sections. WooCommerce also offers a function to skip already imported orders and customers.
When reports are empty or incomplete #
If you know that orders exist, but Analytics shows no or too few data, you should systematically check:
| Exam | Why it is important |
|---|---|
| Period | Perhaps the orders are outside the selected date range. |
| Order Status | Certain statuses may be excluded from the analytics reports. |
| Filter | An active filter can only display a portion of the data. |
| Analytics-Cache | Cached data may temporarily not reflect the expected state. |
| Historical data | Older or migrated orders may not have been imported into Analytics yet. |
If WooCommerce encounters errors during the import of historical orders, under Analytics → Settings a corresponding message will appear. There, the import errors can be reviewed and, after being fixed, processed again.
Interpreting refunds correctly #
Refunds impact multiple analytics metrics.
In the sales report, refunds are shown separately and affect the net or total sales.
Fully refunded orders are not simply treated as if they had never existed. The original order and the subsequent refund remain relevant for the analysis.
Refunds may be visible accordingly in the order report.
How a refund is technically processed is explained in the article Cancel order and issue refund.
Test orders can influence your analysis. #
Test orders can also appear in Analytics if they are processed by WooCommerce like regular orders.
That is why you should remove test orders that are no longer needed after completed tests and always check during evaluations whether test data is still included.
We explain how to test a shop in a controlled manner before launch in the article Testing a WooCommerce shop before launch: Test order and checklist.
Analytics shows revenue, but not automatically your profit #
This difference is important for the economic interpretation.
WooCommerce Analytics shows sales and revenue data. However, this does not automatically result in your actual business profit.
A simple example:
CHF 10,000 in sales
doesn't say anything yet about how high your profit is.
This can include costs for goods, packaging, shipping, payment service providers, advertising, personnel, hosting, or other operating expenses, for example.
Note: Revenue is not profit. Without additional cost data, WooCommerce Core does not automatically know all of your business expenses.
Which numbers should you look at regularly? #
For a smaller shop, you don't need to study every analytics report daily.
Regular monitoring of a few basic key figures is enough to start with:
- Orders
- Net revenue and total revenue
- Refunds
- average order value
- best-selling products
- Inventory
- redeemed vouchers
More important than a single figure is often the development over a longer period.
For example, if your revenue in one month is higher than in the previous one, you should also check why: Were there more orders? A higher average order value? A particularly successful product? Or a strong discount?
WooCommerce Analytics provides you with the data for this. The business interpretation remains your task.
Summary #
WooCommerce Analytics provides you with comprehensive evaluations of sales, orders, products, variations, coupons, taxes, and inventory.
For the interpretation, it is important to distinguish between the individual key figures. Total revenue, net revenue, taxes, shipping, and refunds are not the same thing.
You can analyze your sales development in more detail using time periods, comparisons, and filters. Many reports can also be downloaded as a CSV file.
If numbers are missing or seem obviously incorrect, you should first check the time period, filters, and considered order statuses. After that, you can clear the analytics cache and, for older or migrated orders, check whether historical data has been imported.
WooCommerce Analytics shows you what was sold in your shop. However, it does not replace your bookkeeping, a profit calculation, or a tax evaluation.
