Store Performance Dashboards

What is a Dashboard?

When referring to a dashboard in software world, it is the command centre of your business. Much like a car dashboard, you see the key things speed, revs, miles travelled, oil temperature and any red flags. Unlike a car’s dashboard, you get to decide what you’re tracking. Is your north star only number of customers? Or do you need to track hot inventory and adapt your store as trends shift? A dashboard allows you to have an overview of your business without sifting through lots of data, spreadsheets or sales data.

Your dashboard is the key thing you need to know about your business on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

What is a Store Performance Dashboard?

A store performance dashboard is designed specifically with stores/shops/sellers/merchants of any kind in mind. It can mean different things to different people, depending on the kind of store you run, the marketing you do, the channels you use to sell and much more. To boil it down it is a place you track your store’s entire business performance. In most cases, we’re talking e-stores and e-commerce, but even physical stores can track the important business metrics that matter. Especially if your physical store takes card payments, uses Google to advertise or uses any digital tools to run your business.

Typical things that are tracked in these dashboards, are how did your sales go this month compared to last months, or even last year? Where did the majority of your payments come from? How is the traffic to your site? Have you got bad reviews this week or month? How is your inventory, what sold well , what didn’t? Have your costs increased and has that changed your profitability? Which team member is selling most? All of these questions can be answered by a store performance dashboard.

This isn’t the limit to what can be tracked either, each business can track whatever metrics that really matter to them. There’s a lot of dashboards out there that are all built for different niches, I’ll run through some of the popular ones below.

What Currently Exists? What are Digital Dashboard Examples?

There are a lot of dashboards out there, pretty much every payments company has their own, as do many marketing companies. For example there’s the Square Dashboard, Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce all have their own dashboards too that track sales and revenue quite well. Same for Analytics firms like Matomo or Google Analytics, which allows you to see where traffic comes from. If you’re looking for something that can view multiple sources in one place (ie you wanna see sales data, web traffic, inventory and anything else.) There’s quite a few different providers you can try:

[Klipfolio] (https://klipfolio.com) has two main products one for smaller business called Klips the other, PowerMetrics is for larger companies. Both offer a suite of integrations to a suite of tools across 17 categories of software. From Ads, email to HR and Web Analytics. Their price starts from $90. They boast an easy setup, and you don’t need to be technical to get it going. Although one noted critique is it can be hard to make custom dashboards and if they don’t have the API for the tool your using you can’t view it in the dashboard.

 -Klipfolio digital dashboard example

[Geckoboard] (https://geckoboard.com) is a more flexible digital dashboard than Klipfolio when it comes to setting up custom dashboards, with a simple drag and drop. They also rely on integrations, with 90 data sources, of writing. Geckoboard is also well rated by those who need to share with a larger team, and for non tech savvy teams. Some of the frequent complaints users make are that the Shopify and Instagram integrations aren’t very detailed, so you don’t get top performing instagram posts or in depth sales data to visualisation in Geckoboard’s digital dashboard. They pricing starts at $44 for 1 dashboard and 3 users.

-Geckoboard digital dashboard example

[Datapad] (https://datapad.io) describes its self as the “Canva for Data” another tool that iss focused on simplicity , so you don’t need to write code to get it up and running. They offer pre-built templates and a suite of integrations. They’re main difference is they work more like ChatGPT, in that you can query your dashboard and its conversational AI will provide answers on your data. They also have a neat daily round up feature, getting data you want to your inbox each day. If you’re a small team and need a simple to use solution, Datapad is a really good tool. Datapad can look at data from Google sheets, payments, session times, clicks and other analytics. Datapad has a free option that is limited and its first paid option starts at $30 a month.

[Databox] (https://databox.com) has a free plan with 3 data sources, 3 boards and 4 users and its starter plan starts at $72 per month. So it’s a great option for small businesses who are just starting off building a store performance dashboard. Databox is known for its user friendliness, easy setup and very customisable dashboards. Some of the common complaints are connected to getting real time data, according to some of its users doesn’t always update in real time. Another frequent complaint is the lack of a middle tier pricing plan for those businesses that need more than 3 sources but not 10.

-Databox digital dashboard example

Who Uses a Store Performance Dashboard?

Store performance dashboards aren’t usually designed just for one person, although they absolute can be for one person bands. Most dashboards allow you to create multiple workflows and spaces and assign team members to each. Marketers can benefit greatly from understanding their store’s analytics and performance of ad campaigns and social media. Whilst managers benefit from an overview of everything from marketing to stock and revenue figures. The market is pretty diverse, so if you’re aim is to understand team performance better or sales then both of these can be achieved by different dashboards. All that’s to say , every team can benefit from better data and better comprehension of that data. Crucially managers, solopreneurs, CEO, procurement/ordering ands heads of teams can benefit most when they need to understand all the moving parts across a business.

What are Some SaaS Dashboard Examples

[Profitwell by Paddle] (https://www2.profitwell.com/app/dashboard) is a very specialised digital dashboard (or as they refer to themselves BI, which stands for business intelligence.) It’s built for websites that have a recurring revenue model, for example are you a coach charging monthly, or you sell subscription toilet paper or razors. So if you sell something on a monthly basis (rather than say once off) it’s a fantastic tool to understand your churn (ie how many of your customers cancelling.) Their main value is to help you retain more of your customers. It’s a really good example of a SaaS dashboard. One of the main critiques is that it’s not always real time data, so the dashboard can be slow to show recent changes. Users do, however love that Paddle can handle international sales regulations so if you sell globally they’re a great choice. They also rely on a suite of API integrations much like the others in this list. They charge 5% per checkout + 50¢, so in a way they are also a competitor to Stripe as they provide payment and checkout services.

-ProfitWell SaaS dashboard example

[Lemon Squeezy] (https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/) is another SaaS focused dashboard, similar to Paddle they are a merchant of record, which means they handle tax compliance for your international sales. Also like ProfitWell they also provide checkout solutions. Users have reported that Lemon Squeezey is easier to setup and is slightly newer, but according to some users they only offer $ USD pricing for your customers. So Paddle may be a better choice if you’re outside the U.S. The debate between users of both tools is quite lively, so we recommend you try out both if you’re US based. Lemon Squeezey is definitely a top pick for those solopreneurs, small business owners and those who want a simpler solution. ProfitWell is a good choice if you’re a developer or mature SaaS business, or outside of the U.S.

-Lemon Squeezy SaaS dashboard example

What are Some Retail Store Performance Dashboard Examples?

[Katana] (https://katanamrp.com/) is one of the best rated retail store performance dashboards, their main strength is inventory management, order management and real-time data directly to your retail store performance dashboard. Katana also has integrations with QuickBooks, Shopify and many others. Katana starts at $179, so is on the pricier side.

-Katana retail store performance dashboard example

Another fantastic retail store performance dashboard is Google Sheets or Excel. That’s right, they’re hugely customisable and powerful and you can pair these tools you know well with [Coefficient] (https://coefficient.io/). Which allows you to pull data from Stripe, Shopfiy, your CRM and other software into Sheets. So if you’re more comfortable in spreadsheet land, then it’s possible to bring your data there. Coefficient works with any spreadsheet skills so you don’t need to be super tech savvy to set it up. One of the coolest features is the ability to trigger alerts to slack or email if data changes in any cell on your google sheet. Coefficients pricing starts at $49 a month.

What are Some Project Management Dashboards?

[ClickUp] (https://clickup.com/) is pretty much a household name at this point. It’s one of the main tools project teams use given its flexibility, ease of use and feature rich product. ClickUp allows you to make multiple folders, workspaces, lists, Kanbans or workflows connected to projects. So it’s a very configurable project management dashboard. It works well for big and small teams alike. If you need a big picture view of your projects ClickUp could be the tool you need. Users do report that their pricing can stack up quickly as it’s modular. Pricing starts at $10 per user per month.

-ClickUp project management dashboard example

[ProjectManager] (https://www.projectmanager.com/) is a great project management dashboard if you work with external partners and want to easily send them invites to specific projects. It’s well regarded for its ease of use and great customer service. Unlike ClickUp it’s not as well suited for larger teams as some of their processes for team management can be quite manual. ProjectManager’s dashboard starts at $13 per user per month.

-ProjectManager project management dashboard example

What are Examples of Software Development Metrics Dashboard

software development dashboard is similar to store performance dashboard but is built for app developers instead of e-commerce and store managers. The main aim of this kind of dashboard is to track the key metrics for a software project, web or mobile app. Whilst the theory is the same the kind of data tracked is different. A software development metrics dashboard has many of the features of a SaaS dashboard, but crucially also looks at important app metrics like uptime, bugs and other crucial things developers need to know to keep their customers happy. It also doesn’t need to be a software project that is earning any revenue yet.

[PostHog] (https://www.posthog.com/) is an open-source product and web analytics tool designed for developers to see how their app is performing. We can recommend PostHog from experience. It does require some technical skills and thus is really a tool designed for a developer to at least initially setup. Once the setup is complete, anyone on the team can setup dashboards to understand lots of different kinds of data. One of the coolest features is making funnels. An example is tracking users who visit a page, return and then signup. PostHog is pretty customisable if you’re a developer so you can create specific funnels that are relevant to your app. PostHog also has a generous free plan. It’s pricing works based on data volume (number of events), so as you scale it may eventually begin to cost. That does make it an excellent option for smaller companies and single developers.

-PostHog software development metrics dashboard example

[Datadog] (https://www.datadog.com/) is similar to PostHog but is a bit older and more suited to larger companies. It shines as a monitoring solution for medium sized apps. They are well known for having very flexible systems to track almost anything a developer would want to track. It’s also reputed to have fast data retrieval and visualisations. Users love their UI/IX and rich feature set and large set of integrations, libraries and frameworks .Given it’s a listed company it makes a great choice for larger companies that have strict procurement regulations.) One of the key concerns is its pricing can very quickly become very expensive when you have significant data, and their pricing model is reportedly not always easy to understand.

-Datadog software development metrics dashboard example

[EchoDash] (https://www.echodash.com/) was designed initially with software developers in mind. We’re not exclusively designed for developers them but our approach is pretty different from every one on this list. Rather than a dashboard, we’re building a feed (yes like a Instagram or LinkedIn feed.) The feed is real time of every data source you want to track. Crucially where we’re different is we don’t rely on integrations but Webhooks. So you can connect any data source with no coding skills. If you need to see your data in timely manner then we’d love to have you on board. Whilst we’re in Beta we’re also completely free.

-EchoDash software development metrics dashboard example

What is an Example of a Data Source a Company Might Use With a Dashboard?

There are plenty of data sources you can use for your dashboard, again the real question is what is the key data to you? Let’s say you mainly do inventory on a spreadsheet and use Stripe , Square and PayPal. These could be the key data sources you’d want to see in your dashboard. Or let’s say you sell mostly on Etsy but your sales figures are not very clear, and you really want to know more about which marketing and ads are working. You could pull data from your Google ads, IG and see which are converting to sales and at what cost.Another example could be looking at inventory data to understand which stock sells well and how each piece of stock’s margins compare.

The data source you use in your dashboard, really is the key thing you need to know to make better decisions. So you should first ask yourself, what are my key challenges? What are the things I need to understand better? That should lead you to the sources you should put into your dashboard.

What is a Visualization Dashboard?

Most if not all of the dashboards discussed above have a visualization component. Basically all that means is you can see different graphics, graphs and images of key metrics. Typically things like user growth, clicks, revenue or sales volumes or raw revenue data. Pretty much everything you’re tracking can be viewed as raw sheet data or as a graph. Visualizations make it faster and easier to spot trends, like is your ad campaign’s reach growing or slowing? Or did that IG post reach more people than your last?