How To Boost Your Business With Retail Sales Reporting

Introduction

Luck has nothing to do with it.

The major difference between retail success and failure isn’t luck — it’s that successful stores rely on gut feeling and data. Without knowing your numbers, you can’t know your business.

Picture this: You’re running around your store trying to manage a mountain of inventory, demanding customers, and overwhelmed employees. You keep saying you’ll dive into your data tomorrow — but tomorrow comes, and you push it further away.

It’s a common challenge for small business owners. But there is a better way. Your point of sale (POS) system is a goldmine of data, and the right one makes it easy to run reports that won’t confuse or overwhelm you.

This guide details the what, why, and how of retail sales reporting so you can grow your business without relying on guesswork and hope alone.

What Is Retail Sales Reporting?

Retail sales reporting is digging into your sales transactions and generating reports. Sales reports provide insights into your business' performance, customer behavior, and market trends.

Sales reports are really your store’s vital signs. Without sales, you have no revenue, and without revenue, you can’t make a profit. They highlight your business’ strengths and weaknesses — whether your inventory is well-managed, your staff is providing great customer service, and more.

Here are just a few of the benefits:

Identify bestsellers and underperformers: It’s essential to stock your customers’ favorite products. Sales reports show you which products are flying off the shelves and which are taking up space. This helps you manage your inventory better.
Spot sales trends: Are your sales growing year-over-year? Are there seasonal fluctuations in demand? Find out by looking at historical sales reports.
Measure marketing return on investment (ROI): How effective are your marketing campaigns and promotions? Sales reports help gauge their effectiveness by showing how they impact your bottom line.
Manage cash flow: With a keen eye on sales reports, you can better manage your income and expenses. When you know exactly what’s coming in, you can plan better and know you have the funds to drive growth in your business.
Make data-driven decisions: Whether you're deciding what to order, how to price your products, or where to allocate your resources, you'll have the data to back up your choices.

Isn’t Retail Sales Reporting Complicated?

You might be worrying about having the time and resources to look at sales reports, and there’s a misconception that they’re too complicated. Yet, modern POS systems come with built-in reporting features that make it easy to generate and analyze sales data.

Sure, some reports can get granular and involve a lot of number crunching. However, you can start simple and work your way up. Start with daily sales totals and top-selling products before getting in the weeds of sales by product type.

We’ve covered the what and why; now, let’s explore how to use these reports to boost your bottom line.

Daily Sales Reports

Daily sales reports are like a snapshot of your store’s transactions. You should run the report at the end of each day or before you open your store. You can decide which reports are most helpful, but examples include:

Sales by channel: Get a breakdown of your revenue from each sales channel, whether it’s your brick-and-mortar store, online shop, or social media profiles. You might notice your in-store sales are booming, but your online sales are lagging — now you know where to focus your efforts.
Average order value (AOV): This metric measures how much each customer spends per transaction on average. If your AOV is increasing, your store is moving in the right direction. If it’s dipping, find out why. Maybe customers are buying less expensive items, or you’re running too many promotions. Knowing this helps you adjust your pricing, marketing, and merchandising strategies.
Sales by location: If your store has multiple locations, you can use this report to see where your most valuable customers are located and which regions generate the most revenue.
Retail sales by staff: Knowing which staff members make the most sales helps identify your top performers. Celebrate their wins! A little friendly competition can motivate staff to be more productive.

Make daily sales reports part of your routine. By keeping track of your daily performance, you can notice trends, jump on opportunities, and course-correct if necessary.

Summary Reports

Summary reports give you a high-level view of your retail sales over a given period. You might run them weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even yearly. You can get reports on:

Gross sales: Your total revenue before any deductions
Retail sales: How much revenue you’re generating from in-person transactions
State net taxable sales: The portion of your sales subject to sales tax

Looking at your summary reports over different periods of time helps you spot the ebb and flow of sales. Let’s say you notice your gross sales increase month-over-month. That’s great news! Your marketing efforts are paying off, and customers like your products.

If your sales dip compared to the previous quarter, you need to shake things up. Train your staff on better customer service, refresh your inventory, and consider your store's design and layout. You could even launch a new promotion to drive foot traffic.

The sales summary report is more about the story it tells than individual numbers. Look for trends or seasonal spikes. For example, if sales consistently spike during spring, what’s driving that spike? Plan ahead and manage inventory to take advantage.

Transaction Reports

Set some time aside to drive into individual transactions. You want information like:

Date and time of each sale
The item(s) purchased
Total amount spent
Payment method used

It’s a lot of information, but you can get a lot out of it.

Do specific items fly off your shelves at certain times of day? Do sales spike on weekends? Identify these patterns to optimize staffing schedules, inventory, and promotions.

Are most of your customers paying with cash, credit cards, or mobile wallets? When you know how your customers prefer to pay, you can ensure you accept the right ones — and you could find ways to incentivize certain types of payments.

Other insights include:

Potential product issues: If you notice a high number of returns or exchanges for a particular product, there could be a quality issue that you can take up with vendors.
Discrepancies: When you spot a discrepancy between your sales records and actual bank deposits, it might be a sign of theft or fraud. Reconcile your transaction reports with financial statements to catch any issues early.

Transaction reports provide a granular view of your sales so you can make informed decisions.

Sales by Product Type or Channel

Similar to transaction reporting, sales by product lets you get granular. You can have the best customer service and marketing, but if your products aren’t up to scratch, it’s all in vain. Reports include:

Sales by product type: How much revenue is each type of product generating? For example, you might primarily sell clothes, but shoes and accessories bring in a lot of sales, too. If accessories bring in more revenue than clothes and shoes, you can double your efforts there, perhaps by expanding your accessory line.
Sales by variant: Variants are the different options available for each product, such as size, color, or material. This report shows you which variants sell best and helps you fine-tune inventory. For example, out of all your t-shirts, women’s medium red constantly sells out. You can order more to meet customer demand.
Sales by department: If your store has different departments (men’s, women’s, kids'), this report helps you see which ones are doing well. This information can help you optimize your store layout, staffing, and promotions. If your women's department consistently outperforms the others, you might give it more prominence in your store or assign more staff to it during peak hours.

These reports are powerful together. For example, say you have multiple variants of leather belts. You might notice that your men’s brown leather belt sells well, especially in-store, and decide to feature it more in your marketing materials and online store.

Embracing retail sales reporting and understanding the various reports available offers so many insights into your store’s performance. From snapshots to big-picture summaries, you can lean on data to spot trends, find your best-performing products, and keep an eye on the health of your business.

Advanced Reports To Consider

We’ve covered the basics of retail sales reporting, but there are some other reports you might want to add to your arsenal.

Customer lifetime value (CLV): How much will a customer spend on your products over the course of their relationship with your brand? You can predict the answer by using the CLV metric. Knowing this helps inform your marketing and retention efforts, as well as loyalty programs and upselling strategies.
Gross margin: How much money are you actually making on each sale? This metric measures the difference between how much you sell a product for and how much it cost you to buy or make that product (your cost of goods sold, or COGS). It's a key indicator of your business' profitability and can help you identify areas where you might be able to reduce costs or increase prices.
Sell-through rate: This metric measures how much of your inventory you sell through compared to how much you buy from suppliers. It's particularly useful for businesses that deal with perishable or seasonal inventory, as it can help you avoid overstocking and minimize waste.
Inventory turnover rate: Inventory turnover measures how quickly you're selling through your inventory and is calculated by dividing your cost of goods sold by your average inventory value. A high turnover ratio indicates that you're running a tight ship and not letting products stagnate on your shelves.
Sales per square foot: For brick-and-mortar retailers, sales per square foot is a key metric for how efficiently you're using your store space to generate revenue. By comparing your sales per square foot to industry benchmarks, you can identify whether you’re crushing it and using every inch of your store well, or if you need to shake things up by changing your store design and layout.

Understand Your POS Sales Reporting Capabilities

Your point of sale (POS) system is more than just a cash register. The right retail POS system collects data, provides insights, and helps you make better decisions for your store. Let’s explore how.

Invest in a Retail Point of Sale System

Think of your POS system as your business' central nervous system. It collects data — transactions, items purchased, payment methods used, and more — and provides insights through an intuitive dashboard.

It tracks things like:

Sales volume and revenue
Average transaction value
Top-selling products and categories
Sales by employee and location
Customer demographics and purchase history

You can then generate reports on this data and use them to:

Compare employee performance and identify training opportunities
Troubleshoot issues at different store locations
Optimize your product mix based on sales trends
Personalize your marketing based on customer preferences

Looking at historical data offers clear benefits, but an often overlooked feature is predictive analytics. Modern POS systems come with predictive analytics tools that help you forecast future sales and plan your inventory.

For example, if you have a product selling like hotcakes, use predictive analytics to project how much of that product you need to meet future demand. No more stockouts and lost sales!

But with so much data at your fingertips, how can you make sense of it all?

Data and Visualization Tools

You want POS software that transforms data into visually appealing, interactive reports. It should feel easy to monitor key metrics, drill down into specific data points, and compare performance across departments, products, employees, and more.

Let’s say you’re looking at your revenue by product report. With a few clicks, you can drill down into a specific category and find out which products are driving the most revenue. Perhaps a particular brand or color is outperforming others. Use this data to inform purchasing.

Or maybe you’re comparing sales across multiple locations. You should be able to quickly spot which locations are over performing or underperforming and dig deeper to understand why. It could be that one location has an effective manager or product assortment that resonates with customers.

Whatever the case, seeing this retail sales reporting data in real time is helpful and gives you a sense of order and control over your store.

Real-Time Alerts and Notifications

When you use a cloud-based system that updates sales and inventory data in real time, you can set alerts that help ensure you never run out of products.

For example, you could set a reorder threshold. As your POS processes sales, inventory is updated in real time. Once your stock hits a predetermined level, you can set reorder notifications or automate reordering if your system allows it.

Explore the reporting capabilities of your POS system and find the tools that work best for your business.

Utilize Retail Sales Reporting for Business Growth

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to accessing, interpreting, and acting on your sales data.

Access your POS reports: Log into your POS system's reporting dashboard. Click on “Sales Reports.”
Choose your report type: Select the type of report you want to view, such as daily sales or sales by product. If you're not sure which report to choose, start with a broad overview like a sales summary report.
Set your filters: Narrow your data by setting filters like date range, location, product category, or customer segment. This will help you focus on the specific insights you're looking for.
Interpret the data: Look for patterns, trends, and anomalies in the data. Compare performance across time periods or store locations. Make insights easier to spot with visualizations like charts and graphs.
Take action: Identify opportunities for improvement and take action. For example, if you notice that a particular product is underperforming, you might decide to adjust its pricing, placement, or promotion.
Create a reporting cadence: Consistency is key. Decide how often you want to review sales reports, whether daily, weekly, monthly, or a combination of all options. You could start with a daily snapshot to spot urgent issues or opportunities, followed by an in-depth weekly or monthly analysis.

To make the most of your sales data, it’s important to customize your reports.

Depending on your business size and whether you have multiple locations, you might not need every report available. Most POS systems allow you to create custom reports based on specific criteria, like sales by employee, for example.

Integrate Retail Sales Reporting Today

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. Let’s recap the key points:

Retail sales reporting isn’t a “nice-to-have,” it’s essential to making better business decisions. It helps identify top sellers, spot trends, measure marketing ROI, manage cash flow, and more.
There are various types of reports available, including daily sales reports, summary reports, transaction reports, and sales by product type and channel. You don’t have to use all of them — do what’s right for your store.
Your POS system is a goldmine of sales data. It can generate reports, provide data visualization tools, and offer real-time alerts to help you stay on top of your business.
Make the most of your reports by setting a cadence to check in on your progress, spot trends, gaps, and opportunities, and take action.

You’ve got the knowledge. Now it’s time to implement. Remember, you don’t need to drill down too soon — start with high-level reports — once you feel confident, look deeper.

A modern retail POS system is a great tool for diving into retail sales reporting. POS Nation provides thousands of retail store owners with over 50 custom reports, including everything you need to track and analyze sales.

Schedule a demo with our retail experts to peek behind the curtain and see how we help manage your retail operations.