First Steps for Shopify Users
Get Started
When you first log in there maybe not much to see as we are setting up data load in the background. Once it's done we will send you a reminder.
While you are at it we recommend to take a look at basics:
List of metrics you can pull from ForecastingApp
Use the LIVE DEMO to get familiar with user interface.
Load More Data
When ForecastingApp is launched we start loading sales data for current week (starting on Monday). While this gives you some figures it is much more interesting to see performance across many months and years.
You can request historical data manually via any Sales Analytics>Sales Reports>Category Report.
Select desired time period and Shopify data source on the toolbar, and click load.
Due to the way Shopify stores inventory information it is not possible to load (or reload) historical inventory for analysis.
Terminology
In ForecastingApp we use slightly different terminology than you may be acustomed to with Shopify.
Here is a list of core terms:
Instead of Product Variant we use Option. Up to two options (ar variants) are synced automatically.
Instead of Product Type we use Category. In Shopify product types are not organized in a strict hierarchy. For example you may have products unser Footwear, Kid's footwear and Ladies' footwear whilst both Kids and Ladies' are also under Footwear so that you have products semantically equal to entire groups of products.
In ForecastingApp all categories are stored in the strict hierachy which means you cannot store data directly under Footwear. For this reason the Product Type hierarchy you have in Shopify is not applicable and you may want to set up your own rollups as described here: Data Modelling
Collections and tags are currently not preserved.
Instead of orders we use sales as reference to summaries, and receipts as ference to individual transactions.
What happens to my data if I will add more locations or products than may plan supports?
It's great that your business expands and we support this scenario transparently. There are no hard limits so you will be able to continue to use ForecastingApp and upgrade at your convenience.
In similar way nothing will happen to your data if you choose to downgrade. However, if you have much more data than your plan supports the resources allocated to your account may not be able to process it or retain previously stored data.
How long will it take for my entire sales history to arrive?
It depends on how many products and orders you have. We have taken some measurements and here's the result:
30 location and over 300k products from a 3rd-party API with hourly limits it takes 6-7 hours per month
100+ location and 10k products from the same API takes 3 hours per month
What else affect this is the number of current inventory levels at any point of time. We have to follow Shopify API limits. We recommend load historical data in batches e.g. one month at a time first to see how it goes.
At any time you are welcome to contact support.
Why the orders placed today not seen in the dashboards?
ForecastingApp loads data periodically in chunks. When you install the app the orders being loaded first are ones placed up the point of installation. Remaining order for that day will arrive in the background during the course of the day. They guranteed to be available the next day. This is the reason the dashboards start with Yesterday.