Retail Performance Dashboards: What You Need to Know (2024)

Modern consumers have more options than ever. For retailers that means they must be able toadapt to stay competitive and earn their business. To do so, retailers need access to robustdata on everything from store foot traffic to product returns. But collecting and organizingthat data into a usable format presents challenges for retailers of all sizes. In thefast-paced world of retail, businesses that rely on manual or outdated systems often findthemselves hamstrung by outdated information. By the time data is collected and organized,it’s too old to provide any meaningful insights for improving current operations.

To overcome this challenge, many retailers are looking to expand their use of technology. Infact, 68% of retail IT decision-makers surveyed by Coresight Research in 2022 said they planto increase their technology investments over the next three years. One way retailers canleverage technology for competitive advantage is through retail performance dashboards,which give them access to real-time data and insights in easy-to-understand formats,empowering them to optimize operations and increase profitability. This article explains howretailers can use dashboards to transform operations, track business performance, enhancecustomer satisfaction and more.

What Is a Retail Dashboard?

A retail dashboard is a tool that collects data from across a business and compiles theinformation into easy-to-understand visual formats, such as graphs and tables. Manydashboards also include analytics and suggested strategies alongside this data to giveretailers insights into where to make improvements. Dashboards are often used first toidentify broad, high-level information to inform big-picture strategies. Then stakeholderscan drill down for a more detailed view of operations to see real-time data on specific keyperformance indicators (KPIs) and relevant metrics, such as online sales and on-handinventory. With dashboards, retail businesses can create a more holistic and streamlinedoperation and gain an edge over competitors that still rely on manual spreadsheets and slowcommunication between stores.

Key Takeaways

• Retail performance dashboards collect and track complex data and organize it intosimple, easy-to-understand formats.
• Decision-makers can use this information to identify trends, find places forimprovements and track changes in their retail operations.
• Understanding different dashboard types and their features can help ensure businessleaders choose the right ones to address their specific needs.

Retail Dashboards Explained

Retail performance dashboards create a centralized and user-friendly interface to provide areal- or near real-time look at on-the-ground metrics to help businesses track howeffectively they are meeting their goals and satisfying their customers’ needs. Whilemost dashboards feature similarhigh-level overviews, such as revenue and monthly sales,dashboards are typically customizable, letting decision-makers focus on the most useful andrelevant metrics for their business. For example, a business with a higher emphasis placedon ecommerce may need a dashboard centered around its online store, highlighting metricssuch as cart abandonment, order fulfillment rates and web traffic. On the other hand, abrick-and-mortar retailer may want its dashboard to focus on in-person metrics, such assales employee performance, foot traffic and peak hours. It’s important for businessesto find a retail dashboard capable of providing the data they need to improve theiroperations, rather than waste time sifting through irrelevant reports or unhelpful analyses.

Modern dashboards are often cloud-based and optimized for mobile devices, giving managers anddecision-makers access to data from multiple retail locations anywhere at any time. Thisincreases visibility and helps optimize companywide strategies, such as inventorymanagement and regionally specific demand planning from a centralized informationsource. Accessibility to data also helps provide users with all the information they need toquickly answer questions, generate ad-hoc reports and solve problems early, before theybecome major headaches and impact customer satisfaction.

What to Include in a Retail Dashboard

Because of the customizability of many retail dashboards, there’s no one-size-fits-alllist of what must be included in an effective dashboard. Businesses should focus on whatdata they can use to improve their operations in the following three categories:

• Market forces and trends: Retail dashboards can help businesses managetheir supply chains to track supplier performance and ensure that any slowdowns ormarket disruptions are caught early and contingency plans are enacted accordingly.During stable periods, dashboards can help managers find inefficiencies and optimizesupply processes to ensure that demand is met and waste is minimized. Dashboards canalso help forecasters quickly identify new market trends and set benchmarks by showing up-to-date salesdata alongside other market indicators, giving decision-makers the tools they need toquickly pivot strategies and adapt to new customer demands.
• Business performance: One of the biggest benefits offered by retaildashboards is having a centralized place to see far-reaching company data to trackperformance over time. KPIs, including profitmargins, inventory turnover and sales — segmented by retail location, product,employee, department, price point, etc. — can all be displayed in accessibleformats for maximum understanding and insight. These figures help decision-makers findout exactly where performance is exceeding or meeting expectations and can help informstrategies to improve or replace areas that are falling behind. Dashboards can juxtaposecurrent levels with historical trends to give context to the current state of operationsand ensure that financial management is informed by data and evidence, not hunches.
• Customer satisfaction: Dashboards collect and organize customer data byaggregating customer feedback so managers can see where expectations are andaren’t being met and intervention may be needed. Dashboards can also help sortbuying patterns and customer behavior by demographics, giving marketing teams valuableinformation when crafting targeted ad campaigns. After sales are made, dashboards cantrack order status, monitor order fulfillment KPIs and compareperformance with benchmarks and industry standards to help improve customer loyalty andretention. Similarly, dashboards can collect and analyze data on customer returns— a potentially costly area for retailers, as returned inventory may not be in acondition to be resold, and extra shipping costs can reduce margins and hurt the bottomline, especially for ecommerce businesses.

Features of an Effective Retail Performance Dashboard

Retail performance dashboards provide specific information relevant to businesses and can becustomized by users. To maximize the effectiveness of a dashboard, users must understand itscapabilities and features and how it can be leveraged to help achieve objectives. Below aresome key features to consider.

User-Friendly Interface

Decision-makers may have access to robust data from every nook and cranny of their company,but without an effective way to organize and study that data, they’ll spend more timesearching for what they need than applying what they learn. The user-friendly interface of aretail dashboard reduces the learning curve to allow users to quickly spot importanttakeaways and trends, even withoutexpertise in data analytics.

An ecommerce store owner, for example, can log in to their dashboard each morning and quicklyaccess an overview of their business through metrics such as web traffic, returns and sales.Dashboard interfaces are also optimized for a variety of devices, letting users access theinformation they need in consistent, familiar visual formats from wherever they may be.Easy-to-understand data representations, such as tables and graphs, minimizemisinterpretations and incorrect conclusions to ensure that managers and business leadersare making well-informed decisions using the most relevant and current data available.

Customizable Metrics and Visualizations

Retail performance dashboards give users the ability to dive deep into datasets and focus onthe information and KPIs they need for ongoing budget analysis, ad-hoc reporting and more.This helps decision-makers tailor their dashboard layouts to focus on the objectives at handand easily adapt to any changes in priorities. Customizability creates more flexible dataanalysis by streamlining how data is presented. By sharing data in simple formats, such asbar graphs or pie charts, retail dashboards empower teams to collaborate more effectivelyusing a single data source and simplifying comparative assessments. This can lead to moreunified financial strategies, rather than relying on siloed operations.

For example, if a manager wants to see sales figures over the last quarter, they can use adashboard to generate graphs that show sales by category, product, store, salesperson andother relevant metrics, rather than spend hours comparing spreadsheets and tables. Oncegenerated, these graphs can be easily shared with stakeholders and other retail locations toreport performance and find areas for improvement.

Real-Time Data Update

Manual or antiquated data-collection processes may provide detailed information, but by thetime the data is collected and organized into statements, decision-makers may be left tryingto solve today’s problems based on last month’s data. With retail performancedashboards, managers and stakeholders can get a real-time look at business performancethrough up-to-date metrics like inventory levels, sales performance, marketing campaigns andmore. Real-time data also enables businesses to quickly pivot when demand shifts, marketforces change or the supply chain is disrupted, giving them an advantage over slowercompetitors.

Additionally, retail dashboards can provide customer service teams with real-time orderupdates so they can quickly and effectively address customer feedback, inquiries and issues,creating a more reliable and transparent customer experience. With access to real-time data,businesses can focus on futuresuccesses, rather than running damage control for issues that could have been solvedwith earlier detection.

Mobile Accessibility

With the rise of hybrid and remote work, mobile accessibility is an increasingly importantfeature for business platforms. Even for fully in-person workers, mobile accessibilityallows authorized users to securely access relevant information when away from their desks,allowing decision-makers to respond to requests and problems quickly, no matter where theyare. Accessibility also benefits on-location staff at all organizational levels, as itallows access to an easily updated centralized data source to empower teams to effectivelyoptimize warehouse layouts, retail inventory levels, order fulfillment processes and otherlogistics operations. With customizable alerts and templates formatted for any device,mobile access to a retail dashboard can streamline processes in a secure, convenient mannerand give a business the tools it needs to increase transparency and solve problems.

Integration With Various Data Sources

A retail performance dashboard is only as useful as the data it has access to. Even the mostsophisticated dashboard can’t provide detailed statements or insights if it’sconnected to an incomplete view of the business. By integrating far-reaching data fromsales, inventory, marketing, accountspayable and receivable, customer feedback and more, retail dashboards create acomprehensive look at a company’s operations and performance. This holistic view letsanalysts identify correlations and patterns to find root causes of problems, rather thanonly addressing symptoms. Integration also allows users with diverse needs to use a single,centralized system capable of zooming into relevant areas and highlighting requestedinformation from anywhere in the company. Additionally, this integration eliminates much ofthe repeat manual data entry that can slow down workflows and lead to errors.

Types of Retail Performance Dashboards

Due to their customizability, retail performance dashboards come in different forms dependingon business needs. Businesses must make sure to pick the right type of retail dashboard orrisk investing in a platform that won’t be able to give them the focused informationthey need. A company selling unique, high-end boutique items, for example, may not benefitfrom a retail store dashboard that emphasizes returns and web browsing; instead, it might bebetter off choosing a dashboard capable of tracking marketing return on investment (ROI) andaverage sale value per customer. Here are some popular types of retail performancedashboards.

Retail Store Dashboard

For retailers with multiple locations, dashboards can segment sales data by store, product,customer demographics, region and other categories relevant to the business’sindustry. This helps inform marketing strategies, new product launches, changes tostorefront locations and hours, management improvements and more. Retail store dashboardscan also track stock levels and show out-of-stock rates over time, a critical measure forimproving inventory allocation, reducing stockouts and optimizing carrying capacity. Forexample, a clothing retailer can use a store dashboard to track sales by region and seewhich items are most popular and where they are selling.

Retail Analytics Dashboard

Tracking analytics is important for any retailer but especially so for omnichannel companieswith in-person and online stores, as these businesses need multifaceted strategies tosucceed in both fields. According to a 2022 ChaseDesign survey of consumers, 95% of shoppersuse retailer apps while shopping. As such, businesses need to ensure that they’reeffectively leveraging these apps by tracking how they drive sales and compare within-person shopping. With a retail analytics dashboard, retailers can track and compareonline and in-store metrics, including return rates, ROI, revenue per location and more. Ifan electronics business tracks its return rates through a dashboard, for example, and findsthat online return rates are much higher than in-store, the business can invest in morereliable order fulfillment processes, better shipment packaging or more detailed onlinespecifications to improve its online operations.

Retail KPI Dashboard

Retailers can customize dashboards to track specific KPIs to ensure that they have visibilityfor the metrics that matter the most to their business. Some common KPIs include profitmargins, sales metrics, inventory turnover, return rates and customer satisfaction. Mostdashboards will include graphs that show data over time and percent change when displayingKPIs, as shown below, because a standalone value may be less useful than data in context toestablish trends and identify outliers.

For instance, a florist may track monthly sales data through its dashboard to plan itsgrowing cycles. But if there is a large wedding event in a given month with a much largersale than typical, it could skew KPIs like average purchase value, which measures theaverage sales value of a transaction at a store. By viewing that month in context, theflorist can see that it was an outlier and not a sign that it should be significantlyramping up production — which could lead to wasted stock when the flowers aren’tsold during the blooming season. But if the florist sees its average purchase value steadilyrising from quarter to quarter, it can increase on-site inventory accordingly. By studyingthese KPIs over time, businesses can reduce waste and identify trends or complicationsearly.

Sales and Order Dashboard

While sales will likely be a major part of any dashboard, some retail dashboards spotlightorder tracking and analysis as a key part of their functionality. Sales and order dashboardscan track metrics, such as lead times and perfect order rates, to ensure that deliveries aremade quickly and correctly, minimizing costly returns and dissatisfied customers. Theseorder metrics can help businesses track customer retention and loyalty, a valuable measurefor retail companies, as returning customers are often easier and cheaper to target andconvince to place an order — assuming their orders were properly fulfilled in thefirst place, and they had a satisfactory shopping experience.

Some sales and order metrics are complex and require supplemental data to fully understand,making the customizability and detail of a retail dashboard essential. Back-order rates, forexample, can point to inefficient inventory allocationor unexpectedly high sales, and dashboards can help analysts make sense of these kinds ofmetrics to recreate successes and avoid repeating failures. After sales are made, retaildashboards can make sure they are effectively turned into revenue by integrating with accountsreceivable and creating a unified system of payments and orders.

Product Availability Dashboard

Having access to accurate, up-to-date product availability is a major challenge for manyretailers. When a customer visits a store or website to purchase a specific item, it can befrustrating when that item is unavailable, and they may choose to take their businesselsewhere, especially if there’s no estimate on when the product will be back instock. Retail dashboards can provide granular data on inventory, from general categoriesdown to specific items and store-specific information. This helps managers and customersknow what’s available in which stores before shelves — and shopping carts— are left empty from stockouts and back orders.

For example, a retail performance dashboard may be able to show a clothing retailer thepercentage of out-of-stock items per store over a year, helping establish seasonal trends tobetter maintain stock levels in the future. By using data to minimize out-of-stock items,stores will be better prepared to meet customer demand, maintain customer loyalty andcapitalize on any seasonal demand surges.

Promotional Optimization Dashboard

It can be difficult to track a marketing strategy’s effectiveness, especially formultipronged marketing campaigns that combine mailers, digital ads and other media. With apromotional optimization dashboard, retailers can track the success of their marketingpromotions in real time through metrics like ROI and sales engagement. These insights can beused to inform future ad campaigns and help retailers better meet their marketingobjectives. A furniture store, for instance, can track digital advertising through itsdashboard to see customer engagement in different markets, click-through rates and finalsales to better understand its customer base and create more targeted ad campaigns thatincrease the ROI for the marketing budget.

Retail Inventory Management Dashboard

Managing inventory can be a challenge, especially for companies that rely on supply chainsvulnerable to disruptions and slowdowns. Retail inventory management dashboards monitorsupply shipments and automatically send alerts when inventory or supplies fall below presetlevels to reduce the risk of stockouts. Retail inventory metrics can also help optimizeongoing inventory management by integrating with demand forecasting tools to effectivelyplan merchandise and prepare for future sales. For example, a department store can use thisdata to find older items with low turnover rates and replace them with next season’sexpected high-demand items, reducing carrying costs andcluttered shelves while preparing for future sales.

Average Product Discount Dashboard

Discounts are a common way to lure customers and move old stock, but businesses need tocarefully track their impact on revenue and sales to find the right pricing strategy. Toomany discounts may drive sales but could hurt the bottom line, and too few discounts mayturn away frugal shoppers that could be turned into lifelong customers. Discount dashboardscan track discounts’ impact on revenue and sales with detailed data from before,during and after promotional periods. By monitoring these metrics alongside customerfeedback, businesses can optimize when and how discounts are offered to strike the rightbalance.

If a bookstore, for example, offers a “buy two, get one free” sale every summer,it can monitor revenue relative to sales during this period and compare it to non-saleseasons. If the profit margins on the increased sales do not make up for the losses fromgiving away free books, the bookstore can run scenarios to find a better balance whenoffering discounts, such as 20% off orders instead of free books. A different sale may stillbring in more customers in search of a good deal without having the same negative impact onthe bottom line.

Choosing the Right Retail Performance Dashboard Software

No two retailers are the same, and a retail performance dashboard should be adapted to fitwhat makes a business unique. Before choosing retail dashboard software, a business shouldset deliberate goals and priorities that the dashboard can help achieve. Then it canactively seek out software that fits those goals. If a dashboard is being added to anexisting business platform, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, theretailer should find out what, if anything, needs to be done to ensure effective integrationso that no critical data is lost in translation.

Retailers should also ensure that any industry compliance standards, such as safety, securityand financial reporting standards, are supported by their dashboard of choice, as failure tocomply with regulations could lead to financial, legal and reputational harm to thebusiness. The right retail dashboard should enhance a retailer’s ability to serve itscustomers’ needs in ways that align with business objectives, while also givingstakeholders and managers the opportunity to more effectively grow and improve the company.

All Your Retail Performance Dashboards in One Place With NetSuite

In the increasingly competitive retail market, both brick-and-mortar and ecommerce retailersneed to understand the ins and outs of their businesses to gain and maintain their edge. NetSuite for Retail gives retailers real-time access tofinancial data, sales figures, inventory levels, customer analytics and more to monitorbusiness performance and drive growth. NetSuite’s platform is built specifically forretail and helps business leaders create a customizable and unified omnichannel commerceoperation, so customers can easily get what they need, regardless of how or where they shop.

Integrating a retail performance dashboard with NetSuite Data Warehouse consolidates data fromthroughout an organization and hosts it in the cloud, giving stakeholders anddecision-makers access to everything they need from anywhere and at any time. Withcustomizable templates and an easy-to-use interface, NetSuite Data Warehouse lets retailersaccess broad big-picture data on business health and drill down to specific reports thatgive them the exact data they’re looking for — no IT expertise needed.NetSuite’s Data Warehouse can also generate charts and tables and export data from acentralized source to increase collaboration and reduce miscommunications. With NetSuite,retailers can better serve their customers and confidently grow their operations.

Retail performance dashboards increase visibility into the inner workings of a business andgive decision-makers access to relevant information to make well-informed, data-drivenimprovements to their retail operations. Retailers can use these customizable anduser-friendly dashboards to monitor essential retail KPIs, such as sales data, customerbuying behavior, store performance and inventory levels, to understand what’s goingright and what needs adjustments. Retail dashboards empower retailers to prioritizeprocesses that will directly benefit their customers and drive long-term revenue and growth.

Retail Dashboard FAQs

How does a business build a retail dashboard?

When implementing a retail dashboard, a business must first define its goals, such as whatdata it wants to collect, how it should be organized and who should have access to whatfields. Once these goals are set, many retailers choose existing software that fits theirneeds and that can be integrated with their existing systems.

What should a sales dashboard have?

A sales dashboard typically includes overall sales data and subsets segmented by retaillocation, online sales, products, changes in sales over time and other relevant keyperformance indicators (KPIs) that the business wants to track. These can be studied ascurrent performance snapshots or trends over time to give managers and decision-makersinsights into overall business strengths and to find areas for improvement.

What is a sales analytics dashboard?

A sales analytics dashboard provides detailed information on sales trends and often includescustomer satisfaction and buying behavior to inform future marketing and inventorystrategies. It typically incorporates pricing data, such as sales volume at different pricepoints, and post-sales data, such as returns and customer service activity. These analyticscan be used to create more effective customer service initiatives and optimize margins.

What does a sales performance dashboard do?

A sales performance dashboard provides real-time data on key sales metrics to monitor theperformance of sales teams, track sales growth and forecast future demand. The dashboardcompares actual sales with targets, often segmented by regional sales figures and customerdemographics. Sales performance dashboards allow users to explore detailed data, identifytrends and make more-informed decisions with the goal of improved sales, higher customersatisfaction and overall business growth, as well as give managers a detailed look atemployee performance.