ChannelEngine: insights [add-on]

This article describes ChannelEngine’s insights feature, which provides you with actionable data on the state of your business.

Table of contents

Introduction

Overview

• Summary
• Order
• Channel & product
• Availability
• Product performance
• Return
• Competition
• Buy box

Visualization options

Interactive demo: how to use the insights feature

Introduction

Insights is an extension of ChannelEngine’s Statistics module. Insights includes reports on actionable data, including revenue, sales, orders, product performance, and overall growth metrics, which are not available in the basic Statistics module. These reports can also be exported, so that you can conduct an offline analysis on your data.

Your data within Insights is refreshed twice per day.

Overview

Access Insights from the sidebar menu by going to Statistics, Insights. The reports are divided across eight tabs: Summary, Order, Channel & Product, Availability, Product Performance, Return, Competition, and Buy Box.

Filters

Some of these tabs have unique filters, but most filters are available across all the tabs. The list below describes the available filters with which to view your data:

• Channel - the channel for which you want to view insights statistics. E.g.: Truffaut.
• Channel group - the group of channels for which you want to view data. E.g.: all Mirakl-based marketplaces or all Amazon marketplaces.
• SKU - the Merchant product number for which you want to view data. E.g.: S123K456U789.
• Order date - an exact date or a date range to see only the orders that apply to it. Note that, by default, the timezone is set to Central European Time (CET).
• Product - the product for which you want to view data. E.g.: Nitro Smartest smartphone 512 GB.
• Product brand - the product brand for which you want to view data. E.g.: Sustainable Suits.
• Product category - the product category for which you want to view data. E.g.: solar panels.
• Tenant - one or more tenants for which you want to view data.
• VAT selection - include or exclude sales tax from the totals shown.
• Competitor - the name of the competitor for which you want to view data.

Targets

Line graphs in each tab show you the monthly time series of a given metric, comparing the selected period to the same period one year ago. You can choose to map selected series in a given operational area to your own monthly revenue targets. Your own targets will then appear as a dotted line within your time series charts. 

Set these revenue targets in Settings, Targets. For guidance on how to set up your revenue targets on ChannelEngine, check out: ChannelEngine: revenue targets. 

Summary

The Summary tab contains an overview of your selling performance, including the following visualizations:

• GMV - gross merchandise value (GMV) per month, comparing the selected period to the same period one year ago.
• Product published vs. unpublished - the number of published and unpublished products per channel.
• AOV - average order value (AOV) per month, comparing the selected period to the same period one year ago. 
• Return % - the return rate per month, comparing the selected period to the same period one year ago. 
• Unlisted and Unpublished products with stock - the stock associated with unpublished products.
• Surplus - if pricing v2 is activated in your tenant, then you can toggle between the Surplus and AOV visualizations. The surplus is calculated as: surplus = selling price - min. price. 

Note that shipping costs are excluded from this overview.

Order

The Order tab includes the following visualizations for the selected period:

• Orders - the money value of your orders, comparing the selected period to the same period one year ago.
• AOV - the AOV for the selected period, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics.
• GMV - the total GMV for the selected period, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics.
• GMV (after returns) - the total GMV, after returns are subtracted, for the selected period, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics.
• Order Qty - the total number of orders or the selected period, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics. 

To compare the revenue and orders per channel, drill into the table to the right of the visualizations. 

Channel & product

The Channel & product tab includes the following GMV insights per:

• Channel - your GMV per channel, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics.
• Brand - your GMV per brand, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics.
• Category - your GMV per product category, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics.
• Product - drill into a monthly time series of your GMV per product, including month-on-month and year-on-year statistics, and compare the selected period to the same period one year ago.

Availability

The visualizations in the Availability tab show the following data for the selected period:

• Stock availability % - the percentage of products that are available for sale (i.e.: in stock) out of the total products sold over the period. The period shown is the last 7 or 30 days. 
  • Weighted availability - percentage of unique products available for sale (i.e.: in stock) out of the total unique products sold. A unique product is defined by its distinct product name. E.g.: if 3 of the same products are sold, the number of unique products is 1.
  • Unweighted availability - percentage of products available for sale (i.e.: in stock) out of the total products sold. It is calculated per product and then averaged across all products.
• Quantity sold vs. # of unique products sold - a comparison between the total number of products sold and the number of unique products sold over the period. The period is the last 7 or 30 days. 

Product performance

Configure the main table in the Product performance tab to review the following metrics per product:

• Current stock - the current stock level of the product. 
• SiW - the ship-in-weight (SiW) of the product, indicating the total weight of product plus packaging.
• GMV - the GMV of the product within various periods.
• Stock quantity - the stock level of the product within various periods.
• Surplus - the surplus value of the sold product within various periods.
• Average surplus - the average surplus value per sold product within various periods.
• Additionally, drill into: 
  • Product bundle performance - for your product bundle offers, review the GMV, and Units sold in a given period.
  • Stock locations - view the stock levels per product at each stock location over multiple time periods. Data is available in this visualization if your tenant has enabled support for multiple stock locations. For more information on supporting multiple stock locations on ChannelEngine, check out: ChannelEngine: advanced order management [add-on].

Return

The Return tab includes the following visualizations for the selected period: 

• Returns - the return rate and return value per month, comparing the selected period to the same period one year ago.
• # of orders per return reason - the volume of returns per return reason in the selected period, per channel.

To drill into the return rate per channel, interact with the table to the right of the visualizations.

Competition

The Competition tab provides a snapshot of your competitors' data, which is available if any of your connected channels support repricing. The tab contains two visualizations:

• Your competitors - a table listing your competitors, the number and percentage of competing products between you and each competitor, and your buy box win percentage. You can click the plus icon to view the list of channels that participate in the competition.
• Products in competition - a table listing the competing products, the number of buy box wins achieved by your competitor and you, the total number of competitors, and the number of channels where this product competes.

Additionally, filter the competition report on your buy-box wins or losses per product:

• Show winners - this filter at the top of the Competition tab gives you two options:
  • False - selecting this option will filter on those SKUs where you have won the buy box 0% of the time against a competitor. 
  • True - selecting this option will filter on only those SKUs where you have won the buy box 100% of the time against a competitor. 
  • Selecting both options shows the default report overview. 

Buy box

The Buy Box tab gives you a detailed overview on your past buy box wins and losses, including how often you won the buy box over your competitors in the previous 7 to 14 days, and an indication of your price when you lost the box. The tab contains three visualizations:

• 7 day trailing buy box win % - the percentage of minutes in which your offer appeared in the buy box on your connected channels within the past 7 days.
  • Higher rates (e.g.: 70%+) signal strong competitiveness, leading to more sales and visibility.
  • Low rates might prompt adjustments like lowering your price or improving other product metrics, like shipping or order defect rates.
  • Click on each trend line to filter the next two visualizations with respect to the selected channel.

• Your price vs. winner price - the number of products falling within specific price gap ranges when you lost the buy box, e.g.: 20% expensive, +80% expensive, Same price, or Better price.
• Win % L7D/Prev L7D - a detailed table that compares your trailing buy box win rate per SKU, per channel. The final column gives you an indication of whether your buy box win rate has increased or decreased in the most recent period. 

Visualization options

ChannelEngine’s insights tool offers multiple ways to engage with your visualizations, depending on the type of chart with which you are interacting. Access your visualization options by hovering on a given visualization widget and clicking on the three-dot menu on the top right. 

Drill up

To use this option, hover your mouse over a chart and click the Drill up button (↑). Alternatively, you can right-click a data point in the chart and select Drill up. Your chart is then updated to display the data one level higher. E.g.: to switch from orders in a specific month to orders for the year.

Drill down

To enable this option, hover your mouse over a chart and click the Drill down button (↓). You can then click a data point in the chart to display the data one level lower. Alternatively, you can right-click a data point in the chart and select Drill down. E.g.: to switch from orders for the year to orders in a specific month.

Go to the next level in the hierarchy

To use this option, hover your mouse over a chart and click the Go to the next level in the hierarchy button (↓↓). Your chart is then updated to display the data one level lower. E.g.: from years to months.

Expand all, down one level in the hierarchy

To use this option, hover your mouse over a chart and click the Expand all, down one level in the hierarchy button (it looks like a downward-facing fork). Alternatively, you can right-click a chart and select Expand to next level. Your chart is then updated to display all available data one level lower. E.g.: from years to months.

Focus mode

To enable this option, hover your mouse over a chart and click the Focus mode button (it looks like an ‘open in another window’ button). The chart is then displayed across the entire screen, so you can better visualize it. To go back to the previous visualization, click Back to report in the top-left corner of the chart.

To access the options available for tables, click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of a table.

Export data

Select this option to export the data within a table. You can choose to export it with the current layout (in the XLSX format) or in a summarized way (in the CSV or XLSX format). Table exports are only compatible with Chrome web browsers. No file will be exported if you try the export feature via other web browsers.

Show as a table

Select this option to display the table across the entire screen, so you can better visualize it. To go back to the previous visualization, click Back to report in the top-left corner of the table.

Spotlight

Select this option to display the table by itself, in its current size, so you can better visualize it. To go back to the previous visualization, click the three-dot menu and select Spotlight again.

Sort descending

Select this option to sort the data in the table from the highest value to the lowest value.

Sort ascending

Select this option to sort the data in the table from the lowest value to the highest value.

Sort by

Select this option to sort the data in the table according to one of the parameters within it. E.g.: AOV, number of orders, etc.

Interactive demo: how to insights