The 2-minute morning analytics routine

What the 2-minute routine includes

The goal: scan essential metrics, spot problems, continue with your day. Not deep analysis—that happens during scheduled weekly or monthly sessions. This routine answers one question: “Is everything operating normally?”

Core metrics (8 total):

• Revenue (yesterday)

• Orders (yesterday)

• Conversion rate (current)

• Average order value

• Traffic (sessions yesterday)

• Top 3 products

• Top 3 traffic sources

• Top 3 pages

Comparisons needed: Today vs yesterday, this week vs last week, this month vs last month. Year-over-year if seasonal business.

Action threshold: Note anything down more than 20-30% without clear explanation. Everything else: observe, don’t act. Daily variance is normal.

The 2-minute routine step-by-step

Minute 1: Revenue and orders (30 seconds)

Check: Yesterday’s revenue and order count. Compare to previous day and last week same day.

What you’re looking for: Significant drops (30%+ down) or unexpected spikes (50%+ up). Revenue fluctuates 10-20% daily normally. Only flag genuine deviations.

Action: If normal, move on. If concerning, note it and continue routine. Investigate after completing scan.

Minute 1: Conversion and AOV (30 seconds)

Check: Current conversion rate and average order value. Compare to 7-day and 30-day averages.

Why these matter: Conversion rate drops indicate site problems. AOV changes signal customer behavior shifts.

What’s normal: Conversion rate varies 10-15% day-to-day. AOV varies 10-20% based on what sells. Look for sustained changes over 3+ days, not daily noise.

Minute 2: Traffic and sources (30 seconds)

Check: Total sessions yesterday. Top 3 traffic sources with percentages.

Why it matters: Traffic drops explain revenue drops. Source shifts reveal channel problems.

What you’re looking for: Total traffic changes greater than 30%. Individual source changes greater than 50%.

Action: Connect the dots. Revenue down + traffic down = traffic problem. Revenue down + traffic normal = conversion problem.

Minute 2: Products and pages (30 seconds)

Check: Top 3 products by revenue. Top 3 pages by traffic.

Why it matters: Product list changes signal trends (new product catching on, staple declining). Page traffic shows what content drives visits (homepage, collection page, blog post).

What’s actionable: Unexpected product in top 3 (investigate why—might be opportunity). Expected product missing from top 3 (seasonal decline or problem?). Unusual page ranking (broken link?, viral content?, campaign landing page?).

Action: Note interesting changes. These inform longer-term decisions but rarely require immediate action.

After the 2-minute scan

Everything normal: Close email. Continue with day. You’ve confirmed operations are on track. No further action needed.

One red flag: Spend 5-10 minutes investigating. If conversion dropped, check mobile vs desktop, test checkout, review recent changes. If traffic dropped, verify tracking still works, check channel status, review seasonality. Quick investigation often identifies cause and solution.

Multiple red flags: Schedule 30-minute deep dive later today or tomorrow. Something systemic might be wrong. Don’t spiral into multi-hour panic analysis during morning routine—timebox it.

Making it actually take 2 minutes

Automation is critical

Manual routine: Log in (30 sec), navigate to reports (60 sec), select date ranges (60 sec), perform comparisons mentally (90 sec), check multiple reports (120 sec). Total: 6 minutes minimum before seeing all metrics. The navigation overhead prevents 2-minute checks.

Automated routine: Open email with daily report. All metrics pre-calculated, comparisons shown automatically, delivered same time every morning. 2 minutes scanning, zero minutes gathering.

Setup once: Connect analytics tool to your store, add your email, configure delivery time. Takes 2-5 minutes. Works forever.

Scan, don’t analyze

Common trap: See interesting metric, start exploring. “Revenue up 15%—let me see which products drove it.” 20 minutes later, you’re deep in reports. The morning routine becomes an hour.

Discipline: Morning routine identifies what’s worth analyzing. Analysis happens during scheduled weekly session (Friday afternoon, 30 minutes) or monthly review (first Friday, 60 minutes). Separate monitoring from analysis. Monitoring is fast. Analysis is deep.

Same order every day

Creating habit requires consistency. Check metrics same order: Revenue → Orders → Conversion → AOV → Traffic → Sources → Products → Pages. After 2-3 weeks, the routine becomes automatic. Your eyes know where to look. Speed improves naturally.

Mobile-friendly delivery

Morning email works on phone. Check while having coffee, during commute, from anywhere. Dashboard-based routines require laptop. Flexibility enables consistency—you’ll check more reliably when it works on any device.

What this routine prevents

Prevents dashboard rabbit holes: Logging into GA4 or platform analytics leads to exploring tangential metrics. You check traffic, notice bounce rate changed, investigate device breakdown, check browser types—30 minutes gone investigating metrics that don’t change decisions. Routine keeps you focused on essentials.

Prevents decision paralysis: Seeing 50 metrics without framework creates overwhelm. What should I check? What matters? What’s normal? The 8-metric routine provides structure. You know exactly what to review and what thresholds matter.

Prevents skipping checks: Manual dashboard checking requires willpower (“Should I check today?”). Email delivery removes decision. Report arrives, you check it, done. Consistency beats intensity. Better to check 2 minutes daily than plan 30-minute weekly sessions that get skipped 50% of the time.

Adapting the routine to your business

Seasonal businesses

Add year-over-year comparisons as primary reference. “Revenue this October vs last October” matters more than “vs September.” Daily comparisons still useful but seasonal reference provides crucial context.

Multi-channel sellers

Include per-channel breakdowns if you sell on Shopify + Amazon + wholesale. Total revenue matters, but channel-specific revenue shows where growth or problems originate. Adds 30 seconds to routine (still under 3 minutes total).

High-volume stores

Track hourly metrics if you process 50+ orders daily. Yesterday’s totals show trends, but hourly view catches intraday problems (checkout broke at 2pm, 6 hours of lost sales). Minimal time increase—hourly chart shows patterns at a glance.

Content-heavy stores

Expand page traffic to top 5 instead of top 3. If blog drives significant traffic, seeing which posts perform helps content strategy. Adds 15 seconds to routine.

Common questions

Is 2 minutes actually enough?

For daily operational monitoring, yes. You’re answering: “Is business running normally?” That question doesn’t require deep analysis. It requires consistent awareness. 2 minutes daily (730 minutes yearly) provides better awareness than 30 minutes weekly (26 hours yearly) because daily rhythm catches problems earlier. Weekly checking means problems compound for days before detection.

What if I want to understand trends, not just daily numbers?

Daily routine provides awareness. Trend analysis happens during weekly session (Friday 3pm, 30 minutes—review week-over-week patterns, plan tactical adjustments) and monthly review (first Friday, 60 minutes—assess performance vs goals, strategic decisions). Separate routine monitoring from strategic analysis. Each serves different purpose at different frequency.

What if something urgent happens and I miss the morning routine?

Email report waits in inbox. Check when available—takes same 2 minutes whether checked at 7am or 2pm. For true crises (site down, payment processor broken), threshold alerts notify immediately. Morning routine catches normal problems (conversion declining, traffic source underperforming). Alerts catch emergencies. Together, they provide comprehensive coverage without requiring constant monitoring.

Peasy delivers your store metrics via email every morning—no more logging into dashboards. Starting at $49/month. Try free for 14 days.