The difference between analytics and reporting in e-commerce

Many teams use “analytics” and “reporting” as if they were the same. They are not. In e-commerce, knowing the difference saves time, money, and plenty of meeting cycles. Here is a clear way to separate the two, and how to combine them for smarter growth in Shopify or WooCommerce with GA4.

What reporting is (and is not)

Reporting is the routine delivery of metrics — yesterday’s revenue, orders, CR, AOV, refunds, and stock alerts. It answers “what happened?” and keeps everyone aligned. Good reporting is timely, accurate, and predictable. Dashboards and weekly PDFs are classic reporting outputs.

Reporting is not investigation. It should avoid surprises and opinions. Its job is to be boring, reliable, and easy to scan.

What analytics is 🔎

Analytics explores data to answer “why?” and “what should we do?”. It includes ad-hoc queries, GA4 explorations, cohort analysis, A/B test design, and forecasting. Analytics is curious and iterative — when the answer changes your understanding, you refine the question and go again.

How they work together

• Reporting informs: Yesterday’s CR dropped on mobile.

• Analytics investigates: GA4 funnel shows add_to_cart fell on PDPs after a theme update.

• Action follows: Roll back the change, test new image sizes, and monitor with reporting.

Designing your reporting layer

• Define a KPI spine: Revenue, orders, CR, AOV, CAC, ROAS, LTV. Keep definitions consistent.

• One truth, many views: If possible, have a primary source of truth. Segment by device, channel, and country for stakeholders.

• Cadence: Daily snapshot, weekly trend, monthly deep-dive. Automate where possible.

Designing your analytics workflow

• Question bank: Maintain a list of hypotheses worth testing — from shipping thresholds to new bundles.

• Explorations in GA4: Use funnels, segments, and pathing to follow behavior through the site.

• Cohorts and LTV: Compare new customer LTV by campaign to find scalable acquisition.

• Experimentation: Run A/B tests on key drop-offs and measure RPV, not just CR.

Team alignment and ownership

Assign clear owners. Marketing owns weekly reporting on channel performance; Product owns funnel experiments; Finance validates margins. A short, shared glossary keeps the whole team honest about definitions and time windows.

Practical example

Reporting shows ROAS fell on a Meta campaign. Analytics reveals that although first-order ROAS decreased, the cohort’s 60-day LTV is strong thanks to a replenishable product. Decision: keep spend steady, adjust creatives for higher AOV, and build a post-purchase flow to accelerate the second order.

Takeaway

Reporting tells the story so far; analytics decides the next chapter. Build both layers, give them clear owners, and review them on a steady cadence.

Want both layers without the chaos? Try Peasy at peasy.nu — simple reporting, practical analytics, and decisions you can act on.