Template
The monthly business review template for e-commerce brands
Download the template (Excel) or a plain CSV
3 sheets: the scorecard with the change columns built in, the Kestrel example filled in, and where each number lives. Opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets.
No spreadsheet handy? The channel scorecard and export to scorecard fill the rows as you type or paste. The free monthly business review writes the same exports up, and the omnichannel sales dashboard template tracks more than 2 channels month to month. Reporting on several brands for clients? The monthly client report template adds a portfolio page across them.
Part 1
The 5 sections, in this order
Do this first
- Download the template and save a copy named for the month.
- Write the headline: one sentence on the whole business, with the number.
- Fill the scorecard against the same month last year.
- Give every action an owner and a date before you close the file.
| Section | What goes in | Example or test |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | One sentence on the whole business, with the number | "Net revenue grew 11.3% while Amazon fell 20.8%" is a headline. "Mixed month" isn't. |
| Scorecard | The same 10 or so rows, this month against the same month last year | Part 2 lists them and where each lives |
| What moved and why | The 2 or 3 rows that moved most, each with the confirmed cause or the check that will confirm it | Split into traffic, conversion and order value first |
| Actions | Each with an owner and a date | An action with no owner shows up on next month's page unchanged |
| Decisions needed | What the review can't settle alone, as a question with a recommendation | Moving ad budget between channels, or dropping a SKU |
- Amazon runs its weekly business review on a fixed set of metrics.1 Monthly works for a small brand, as long as every action has a name and a date.
- Every channel adds up before anyone explains one. 3 dashboards (Seller Central, Shopify and a wholesale sheet) tell 3 different stories until they sit on 1 page. The method behind it is the Growth Loop.
Part 2
The scorecard, and where each number lives
Do this first
| Row | Where it comes from | Why it's here |
|---|---|---|
| Net revenue, all channels | The sum of the rows below, after discounts and refunds | A falling channel can sit inside a growing business |
| Net revenue by channel | Amazon: Business Reports, Sales and Traffic by Date.3 Shopify: Analytics, Reports, Net sales by channel.4 Wholesale: your invoices or Faire orders export | Shows where growth came from, and how much of the business one channel holds |
| Traffic | Amazon sessions (Business Reports). Shopify sessions (Analytics) | The first branch of any sales change |
| Conversion | Amazon unit session percentage. Shopify conversion rate | The second branch |
| Order value | Amazon average selling price. Shopify average order value | The third branch, and where discounting shows up |
| Units | Amazon units ordered. Shopify net quantity | Separates a price change from a volume change |
| Discount rate | Shopify discounts divided by gross sales. Amazon coupons and deals spend | A growing channel can be buying its growth |
| Ad spend and return | Amazon Ads campaign reports. Meta and Google Ads | Budget moving between channels moves sales with it |
| In stock | Amazon Featured Offer (Buy Box) percentage and the FBA Inventory report5 | A stockout looks like a demand problem until you check |
| Rating and refunds | Amazon star rating and refund rate. Shopify sales reversals | The slowest-moving rows, and the hardest to win back |
- Amazon's Business Reports week runs Sunday to Saturday, Pacific time,2 so pull every channel on the same dates.
- Add contribution margin by channel once you have landed cost per SKU. Revenue alone can't say whether a channel move made money. How to work out profit by channel.
Part 3
A filled example: Kestrel grew 11.3% while Amazon fell 20.8%
Kestrel Kitchen is a fictional brand we built to show the report. It sells board oil and care kits on Amazon, Shopify, subscriptions and wholesale, and books wholesale through Shopify. These are the trailing 13 weeks to the end of September 2026 against the same weeks a year earlier. The full version is the sample report.
| Row | Trailing 13 weeks | Against last year |
|---|---|---|
| Net revenue, all channels | $160,318 | +11.3% |
| Amazon ordered product sales | $78,481 | -20.8% |
| Amazon sessions | 37,025 | -30.8% |
| Amazon unit session percentage | 12.41% | +129 bps |
| Amazon Featured Offer (Buy Box) percentage | 96.84% | -266 bps |
| Amazon star rating | 4.42 | -0.12 |
| Shopify net revenue, with wholesale booked in Shopify | $81,837 | +82.3% |
| Shopify orders | 3,810 | +78.0% |
| Shopify average order value | $21.48 | +2.4% |
| Shopify discount rate | 8.01% | -22 bps |
- Headline. The business grew 11.3% while Amazon fell 20.8%: $160,318 of net revenue over the trailing 13 weeks, with Amazon now 49.0% of it.
- What moved and why. Why did Amazon fall 20.8% while the business grew 11.3%? Demand moved, it didn't disappear. Amazon sessions fell 36.0% after the week of 2026-06-07 and Shopify orders rose 44.5% across the same weeks. Ad budget moving to the storefront fits both, and ad spend by channel settles it.
The diagnosis compares the weeks before and after 2026-06-07, so its percentages differ from the 13-week totals in the table.
Actions, first 3
- Send ad spend by channel and month for 2026-03 to 2026-09, Amazon Sponsored Products and paid social together. Kestrel, by 2026-10-09
- Export Shopify sessions by day for 2025-06 to 2026-09. Shopify > Analytics > Reports > Sessions over time. Kestrel, by 2026-10-09
- Read Board Cream and Care Kit reviews from 2026-03-01 onward. Sentopi's own review analysis, so nothing to send. Sentopi, by 2026-10-07
Part 4
4 mistakes that make a monthly review useless
Do this first
- Add every channel up before you read Amazon on its own.
- Set the baseline to the same month last year.
- Pick net or gross, and use it on every channel.
- Split a sales change into traffic, conversion and order value before you explain it.
- Reading channels one at a time. In the example, Amazon fell 20.8% and the business grew 11.3% over the same weeks. Selling on both Amazon and Shopify makes this the one to expect.
- Comparing only to last month. Amazon's Business Reports build in Same Week Last Year for this.2
- Mixing gross and net. Shopify's gross sales include pending, canceled and unpaid orders, and net sales take out discounts and sales reversals.4 Amazon's ordered product sales are price times units ordered, with refunds reported separately.2
- Explaining a number before splitting it. "Sales are down" has 3 different fixes. The Sales Drop Diagnostic does the split for Amazon in a minute.
Part 5
An Amazon monthly business review, if Amazon is your only channel
Do this first
- Open Business Reports, then Sales and Traffic by Date.3
- Pull this month and the same month last year.
- Copy the 6 fields below into the scorecard.
- Add star rating from the detail page and ad spend from Amazon Ads.
| Row | Business Reports field | What a move usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Ordered Product Sales | The headline, before refunds |
| Traffic | Sessions - Total | Rank, ads or a suppressed listing |
| Conversion | Unit Session Percentage | Price, images, reviews or the Buy Box |
| Order value | Average Selling Price | Coupons, deals or a mix shift between SKUs |
| Buy Box | Featured Offer (Buy Box) Percentage | A stockout, a price gap, or another seller taking the offer |
| Refunds | Refund Rate | A product or listing problem showing up late |
- Each field, and the 3 that mislead most, are in Amazon Business Reports, explained.
- Add Shopify or wholesale rows the day you sell there. Amazon's report can't tell you whether a drop left the business or moved to your own site, and in the Kestrel sample it moved.
Or send us 2 exports and we'll build the first one
The template is free and you can run it yourself. Or send us Amazon's Sales and Traffic by Date report and your Shopify orders export, and we'll build this month's review across every channel, with the causes checked and the actions ranked, the way the Kestrel sample is. The first month is free, and we never log in to your accounts.
Sources
- Bryar, C. and Carr, B. (2021). Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. St. Martin's Press. Chapter 6, on metrics and the weekly business review.
- Amazon Seller Central. Business reports glossary. Read October 7, 2026. Link
- Amazon Seller Central. Business reports. Read October 7, 2026. Link
- Shopify Help Center. Sales reports. Read October 7, 2026. Link
- Amazon Seller Central. FBA business reports. Read October 7, 2026. Link