How to build a Google Sheets Shopify sales dashboard

A great Shopify sales dashboard should feel less like a static report and more like a live cockpit for your store. Below are three practical paths to get there—from fully manual to fully automated with an AI computer agent—so you can choose the right level for your team today and grow into the next.## 1. Manual ways to build a Shopify sales dashboard### Method 1: Use Shopify’s native Analytics dashboard1. Log into your admin and open **Analytics > Dashboard**. Official overview: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard2. Pick a time range that matches how you run the business (yesterday, last 7 days, MTD, etc.).3. Pin the most important cards: **Total sales**, **Sales by channel**, **Sales by product**, **Sessions by device/country**, and **Online store conversion rate**.4. Remove cards you rarely act on to reduce noise.5. Save this as your default view and make it the first thing your team checks in standups.**Pros:** Fast, no setup, built into Shopify, real-time. **Cons:** Limited customization, difficult to blend with marketing or finance data, hard to share beyond screenshots.### Method 2: Export Shopify sales to CSV and analyze in Google Sheets1. In Shopify, go to **Analytics > Reports**: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/report-types2. Open a core sales report such as **Sales over time** or **Sales by product**.3. Click **Export** and choose CSV. (For orders you can also use **Orders > Export**: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/export-orders)4. In Google Sheets, create a new spreadsheet and import the CSV via **File > Import > Upload**. Docs: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/406085. Clean your data: ensure dates are in the right format, remove unused columns, and standardize currency.6. Build summary tables with formulas like `SUMIFS`, `COUNTIFS`, and `QUERY` to calculate revenue by channel, AOV, and refund rate.7. Insert charts (line charts for revenue over time, bar charts for top products, pie charts for sales by country) and arrange them into a dashboard tab.**Pros:** Full flexibility; you can create any metric or visualization; easy to share. **Cons:** Manual exports become a time sink; prone to version chaos; no real-time updates.### Method 3: Refresh a weekly performance deck from Sheets1. Create one **Dashboard** tab in Sheets with all KPIs—total revenue, AOV, conversion rate, CAC (if you add ad spend), and refunds.2. Link your charts into a Google Slides deck using **Insert > Chart > From Sheets** so slides auto-refresh. Docs: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/75633273. Every Monday, repeat the CSV export from Shopify, overwrite the raw data sheet, and let formulas/charts update.4. Review trends with your team, annotating notable spikes or drops directly on the slides.**Pros:** Great storytelling for stakeholders; keeps everyone aligned. **Cons:** Still manual; if you forget to refresh data, decisions get made on stale numbers.## 2. No-code automation with connectorsWhen weekly exports start to eat hours, it’s time to connect Shopify to Google Sheets automatically using no-code tools.### Method 4: Use a Shopify–Sheets connector or ETL tool(Example: tools like Coupler.io or similar; pick one you trust.)1. Sign up for a connector that supports both Shopify and Google Sheets.2. Connect your **Shopify store** using an API key or app credentials (follow the tool’s guided flow and Shopify’s API access rules: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/apps/app-types/custom-apps).3. Connect your **Google Sheets** account and select a target spreadsheet and tab.4. Choose the Shopify resource you want (Orders, Products, Transactions) and map fields you care about: order date, total price, discount codes, channel, customer country.5. Set an automatic refresh schedule—every hour or every day at 6 a.m.6. In Sheets, build your dashboard on top of the synced data tab, using formulas and charts as before.**Pros:** Always-fresh data, no CSVs, keeps using familiar Sheets UI, great for small teams. **Cons:** Limited to what the connector exposes; transformations may be basic without more advanced tooling.### Method 5: Combine Shopify Analytics with Google Sheets formulas1. Use Shopify’s built-in reports to validate your metrics and definitions: e.g., compare **Sales over time** in Shopify with the same metric in Sheets.2. In Sheets, use advanced functions like `QUERY` and `ARRAYFORMULA` (docs: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093343) to build reusable KPIs: cohorts, repeat orders by month, discount impact.3. Add conditional formatting to flag anomalies—e.g., if conversion rate drops more than 20% week over week, highlight the cell red.4. Lock formula cells and protect ranges to avoid accidental edits by the team: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/1218656**Pros:** Powerful and still mostly no-code; easier quality checks against Shopify’s own analytics. **Cons:** Sheets logic can get complex; someone must be the dashboard owner.## 3. At-scale automation with an AI computer agentAt some point, you don’t just need data; you need a digital operator—an AI computer agent that can click through Shopify, open Google Sheets, and run the entire workflow end to end.### Method 6: Let an AI agent maintain your daily Shopify–Sheets dashboard1. Configure your AI agent (for example, via Simular Pro) with secure access to your Mac, Shopify admin, and Google account.2. Record or describe the workflow once: log in to Shopify, open **Analytics > Reports**, export a specific sales report, clean the download, then open your dashboard spreadsheet and paste or append new rows.3. Instruct the agent to check that totals in Sheets match the Shopify dashboard for the same date range.4. Schedule this task to run every morning and have the agent email or Slack a link to the updated dashboard.**Pros:** Eliminates repetitive computer work; uses your existing tools; every step is transparent and inspectable. **Cons:** Requires one-time setup and testing; you must manage credentials and access carefully.### Method 7: AI agent for anomaly detection and narrative insights1. Extend the workflow so the agent not only updates data but also scans key metrics—revenue, conversion rate, AOV, sessions by channel.2. Have it compare today versus the 7-day average. If any metric moves beyond a defined threshold, the agent adds a comment in Sheets and drafts a short narrative summary for your team.3. Optionally, the agent can open Shopify’s detailed reports (e.g., **Sales by discount**, **Sales by product**) to pinpoint the likely cause and paste those findings into a “Notes” tab.**Pros:** Turns raw numbers into stories and alerts; reduces time from data to decision. **Cons:** More complex prompts; you’ll want to periodically audit its comments.By layering these approaches—starting with native Shopify analytics, then adding automatic data sync to Google Sheets, and finally delegating the busywork to an AI computer agent—you move from manually stitching reports to running a self-updating sales cockpit that truly supports scale.