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What is the Sales Trends report?

Reviewing how your sales change over time and protect your margin.

Sales Trends helps retailers understand how sales change over time across vendors, categories, products, and stores. It contains two trend reports: 

  1. Sales Trending – a flexible, continuous trend analysis over a custom date range.
  2. Trends by Period – a structured month‑over‑month or quarter‑over‑quarter view of sales data.

    Together, these tools help you spot patterns and make margin‑positive decisions. 

    Sales Trending 

    Sales Trending focuses on analyzing sale's trends over time. The chart can highlight trends based on vendors, categories, and/or products, helping you determine what is bringing in revenue or decreasing it:

    Some use cases for using this report include: 

    • Finding causes for increases and decreases in revenue.

    • Determining if the products being distributed need to be adjusted - are there low revenue products that can be replaced?

    ⚠️ Sales dollars are based on provided suggested retail price and may not reflect promotions, discounts, or other changes that are not provided.

    Filtering 

    Above the line graph on the right, use dropdown filters to tailor what you see. View sales based on a selection of Vendors, Categories, Products or an assortment of all 3. Review data from a specific date range using the Time Period filter; presets are available or a custom range can be set (e.g., September 1 through December 31). 

    💡 The Time Period filter defaults to displaying data from the last 3 months.

    On the left, all sales have been organized into lists that show all your categories, vendors, and products. You can use these as filters for the graph. Click individual boxes add or remove them as a filter, click Select All at the top left to include the list as filters, or click Clear All at the top right to remove them:

    💡 Options that have already been selected from the dropdowns above the graph will be indicated by a check-mark next to their name.

    After selecting a filter, the line graph on the right updates to show that data. Hover over the graph to view the sales trends for the selected filter: 

    The lists also provide a quick view into sales revenue. Categories, Vendors, and Products are all organized by highest to lowest sales. A total sales dollar amount is listed for each line-item, reflecting the revenue received in the selected time period. A mini-trend line is included to help you quickly assess sales performance without having to select the line-item:



    Trends By Period 

    The Trends by Period section helps you compare sales for a single month or quarter against the previous period and the same period the year prior.  

    • How did we perform this period? 
    • How does that compare to the previous period and the same period last year? 
    • Which vendors, categories, and locations drove the most revenue?

    Filtering

    Above the line graph, use the dropdown filters to refine your view. Analyze sales by specific retailers/stores, vendors, categories, products, or any combination of these filters. By default, the report displays the last completed period (month), which you can change using the Select Your Time Period filter:

    💡 The Time Period filter defaults to displaying data for the last month.

    Widget Guide 

    Widget 

    Description 

    Use Case 

    Monthly Trends Summary

    • Shows total sales for the selected period.

    • Also shows the sales dollars and percent change against the previous month/quarter, as well as the change from the same month/quarter from the previous year.  

    Review how sales have increased or declined and by how much (percentage change).

    Year‑to‑Date (YTD) Sales Summary 

    • Shows sales for the current year up until the time period selected and also compares them to the same period the year prior.  

    Monitor whether you are meeting your margins.

    Sales By Month/Quarter and Year (Bar Chart) 

    • A bar chart comparing the current year’s sales to the same period the year prior, segmented into months/quarters (based option chosen in Select Time Period filter). 

    • Hover over bars to see sales values and a comparison to the prior year. 

    Compare how the current period of sales compares to the previous period, or the prior year. 

    Year‑to‑Date (YTD) Sales (Line Chart) 

     

    • Line chart showing total sales through the selected period compared to the same period the year prior. 

    • Hover over lines to see sales values and a comparison to the prior year.  

    View how sales have progressed throughout the year.

    Year-to-Date Sales by Store Type 

    • A bar chart highlighting changes in sales dollars based on New Stores, Same Stores, or Closed/Missing Stores compared to the year prior. 

     

     

    Is sales growth coming from stores opening?

    Top 5 Vendor Trends 

    • Highlights vendors that drove the largest sales changes for the selected period versus the prior month or same month last year (can include either increases and decreases in sales).

    • Use the filter on the top right of the widget to compare the current period’s sales to previous period, or to the same period last year. 

    • Select View All Vendors to look at all vendor sales in table. 

    Focus on which vendors drive the largest gains or losses. 

    Top 5 Category Trends 

    • Same as Top 5 Vendor Trends, but for categories.  

    • Use the filter on the top right of the widget to compare the current period’s sales to previous period, or to the same period last year. 

    • Select View All Categories to look at all category and associated vendor sales in table. 

    Decide which categories need attention, and whether product assortment needs to be adjusted. 

    Sales Trends by Location 

    		 Shows sales changes by State or Store for the chosen period:
    • State view show's locations in the chosen state on the map that have the largest sales (can be either increases or decreases in sales). Zoom into the map to see store locations. 
    • Store displays locations of store’s in chosen state on the map, as well as the changes in sales for each store (increase or decrease in revenue). 
    • Use the filter on the top right of the widget to compare current period sales to the previous month/quarter or the same period last year. 
    • Select View All States or View All Stores to look at all locations and sales in a table.

    • Find regions or stores with the biggest sales declines and make inventory changes. 

    • Look into setting up more relationships in a certain area.