Diagnose a sales drop
When a revenue tile on Brand Overview shows a drop, this walkthrough takes you from the headline number to the underlying cause — channel, product, or attribution.
Starting condition
Section titled “Starting condition”- A revenue metric (Net Sales, Gross Sales, or similar) on Brand Overview is showing a negative percentage change vs the comparison period.
- The drop is large enough to warrant investigation (typically 5% or more on stable-volume metrics, or larger on smaller bases).
Step-by-step
Section titled “Step-by-step”-
Confirm the drop is real, not a definitional artifact. Click the ℹ️ icon on the affected tile. Note the metric’s date anchor (creation date vs closed date, etc.). Compare against Shopify Admin or the relevant source platform for the same date range and date anchor.
If the source platform agrees, the drop is real. If not, see Why numbers don’t match.
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Check for a sync issue. Open the Data panel (top-right). Confirm the ecommerce datasource is Connected with a recent timestamp. Stale or disconnected sources can make a real drop look worse than it is.
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Switch to the DTC dashboard in Explore. Confirm the same drop on the larger header tile. The Explore version usually has more breakdown options than Brand Overview’s tile.
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Read the trend chart for timing. Is the drop a single-day event (suggests a campaign change, outage, or promo end) or gradual (suggests structural — pricing, product mix, audience)?
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Open the drilldown panel. Rank products by Gross Sales descending. Compare against the previous period:
- One product or a small set dropped sharply → likely a stockout, listing issue, or pricing change. Cross-check against inventory.
- Broad drop across products → look at traffic or paid efficiency next.
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If broad: open the Paid Media dashboard in Explore → Acquisition. Did spend drop? Did efficiency drop while spend held? Did one platform underperform?
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If still unclear: open Site Traffic (Explore → Site Traffic). Did sessions drop? Did conversion rate drop? Site Traffic plus Paid Media usually tells you whether the issue is traffic or conversion.
Typical findings and what they mean
Section titled “Typical findings and what they mean”| Finding | Likely cause | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Top product fell sharply, others held | Stockout, listing change, or pricing change | Check inventory, listing health |
| Multiple products down, traffic flat | Conversion-rate issue (price, site experience) | Compare conversion rate week over week |
| Multiple products down, traffic also down | Channel mix or paid efficiency drop | Open Paid Media dashboard |
| Spend held, conversions dropped | Attribution change or audience saturation | Compare platform vs GA4 view |
| Spend dropped (in your control) | Budget pull or paused campaigns | Confirm with ad platform team |
Common questions
Section titled “Common questions”The drop is exactly aligned with the previous period start. What does that mean?
A promo or campaign ended at that boundary. Confirm against your promotional calendar.
The drop only appears in one Ignyte IQ view, not Shopify.
Likely a date-anchor or definitional difference. See Why numbers don’t match and Shopify Sales vs Order closed date.
The percentage looks huge but absolute numbers are small.
Small-base swings produce dramatic percentages. Read absolute values alongside deltas.