How to Track Shopify Sales by Collection (And Why It’s So Hard Without an App)

Running an ecommerce store should be easy, but when it comes to visualizing Shopify sales by collection, they are making it unnecessarily complicated. Whether you’re trying to analyze which product categories perform best, how many unique products exist per collection, or which items are overstocked, Shopify doesn’t give you a straightforward way to do this.

But don’t worry – I’m going to show you how you should be able to do it, despite Shopify’s limitations.

This process is very similar if you are interested in visualizing sub or main categories’ sales or product inventory in Shopify, but in this example I am just using Collections.

The Problem: Shopify’s Reporting Falls Short

If you’ve ever tried to get a clear visual of sales and stock levels by collection, you’ve probably realized that Shopify:

• Doesn’t offer a built-in “Sales by Collection” report
• Doesn’t provide an “Inventory by Collection” breakdown
• Doesn’t let you track unique products per collection in its default analytics

Instead, Shopify’s reporting focuses on individual products or overall store sales, leaving a huge gap for store owners who need a category-level or a collection view.

The workaround: Manually Extracting & Visualizing Data

Because Shopify doesn’t give us these insights natively, here’s how we can still get them – by exporting data and using Google Sheets, Looker Studio (Data Studio), Tableau, or Power BI.

Step 1: Export Product & Sales Data from Shopify

1. Export Your Product List:
   • Go to Products > All Products.
   • Click Export (top right).
   • Choose CSV for Excel, Numbers, or other spreadsheet programs.
   • Download it.
2. Export Your Sales Data:
   • Go to Analytics > Reports.
   • Find Sales by Product.
   • Click Export and download it as a CSV.
3. Open the CSV files in Google Sheets or Excel.

Step 2: Match Sales Data to Collections

Now, we need to link sales data to collections.

Option 1: If Your Product Export Contains Collections

If Shopify includes a Collections column in your product export, you’re in luck! Use VLOOKUP to connect sales and collection data:

=VLOOKUP(A2, ProductList!A:D, 3, FALSE)

• A2 = Product ID in Sales Sheet
• ProductList!A:D = Range from Product List
• 3 = Column containing Collection Name

Option 2: If Collections Are Missing (Common Issue)

If Shopify doesn’t include collections, like it didn’t when I tried to do this, you need to use Tags to categorize products manually:

• Insert a new column named “Collection”.
• Use Find & Replace to group products by collection.

Or, use a formula to assign collections based on tags:
=IF(SEARCH(“SummerCollection”, B2), “Summer Collection”,

  IF(SEARCH(“WinterSale”, B2), “Winter Sale”,

  IF(SEARCH(“NewArrivals”, B2), “New Arrivals”,  “Other”)))

Note: This formula will only give you the first Collection on the list and if your product is in multiple collections (“New Arrivals” and “Summer Collection”, for example) you would still only get the first Collection. And of course you will have to find all the matching Collections and Tags.

Note2: I could not combine the sales and the products (collections) between the two reports because for whatever reason, the Shopify sales report didn’t include the product ID or even the handle. I assume that you would need to install (and pay for) some app to get that data. Shopify is amazing, but they make some things really hard for the merchants.

Step 3: Build Visual Reports to See Shopify Sales by Collection

Now your sales data is linked to collections and you can create dashboards:

• Google Data Studio (Looker Studio): Connect Google Sheets & create bar/pie charts for sales by collection.
• Tableau: Load the cleaned dataset & use a Stacked Column Chart to compare sales & inventory per collection.
• Power BI: Use the Data Merge tool to join sales & collection data, then create a dashboard with filters for collections.

So, to recap: IF your Shopify account includes the collection data (mine didn’t) AND you have the time and knowhow to manually work the data, you do have a free option. But this isn’t something I recommend that you do.

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Why This Matters (and Why Shopify Should Fix It)

Without category-level insights, store owners can’t easily see which product categories are profitable and which are wasting inventory space.

Shopify could fix this by simply adding:

• A “Sales by Collection” default report.
• An Inventory Overview per Collection.
• A way to track unique products per collection.

Until then, you’re stuck with workarounds which are static, complex to set up, and still far from great.

Or… Just Use Portfolytics

If this all sounds like a hassle, that’s exactly why Portfolytics exists. Instead of wrestling with CSV exports, spreadsheets, formulas and BI tools, Portfolytics lets you:

• Visualize sales & unique product counts by Collection and categories in seconds.
• Compare product count vs. sales to spot overcrowded categories.
• Get product mix insights without manual data crunching.

Try Portfolytics today and make Shopify’s missing features… well, not missing anymore.