# Analytics Dashboards -- Reports and Insights

The Analytics section in BuyerKiosk provides a suite of interactive dashboards that help store owners and managers understand performance trends, optimize operations, and make data-driven decisions.

**Category:** Analytics & Reports
**Audience:** Store Owners, Managers
**Last Updated:** 2026-02-11

---

## Accessing Analytics

Navigate to **Admin > Analytics** for any store. The URL follows the pattern:

```
/admin/{storeCode}/analytics/
```

You must have `Dashboard` access permissions and be assigned to the store to view analytics data. The base analytics URL redirects to the Inventory dashboard by default.

---

## Available Dashboards

BuyerKiosk Analytics includes six specialized dashboards, each focused on a different aspect of store performance:

| Dashboard | URL Path | Focus Area |
|-----------|----------|------------|
| **Inventory Analytics** | `/analytics/inventory` | Velocity, momentum, days-to-sale |
| **P&L Dashboard** | `/analytics/financial` | Sales, margins, returns, year-over-year |
| **Seller Retention** | `/analytics/retention` | New vs returning sellers, cohort analysis |
| **Wait Time Analysis** | `/analytics/waittime` | Queue wait times, NPS correlation, staffing |
| **Peer Comparison** | `/analytics/stores` | Cross-store benchmarking and ranking |
| **Brand Pricing Health** | `/analytics/pricing` | Price optimization by brand and subcategory |

Each dashboard has its own navigation links so you can move between them easily.

---

## Inventory Analytics

The Inventory Analytics dashboard is the default landing page. It uses a draggable, resizable panel layout with four main sections:

### KPI Summary Cards

Four cards across the top provide at-a-glance metrics:

- **Avg Days to Sale** -- The average number of days items take to sell. Lower is better.
- **Items Sold** -- Total number of items sold in the selected period.
- **Avg Margin** -- The average dollar margin earned per item sold.
- **Active Categories** -- The number of product categories with tracked momentum, along with bullish/bearish signal counts.

### Velocity Distribution Chart

A color-coded column chart showing how many items fall into each days-to-sale bucket:

| Bucket | Color | Meaning |
|--------|-------|---------|
| 0-7 days | Dark green | Fast sellers |
| 8-14 days | Green | Quick movers |
| 15-30 days | Light green | Average pace |
| 31-60 days | Yellow | Slow movers |
| 61-90 days | Orange | Very slow |
| 91-180 days | Red | Stale inventory |
| 180+ days | Dark red | Aged inventory |

Hover over any bar to see the item count and average margin for that bucket.

### Category Momentum Grid

A grid of cards showing each product category's momentum signal. Categories are sorted by signal strength:

- **Hot** -- Strong bullish momentum (accelerating sales)
- **Rising** -- Bullish momentum
- **Stable** -- Neutral
- **Cooling** -- Bearish momentum (decelerating sales)
- **Cold** -- Strong bearish momentum

### Category Performance Heatmap

A full-width heatmap that visually maps each category's performance change. Colors range from blue (declining) through gray (stable) to orange (growing). Hover over any cell to see the category name, signal type, percentage change, and item count.

### Recent Signals

A timeline of the most recent momentum crossover events -- when categories shift from accelerating to decelerating or vice versa.

---

## P&L Dashboard (Financial)

The P&L Dashboard provides a comprehensive profit-and-loss view with four sections:

### Summary KPI Cards

Four cards at the top display:

- **Gross Sales** -- Total sales before returns
- **Net Sales** -- Sales after returns are subtracted
- **Gross Margin** -- Dollar amount of profit (net sales minus cost of goods)
- **Return Rate** -- Percentage of gross sales that were returned

Each card shows a year-over-year variance indicator (up/down arrow with percentage) when prior-year data is available.

### Year-over-Year Comparison Table

A detailed table comparing current period metrics to the same period last year:

| Metric | What It Shows |
|--------|--------------|
| Gross Sales | Total revenue comparison |
| Net Sales | Revenue after returns |
| Gross Margin | Profit dollars |
| Margin Rate | Profit as a percentage of net sales |
| Return Rate | Returns as a percentage of gross sales |
| Transactions | Total transaction count |

Each row shows this year's value, last year's value, the dollar/point variance, and the percentage change. Green indicates improvement; red indicates decline. For Return Rate, a decrease is shown in green since lower returns are better.

### Trend Charts

Two side-by-side charts:

- **Return Rate Trend** -- A line chart showing monthly return rate with a 3-month moving average overlay.
- **Weekly Margin Trend** -- A combination chart with gross margin as columns and margin percentage as a line on the secondary axis.

### Buys-to-Sales Ratio Trend

A combination chart showing daily sales count (blue columns), daily buy count (orange columns), and the B/S ratio as a purple line. The Financial Insights panel alongside it summarizes transaction count, buy count, average B/S ratio, total returns, and margin rate.

---

## Seller Retention

The Seller Retention dashboard tracks how well your store retains sellers who bring in merchandise:

- **New Sellers** -- First-time sellers in the period
- **Returning Sellers** -- Sellers who have sold to you before
- **Avg Visits/Seller** -- How often each seller comes back
- **Avg Containers/Visit** -- Average items brought per visit

The dashboard includes a New vs Returning pie chart and a cohort retention analysis.

---

## Wait Time Analysis

This dashboard helps you understand customer wait times and their impact on satisfaction:

- **Avg Wait** -- Average wait time in minutes
- **Peak Wait** -- The longest wait time recorded
- **NPS Correlation** -- How wait time correlates with customer satisfaction scores
- **Total Buys** -- Number of buy transactions processed
- **Peer Percentile** -- How your wait time compares to similar stores

The dashboard features a wait time heatmap by day and hour, helping you identify the busiest times and plan staffing accordingly.

---

## Peer Comparison

The Peer Comparison dashboard lets you benchmark your store's performance against similar stores. Privacy is preserved -- you only see anonymized peer averages, never individual store data.

### Comparison Groups

You can compare against three peer groups:

- **Same Concept** -- Stores of the same type/brand
- **Revenue Tier** -- Stores in a similar revenue bracket
- **Volume Tier** -- Stores processing a similar number of transactions

### Summary Cards

Three comparison cards show your store vs the peer average for:

- **Daily Revenue** -- With a percentile rank bar
- **Daily Buys** -- With a percentile rank bar
- **Wait Time** -- With a percentile rank bar (lower is better)

Percentile labels indicate your standing: "Top X%" for high performers, "Above Average," "Below Average," or "Bottom X%" for areas needing improvement.

### Detailed Metrics Grid

A full breakdown comparing your store to peers across all tracked metrics including average daily revenue, total revenue, average daily buys, average purchase amount, wait time, NPS score, and daily customer count.

> **Tip:** Use the Peer Comparison dashboard during weekly manager meetings to identify areas where your store can improve relative to similar locations.

---

## Brand Pricing Health

The Pricing dashboard analyzes how your pricing by brand and subcategory affects sell-through rates:

- **Brand/Subcat Combos** -- Total tracked brand-subcategory combinations
- **Overpriced** -- Combos where pricing is hurting velocity
- **Opportunities** -- Fast-selling combos with good margins
- **Healthy %** -- Percentage of combos with balanced pricing

---

## Date Range Controls

Every dashboard includes a `Date Range` dropdown in the header with these preset options:

| Preset | Period |
|--------|--------|
| Last 7 Days | Rolling 7-day window |
| Last 30 Days | Rolling 30-day window (default for most dashboards) |
| Last 90 Days | Rolling 90-day window (default for Retention and Pricing) |
| Year to Date | January 1 through today |

Select a preset and the dashboard reloads automatically. You can also click the `Refresh` button to force a data refresh at any time.

---

## Data Sources and Freshness

Analytics data is sourced from your store's transaction records, buy queue, and close-of-day sales reports. Key points about data freshness:

- Dashboard data is cached for 30-60 seconds to keep pages responsive
- Financial data relies on closed sales reports, so today's data may be partial until end-of-day processing completes
- Momentum signals are calculated by periodic aggregation jobs
- Year-over-year comparisons require at least one year of historical data

---

## CSV Export

The Inventory Analytics dashboard supports CSV export for velocity report data. Look for the export endpoint at:

```
/api/{storeCode}/analytics/velocity/export
```

Additional export options may be available depending on your account configuration.

---

## Troubleshooting

### Dashboard shows "Loading..." indefinitely

- Verify you have an active internet connection
- Check that you are logged in and have Dashboard access permissions
- Try clicking the `Refresh` button
- Clear your browser cache and reload the page

### Charts show "No data available"

- Confirm the selected date range contains transaction data
- For new stores, data will begin populating after the first few days of operation
- Momentum and retention data require aggregation jobs to have run -- contact your administrator if these appear empty

### Year-over-Year comparison shows "No prior year data"

- YoY comparisons require sales data from the same date range one year ago
- If your store has been open for less than a year, this section will display a notice instead of comparison data

### Peer Comparison shows "Not enough peer data"

- At least 2 peer stores are needed for meaningful benchmarks
- If your store type has very few locations, some peer groups may be unavailable

---

## Related Articles

- [KPI Bar -- Performance Metrics](/support/articles/02-kpi-bar)
- [Trade Percentage and KPI Reports](/support/articles/trade-percentage-kpi-reports)
- [Workbook Overview](/support/articles/01-workbook-overview)