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Reporting for a Gulf online store: the numbers to check every week

A short list of weekly numbers with Shopify's own definitions, the Gulf extras such as cash on delivery and three-decimal currencies, and a one-page report layout.

ESTASOFT
11 min read
Off white cover with four rising bars in green and black, with the title A weekly report for your store
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      Most store owners open their analytics when something looks wrong, by which time the problem may be weeks old. A short page read at the same time each week, built from the same definitions, catches problems earlier and ends arguments about what a number means.

      This article gives a short list of weekly numbers with the definitions Shopify's Help Center uses, then what a Gulf store needs on top: cash on delivery, returns, three-decimal currencies, time zones and seasons. It ends with a one-page layout and the question each part answers. Pages were read on 4 November 2026, and the example numbers are made up.

      The core numbers and what they mean

      Shopify's page on analytics fields defines these. Agree on them first, so everyone reads each number the same way.

      • Sessions. Visits to your online store. Shopify's page says they count only when visitors consent to cookies through your banner, so a low count can point to a banner problem. A session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.
      • Conversion rate. Sessions that completed checkout, divided by all sessions. Bot traffic can make the rate look lower.
      • Average order value. Gross sales minus discounts, divided by orders.
      • Returning customer rate. Customers who ordered and had bought before, divided by all customers who ordered.
      • Orders. Orders placed. Returns also create order records, so filter by order status when you count.
      • Net sales. Gross sales minus discounts minus sales reversals. Total sales adds shipping, taxes, fees and duties on top.

      A made-up example: 5,000 sessions and 120 completed checkouts give a conversion rate of 2.4%. Gross sales of AED 36,000 less AED 3,000 of discounts, spread over 120 orders, give an average order value of AED 275.

      One change to note in your sessions history

      Shopify's changelog says a change to session measurement started on 21 September 2026, and the Help Center says the rollout ran from 21 to 23 September. The default sessions view now focuses on human visitors where a human or bot filter exists. Sessions, conversion rate, add-to-cart rate and bounce rate may look different. Orders, sales and customer counts are not affected. The changelog advises treating the new figures as a new baseline, so mark that date on your report. It says nothing about cookie consent, so read the consent line above as what the undated analytics fields page says on 4 November 2026.

      Why sales and payments reports differ on cash on delivery

      Shopify's Help Center lists cash on delivery as a manual payment option. It says orders using manual payments are marked unpaid (one section calls the status pending) until you mark them as paid after you receive the money. Its page on sales differences says gross sales include cancelled, pending and unpaid orders. Its finance reports page describes the payments reports as covering captured payments, broken down by method, gateway and order, and lists no report of unpaid payments.

      So a store with many cash orders can show healthy sales and thin payments at the same time. The gap is cash that is still with the courier, refused, or not yet marked. Shopify's pages do not define a failed delivery number, so you define your own. Track these every week:

      • Cash on delivery share. Cash orders divided by all orders. Example: 54 of 120 orders is 45%.
      • Unpaid cash orders by age. Pick your own cut-offs, such as one week and two weeks.
      • Failed deliveries. Orders the courier could not deliver or the customer refused, as a count and a share of dispatched orders. Tag them so you can count them.
      • Cash awaiting remittance. Money collected by the courier but not yet paid to you. Ask each courier how often it pays you and what file it sends. Do not assume a schedule.
      • Returns and refunds. Shopify's sales discrepancies page says returns appear in sales reports and refunds in the payments finance report, so the two can differ in the same week. Report returned items and refunds paid as separate lines.

      The overview dashboard page names orders delivered and delivery speed as examples of fulfilment insights but does not define them. Ask how delivery status reaches Shopify, by hand or from courier tracking, before you trust those cards. For the Iraqi case, see selling online in Iraq with cash on delivery. For automating the matching, see cash on delivery reconciliation.

      Currencies with three decimals

      SIX's ISO 4217 List One, published on 17 September 2026, assigns three minor units to the Kuwaiti dinar (KWD), the Bahraini dinar (BHD) and the Omani rial (OMR). It assigns three to the Iraqi dinar (IQD) too. The UAE dirham, Saudi riyal and Qatari rial have two.

      This matters because some systems keep money as a whole number of the smallest unit. For a three-decimal currency, 7.250 becomes 7,250. A system that assumes two decimals would produce 725, and a system expecting three decimals would read that as 0.725, ten times too small. Shopify's currency formatting page gives a two-decimal example and does not mention three-decimal currencies. Its supported currencies page covers Shopify Payments only: it lists AED, SAR and QAR and does not list KWD, BHD, OMR or IQD. Ask your payment provider which currencies it accepts, how it sends amounts and how it writes Iraqi dinar amounts. Then run this test:

      1. Place a test order for an item priced with three decimals, using your payment provider's test mode if it has one.
      2. Compare the amount in the cart, at checkout, in the order email, in the admin, in your payment provider's dashboard and in an exported file opened in a spreadsheet.
      3. Add up one week of orders and compare the total with the payment provider's total for the same week.

      If you show several currencies, say which one the weekly page uses. The overview dashboard can show cards in a currency other than the store currency, and it converts each transaction at the historical rate for its day. For choosing a store currency in Kuwait, see a Shopify store in Kuwait.

      Time zones, weekends and seasons

      Time zones move orders between days. In Shopify you set the store time zone under Settings, General, Store defaults, though the page does not say what it affects. In Google Analytics, the reporting time zone decides which day a visit is recorded on, and a change applies only to future data and can cause a spike or flat spot. Shopify's page on differences with other tools lists reporting time zones among the reasons numbers disagree. Set both tools to the zone your team works in, write it on the report, and avoid changing it mid-year.

      Do your couriers, your bank and your payment provider all work the same days? Ask each one, and flag short weeks on your report so a quiet week does not look like a problem. This article did not open an official source on weekend days, so it states none.

      For comparisons, Shopify's time range options include the previous period and the previous year. Rolling ranges include the current period by default, and you can switch that off with the "include current period" setting. Ramadan, Eid and sales seasons may fall on different dates each year, so compare the same phase of the season, not the same calendar week, and note the dates on the report. The Ramadan and Eid 2027 checklist covers expected dates and why they can move.

      Arabic and English side by side

      Shopify's behaviour reports include sessions by landing page and searches with no results. Its Help Center page does not describe a report split by language. Ask your developer how Arabic and English pages are told apart, for example by a different address pattern, so the landing page report can separate them. Then compare sessions, conversion rate and average order value by language. A big gap is a question to investigate, such as layout, translation or search in Arabic, not a conclusion. Arabic and English on one store covers the set-up.

      For traffic sources, Shopify's marketing reports group visits as direct, search, email, social or unknown. Its channel report describes last non-direct click as the default model. Its sales attributed to marketing report covers only traffic you can tie to your own campaigns, such as links tagged with UTM parameters, and the page says its totals can differ from other reports. The page also notes a September 2026 change (the channel report now includes all store traffic) and an 18 October 2026 change to referring channel and medium values, so mark both dates on your report. Tag every campaign link. Ad tracking for a Gulf store looks at why numbers differ between tools.

      A one-page weekly report

      Use the same order every week, with one owner. Each block answers one question.

      1. Header. Week dates, time zone, currency, and a note for anything that changes comparisons, such as a short week, the 21 September 2026 session change or the 18 October 2026 channel change. Question: are these numbers comparable?
      2. Sales. Orders, net sales and average order value, against last week and against the same phase last year. Question: did we sell more, and was it more orders or bigger baskets?
      3. Traffic. Sessions, conversion rate, and the funnel from sessions to cart to checkout to completed checkout. Question: where do shoppers drop out?
      4. Customers. New customers and returning customer rate. Question: are repeat buyers growing?
      5. Channels. Sessions and orders by marketing channel and campaign. Question: which channel brought orders, and which only brought visits?
      6. Cash and payments. Cash on delivery share, unpaid cash orders by age, failed deliveries, cash awaiting remittance, payments captured against sales. Question: how much of our sales is money in hand?
      7. Returns and refunds. Returned items and refunds paid. Question: is one product or one courier driving returns?
      8. Language. Arabic and English sessions, conversion rate and average order value. Question: does one language convert worse?
      9. Notes and decision. One line on events such as a sale, Eid or a courier delay, and one decision for next week. Question: what changed, and what will we do about it?

      Print the definitions at the bottom of the page, so it settles any argument about a figure. Fill the report by hand for a few weeks and agree the definitions before anyone builds a dashboard. If you want a dashboard later, data and reporting is the place to start.

      These figures are for managing the business. Ask your accountant which figures to use in your books and tax returns. This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rules or ask a qualified adviser before you decide.

      If you would like help with this, ESTASOFT offers data and reporting. Send a short brief on the contact page. A related read is cash on delivery reconciliation.

      Sources

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      ESTASOFT

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