What is Total Sales?
Total Sales is a metric that measures the entire amount of revenue generated by your company over a given period of time. Increasing total sales is the ultimate goal of any ecommerce or retail company. Your total sales metric is calculated by taking the sum of your gross sales and subtracting all costs. Total Sales expressed as a formula: gross sales - discounts - returns + taxes + shipping charges.
Why is Total Sales important?
Total Sales is an important metric as it is a reflection of the overall success of your online store. Rather than the granularity you get with other metrics (think lifetime value, average order value, or other cohort metrics), Total Sales informs you on the larger trends for your overall revenue. If you have a quarterly goal for your Total Sales, you can monitor this metric month-by-month to make sure you are staying on track to hit those revenue goals. This is great for keeping track of your big-picture sales goals and initiatives along with reporting your overall store performance to investors and key stakeholders.