Preset eCommerce reports in Google Universal Analytics are compelling, but they do not give you all the data you need at a glance. For that, you need a custom dashboard.

To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of an online store, you need to track the following data:

Based on a custom summary report of a kind, you can get all the information on what is happening with the shop daily in a couple of minutes, with all the data collected on a single page.

To set up a report for your online store, log in to Google Universal Analytics, go to Customization -> Dashboards, and hit the red Create button.

You will be given the option to choose between Blank Canvas (a custom dashboard of your choice) and Starter Dashboard (a Google Analytics preset). Also, you can import a dashboard from a Google Analytics Solutions Gallery.

To create a custom report that will track the stats on the parameters specified above, choose Blank Canvas, name a dashboard, and hit the "Create Dashboard" button.

You will see a screen of the kind:

Each dashboard has space for 12 different widgets. Each widget displays a specific data set of your choosing.

To create a widget, name it and choose the widget type - standard or real-time. Standard widgets reflect data for the selected time interval, while real-time widgets show live data. Both standard and real-time widgets categorize into types:

If you choose a table type, do mind that the maximum number of rows is ten, and the maximum number of columns is three. If there are more rows in the table, it displays the first ten rows sorted by the first metric.

Then choose a metric for the widget in the drop-down. If necessary, you can add a filter to the metric. Once you hit Save, this widget will be added to your dashboard.

You will get a screen of this kind when the creation of the widgets completes. If you want to edit the widgets, click on them.

You can also create custom sessions for your dashboard by clicking on Add Segment.

By default, Google Universal Analytics shows data from All Sessions, i.e., it will initially show you all traffic, regardless of the source. You can change this to only show data to your liking, whether it's new visitors, paid traffic, organic traffic, mobile traffic, etc.

Choose the dates in the top right corner to create a report for a certain period.

To change the widget's layout, hit the "Customize Dashboard" button. Your options will be as follows:

Once a dashboard is set, you can schedule how often reports are sent to your inbox: daily, weekly, or monthly. Use the Email button for this purpose.

You need to set up the frequency and type in your email address. Using advanced options, you can also limit the duration to get the reports — from one to 12 months.

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