Card Types — What Each Metric Tracks

Card Types — What Each Metric Tracks

Card types are the pre-built templates you pick when adding a card. Each type connects to a specific area of your Shopify store data and comes pre-configured with sensible defaults.

Available Card Types

AOV note: AOV cards use SHOW net_sales, orders. dashboardSMASHBOARD calculates AOV as net_sales ÷ orders automatically when both fields are present.

Inventory Health note: This card type uses Shopify's Admin API directly — not SmashGL. Low-stock and critical thresholds are configurable per card.

Legacy card types: Older dashboards may contain Orders Tracker (Gauge) and Revenue Monitor (Gauge) cards. These are still supported but for new dashboards, use the Orders or Revenue card type with a goal configured — they are more capable.

Common Ecommerce Goals by Category

The following tables show 50+ common goals for Shopify stores, grouped by category. For each goal: the recommended card type, visualization, time window, goal type, and a minimal SmashGL query.

How to read this section:

• Viz — recommended visualization (Metric, Sparkline, Chart, Gauge, Badge, Table)
• Window — the time period that best fits the goal
• Goal type — Absolute (hit a fixed number) or Relative (grow by a %)
• Key SmashGL — a minimal working query showing the GOAL, SOURCE, and SMASH clauses

Namespace note: Examples use SmashGL's shopify.* shorthand (e.g. shopify.sales.net_sales AS revenue). Raw ShopifyQL from Shopify Analytics uses plain field names without that prefix (e.g. net_sales). Both work in the SOURCE clause.

Revenue Goals

Revenue is usually the primary OKR. Use Metric when you want the goal progress bar front and centre. Use Gauge for long-term fixed targets where the arc fill is the message. Use Sparkline when daily momentum matters.

Order Volume Goals

Order count is a leading indicator for revenue and easier to act on during a promotional period.

Average Order Value (AOV) Goals

AOV measures upsell and bundle effectiveness. A rising AOV with flat order count means more revenue per customer.

Gross Profit, COGS & Margin Goals

Prerequisite: The gross_profit and cost_of_goods_sold fields are only populated if you have cost of goods (COGS) entered in Shopify for your products (Products → variant cost). If values return zero, configure COGS in your Shopify product catalog first.

Goal 53 — COGS as a lower-is-better metric: Add DIRECTION lower (or use reduce cost by X%) to invert the Status bands. A COGS that drops vs. last period is good — the Trend pill turns green when costs fall and red when they rise.

Traffic & Session Goals

Store sessions measure top-of-funnel health. Running ads? Session trend tells you if the spend is working day by day.

Items Sold Goals

Items sold is a good proxy for product volume and unit economics. A rising items-sold count with flat revenue signals decreasing AOV.

Goal 33 tip: Use the product's launch date as the window start. The Gauge fills toward your target as units accumulate since day one.

Top Product Goals

Top Products answers "which ones?" rather than "how much?" Table is the only appropriate visualization for all of these goals because the query returns multiple ranked rows.

Tip: Run goals 35 and 36 side by side. The 90-day table shows your established best sellers; the 14-day table shows which new products are gaining traction fastest.

Seasonal & Campaign Goals

Fixed date ranges are the key tool for seasonal and campaign tracking. The card shows live data while the campaign is running, then freezes when it ends.

Goal 40 (BFCM Gauge) vs Goal 39 (BF Metric): Use Gauge for the full BFCM weekend to see the arc fill across the 4-day total. Use Metric for Black Friday specifically because you also want to compare vs. last Black Friday — Metric's vs-prior comparison pill delivers that; Gauge does not.

Operational & Retention Signals

Some goals are about maintaining health rather than growing. The right frame is often "don't fall below X" or "watch for unexpected drops."

Goal 48 tip: A +0% relative goal against previousYear is a "don't lose ground" OKR — the Alert goes red if you fall below last year's pace, amber when you're close, and green when you're ahead.

Turning a ShopifyQL Query into a Goal Card

If you already use Shopify Analytics and have reports you check manually, you can turn any of them into a live goal card in a few steps.

Step 1 — Copy your query from Shopify Analytics

In your Shopify admin, go to Analytics → Reports, open a report, and copy the ShopifyQL query body:

FROM sales
SHOW net_sales, gross_sales, orders
SINCE -30d UNTIL today

Step 2 — Open the Code tab on a new card

Add a card to any dashboard and switch immediately to the Code tab.

Step 3 — Paste into SOURCE and add a SMASH line

Plain field names work without the shopify.* namespace:

SOURCE    net_sales, gross_sales, orders
          FROM sales
          SINCE -30d UNTIL today
SMASH metric TITLED "Revenue (test)"

Save the card. If a number appears, the query is returning data.

Step 4 — Add a GOAL clause

GOAL      hit net_sales to >= $50,000 over last 30 days
SOURCE    net_sales, gross_sales, orders
          FROM sales
          SINCE -30d UNTIL today
SMASH metric WITH alert TITLED "Monthly Revenue"

Step 5 — Switch to a calendar window (recommended)

Replace the rolling SINCE -30d UNTIL today with a SmashGL calendar window to unlock Forecast and Time Left:

GOAL      hit net_sales to >= $50,000 this month
SOURCE    net_sales, gross_sales, orders
          FROM sales
SMASH metric WITH alert, forecast TITLED "Monthly Revenue"

Step 6 — Add flags to complete the card

GOAL      hit net_sales to >= $50,000 this month
SOURCE    net_sales, gross_sales, orders
          FROM sales
SMASH metric WITH alert, forecast, gap, trend TITLED "Monthly Revenue"

The card now shows: hero number · OKR goal statement · progress bar · vs-prior Trend pill · Forecast band · Gap to goal · Time Left.

OKR Dashboard Layout Patterns

Monthly OKR layout — your 3–5 most important Key Results on one dashboard with "This month" windows:

1. Revenue (Metric) — monthly target with OKR progress bar
2. Orders (Metric) — monthly order count goal
3. AOV (Metric or Gauge) — average order value target
4. Store Sessions (Metric) — traffic target

Growth Tracking layout — rolling windows that give a continuous read on momentum:

1. Revenue (Sparkline, 30d) — is the trend accelerating?
2. Orders (Sparkline, 14d) — daily order velocity
3. Sessions (Sparkline, 30d) — traffic trend with smoothing

Year-in-Review layout — long-horizon targets for annual planning:

1. Revenue (Gauge, this year) — annual revenue target arc
2. Gross Profit (Gauge, this year) — annual profit target arc
3. Orders (Metric, this year, compare previous year) — YoY order volume
4. Top Products (Table, this year) — which products drove the year

Still need help? Open a support case