POS Data: Analyze Point-of-Sale Data for Growth (2026)

The same data-driven approach to growing an online store may not seem possible for your physical store. You can see how many sales you make each day, but how do you measure your retail store’s contributions to your brand’s overall growth without detailed retail POS data? 

Centralizing all sales channels, operations, back-end workflows, and customer-facing shopping experiences is a challenge for many retail business owners. “Each store and sales channel was operating in its own silo, which made it difficult for operations teams to make improvements,” says Corey Hnat, director of marketing at Pepper Palace. “Our systems didn’t speak to one another.”

Unified POS data eases this challenge. This guide shares how to use POS data to make smarter, data-driven decisions that grow your business, reduce costs, improve efficiency—and even suggest when and where to expand your retail footprint.

What is POS data?

POS data is collected by your POS software whenever you process a transaction at your retail store. This can include the products purchased, the customer’s payment method, the amount they’ve paid, and the associate who processed the transaction. 

Once you check out a customer, this data from that transaction feeds into several categories: inventory, sales, product, customer, and staff. Any type of POS data gives you a clearer view of how your store is performing. You can make better decisions about inventory, staffing, and customer experience. 

Tip: A leading independent research firm found Shopify POS delivers an additional 5% gross merchandise value (GMV) uplift, on average, through integrated inventory management, improved headquarters productivity, and enhanced marketing effectiveness. “Really it’s the one source of truth and that, in this business, is so incredibly valuable,” says Roxanne Stahl O’Hara, CEO of Alex Mill, in a Shopify Masters episode.

Types of POS data

• POS inventory data
• POS sales data
• POS product data
• POS customer data
• POS staff data
• POS payment data
• POS promotion and discount data
• POS returns and refunds data

There are different ways to unify ecommerce and POS system data to grow your business. It’s helpful to understand the different types of POS data and why they’re useful.

POS inventory data

Whenever you receive, sell, return, or exchange a product, the inventory levels of that particular SKU adjust in your POS system to reflect how many units of that item you have and where they’re located.

But when you use different platforms to run your online and retail stores, inventory discrepancies are more likely to happen as a result of both systems not being in sync with one another. 

True unified commerce requires a single source of truth for your product, order, and customer information. A leading independent research firm found Shopify’s unified commerce ecosystem delivers approximately 1% improvement in annual GMV through integrated inventory management.

By centralizing your retail POS data on the same platform as your ecommerce store, you can:

• Avoid stockouts and lost sales. “While demand for store pickup was increasing, our online store wasn’t reliably displaying inventory availability,” says Jennifer Devlin, owner of Salt Boutique. “Products that were sold out would be marked as available, which caused overselling.”
• Reduce capital tied up in excess stock. Allbirds, for instance, uses POS data to pack up any slow moving or seasonal merchandise and ship it back to its warehouse. “Stores love it since over 50% of the product we ship from the store is generally slower moving inventory, which offers them back that space so they can sell more,” says Micah Nelson, director of product management.

Tip: Shopify’s inventory reports track KPIs like inventory value, inventory sold by daily product, and product sell-through rates.

POS sales data

POS sales data shows your gross and net sales and the total number of units you sold over a given period of time. At the micro level, sales data shows your store’s average order value, average items per order, and net sales for the day.

Sales data can help you:

• Know what times of the day or year are your peak sales periods
• Quantify how effective your retail team is at converting foot traffic into sales
• Optimize staff scheduling to ensure peak hours are covered
• Run flash promotions during slower periods to help drive demand

Elite Eleven, for example, started online and later expanded into retail—a strategy that gave it two siloed data sets. With Shopify, they were able to unify the data to make holistic, strategic business decisions. The result: 82% total revenue growth and 240% increase in retail POS sales.

“Moving to the Shopify platform was a no-brainer,” says founder and CEO Benn Martiniello. “We now have one unified commerce system across online and offline stores to understand our customers and serve the most relevant products.”

Tip: Shopify’s Total sales over time report shows which times of day, days of the week, and months of the year are your peak sales periods across each of your retail stores. 

POS product data

Product data in your POS system typically falls into one of three categories: cost, sales, or profit. Together, this data feeds into your sales and financial reports.

While sales data helps you understand how much sales you’ve made over a given period of time, product data breaks down your top products by:

• Net sales
• Number of units you’ve sold
• Gross profit of each item you sell

You can use this data to decide which products to reorder, promote, or discount. It also shows which items earn their shelf space and which ones drain your resources.

Unification is especially important here if you sell omnichannel. The Bike & Outdoor Company, for example, has a 15,000-product catalog. It uses Shopify to integrate this data across 49 retail stores with two online shops. Since migrating, it’s reduced monthly costs by 60% and dramatically improved internal processes.

Tip: Shopify has three reports to gather this type of POS data:

• Sales by product report shows which products are your bestsellers.
• Sales by product variant SKU report shows which variants of your products are your bestsellers (a specific t-shirt size or color, for example).
• Sales by product vendor report shows which of the vendors you buy from are most popular.

POS customer data

Customer data shows you how long someone has been a customer, how often they’ve bought from you, how much they’ve spent, and exactly which products they’ve bought.

Merchants who use Shopify to unify their online and retail stores can also see:

• How often returning customers shop with them (in-store or online)
• What they bought
• Average order value
• Total lifetime value

Diane von Furstenberg references this POS data to personalize the in-store experience. Store associates, known as personal stylists, retrieve each customer’s unified profile inside Shopify POS to personalize their product recommendations.

The team also uses this customer data to drive people back in-store. “We can segment our customers by their shopping behavior or order history and proactively send them messages by text or email—whichever they prefer—to let them know when a product they’re interested in is back in stock, or when we have private pre-launch parties,” says assistant store manager Joanna Puccio.

Tip: Use Shopify’s New vs. returning customers report and add the Sales channel by name column. This shows the total sales attributed to new and returning customers for your online store and across each of your retail locations.

POS staff data

Each time a store associate processes a sale using your POS software, that sale is attributed to their user profile. This data helps store managers track each store associate’s average order value, items per order, gross and net sales, and even the amount of returns or discounts they’ve processed with the POS device.

POS staff data is especially valuable for store managers who want to track the sales productivity of their teams and ensure everyone is contributing to the store’s sales goals. You can reward top-performing store associates and identify ones who may benefit from more sales training. 

“Having one system to manage our inventory and staff is a huge benefit for our brand,” says Doug Waldbueser, cofounder of The Inspiration Company, who uses Shopify to manage more than 450 staff across 50 retail locations The team view Shopify’s POS reports to track the number of sales each employee closed, AOV, and units per transaction.

Tip: View Shopify’s Retail sales by staff at register report to see the average order value, items per transaction, and total sales value for store associates across all of your retail store locations.

POS payment data

Each time a transaction is processed through your POS system, it records details like the payment type (credit card, debit card, cash, or digital wallet), transaction amount, and any associated fees.

Transactional data tracks how customers pay for their purchases. It provides insights into payment methods, sales trends, and overall financial performance. 

With this data, you can: 

• Reconcile sales
• Spot popular payment methods
• Monitor cash flow 

Shopify POS lets you track all in-store and online payments in one platform for unified commerce. Every transaction is automatically synced, so there’s no manual accounting at the end of the day.

Note: On average, retailers surveyed stated that Shopify payment fees are 0.5% lower than non-bundled payment providers and processing solutions.

POS promotion and discount data

Promotion data shows offers driving genuine growth versus those that erode your margins. This data reveals how often a discount is used, which codes convert into the most sales, and whether a promotion is increasing order volume, clearing inventory, or lowering revenue you might have earned anyway. 

The stakes are high during peak periods: Deloitte’s 2025 Holiday Survey found that 89% of consumers planned to seek out deals, including 75% who intended to shop during promotional weeks.

Compare discount performance across campaigns, seasons, and channels. High usage with low net sales points to an offer that’s too aggressive. A promotion that moves slow inventory or lifts average order value without the same margin hit is the one worth scaling.

Tip: Use Shopify’s POS discount codes that sync across both online and offline channels, then track redemption rates with the Sales by discount report. Kate Knecht, owner and operator of Tomlinson’s, says this feature “saves our team a lot of time and energy.”

POS returns and refunds data

Returns and refunds data helps you understand where revenue is slipping after the sale. It shows how much merchandise is being returned, how much money is going back to customers, and which products or categories create the most post-purchase friction. 

The financial exposure is significant. The National Retail Federation (NRF) projected that retailers will lose $849.9 billion in product returns—roughly 15.8% of annual revenue. Some 71% of consumers say a poor returns experience makes them less likely to shop with that retailer again.

Look for patterns in this POS data. A product returned frequently may point to a sizing issue, a merchandising gap, or staff guidance that’s setting the wrong expectations at checkout. 

Tip: Set up self-serve returns and ask customers to explain the reason for their refund request. Look for the fix behind the pattern, like updating product descriptions or offering an exchange instead of a refund. 

How to run a POS data analysis

Here’s how to unify ecommerce and store data, then use POS data analytics to bring data-driven decision-making to your store:

1. Collect your data

Cloud-based POS platforms have made data collection more accessible by giving retailers easier access to real-time information across locations and sales channels. 

With Shopify, retailers can sync POS data with every other sales channel for 360 visibility into their business. Plus, it’s quick to get up and running: Shopify POS is up to 20% faster to implement relative to the market set surveyed.

2. Start with a hypothesis

Strong hypotheses focus on specific, measurable outcomes. For example, if the question you’re asking is whether a weekend promotion increased average order value or unit sales, identify your top-performing products, uncover peak shopping times, or determine which promotions drive the most sales.

3. Gather the relevant data

Filter your data to include only the metrics that align with your hypothesis. For instance, if you’re analyzing product performance, focus on sales by product, inventory reports, and profit margins. Ideally, you’ll have a single source of truth for this data (i.e., Shopify), rather than multiple disjointed systems.

4. Apply context

Consider external factors like seasonality, market trends, or recent promotions when analyzing your data. For example, a dip in sales might coincide with a slower retail season, or a spike could be tied to a successful campaign. 

AI-driven analytics also help surface contextual patterns faster by identifying trends, anomalies, and correlations that might be harder to spot manually. 

Tip: Ask Sidekick, the AI assistant built into Shopify, to surface POS data for you. “I am able to pull and move data across stores—instantly comparing customer rates, loyalty program participation, and generating week-by-week performance reports,” says Jamie Evans, head of ecommerce at Jaded London.

5. Form your insight

Once you’ve analyzed the data and applied the context, identify actionable takeaways. The goal is to turn insights into actions that improve store performance—whether that’s by restocking a bestselling item, adjusting staffing schedules for peak hours, or rethinking strategies for underperforming products.

4 examples of POS data analysis

Here are four examples of how POS data analysis can help you:

1. Understand how physical stores lift online sales and customer acquisition

Rather than measuring the impact of your retail store exclusively on its sales, look at how your store impacts online sales from the surrounding area. 

Shopify’s Merchant Survey from November 2025 found retail sellers are the most likely to cite relationships with customers as their key competitive advantage, underscoring the value physical stores create beyond direct in-store transactions.

Allbirds, for example, looks at total online sales and net new customers in the area around its physical stores to measure their impact. In the three months after opening its Boston Back Bay location, web traffic in the area rose 15%, and Allbirds saw 83% more new customers in the neighborhood.

Here’s how to measure this from your Shopify admin:

• Use the Sales by billing location report to measure any lift in online sales in the area surrounding your retail store.
• View the Customers over time report to analyze how many first-time customers shopped with you at your retail store.

“We could have Shopify—which we’ve built our ecommerce business on, then could provide what we needed for point of sale and retail—just made it so much easier for us,” says Niall Horgan, CEO and cofounder of Gym+Coffee, in a Shopify Masters episode. 

“We could actually have the data that backed up the decisions that, ‘OK, these customers are coming into through our stores,’” Niall says. “It’s a really great acquisition channel for us; they’re then moving to shopping online.”

2. Improve customer retention and lifetime value

Repeat customers account for 44% of revenue and 46% of orders, despite forming just 21% of the average brand’s customer base, according to Gorgias.

Astrid & Miyu leans into this by using Shopify’s unified commerce capabilities to gain a single view of its customers across everything from search and browsing to purchase and loyalty, both online and in-store. It’s seen its returning omnichannel customers increase fivefold. 

What’s more significant is its discovery about customer value: customers who shop omnichannel with Astrid & Miyu have exhibited a 40% higher lifetime value compared to those who shop exclusively online.

Use Shopify’s First-time vs. returning customer sales report to:

• Compare the average order value of new and return customers
• Contrast how average order value differs with in-store vs. online shoppers
• Review the percentage of your brand’s in-store and online sales that come from new and returning customers

3. Know when (and where) to expand your network of retail stores

Look at the shipping country, city, region, and even postal code of your online sales. Are a statistically significant number of sales coming from one area in particular? If so, you might want to consider opening a pop-up shop to test the market. 

If the pop-up shop performs well, now you can consider opening a permanent retail location to continue gaining traction in that market.

Use these Shopify reports to prioritize retail locations: 

• View the Sales by billing location report to analyze your online sales data, know where customers are located, and spot if they’re congregated in certain cities or neighborhoods. 
• Use the Sessions by location report to see what countries, regions, and cities your website visitors come from, and to spot trends. 

4. Manage inventory online, in-store, and in your warehouse

For merchants selling online and in retail stores, buying enough inventory without overstocking and running the risk of dead stock is one of their biggest ongoing challenges. US retailers are sitting on about $1.31 in inventory for every dollar of sales they make, according to a 2026 Census report.

Store owners using separate systems to manage their online and physical stores often run into inventory discrepancies because, as they make sales via their website or store, inventory levels don’t update in real time. 

In the case of Offbeat Bikes, it needed to re-count inventory each day and manually adjust the available quantities shoppers saw online to reflect what was in their POS system. But since using Shopify to unify their online and in-store data, Offbeat Bikes’ inventory adjusts in real time as products are sold, returned, or exchanged. 

“I used to spend at least four hours manually counting inventory every month, and I always had to ensure our platforms were syncing up properly,” says owner Mandalyn Renicker. “I don’t have to do that anymore because Shopify’s inventory system is so robust and easy to manage.” 

Use these Shopify reports to manage inventory more effectively:

• Use the ABC analysis report to grade and categorize the products you sell based on the percentage of store revenue they’re responsible for. A-grade products account for around 80% of your revenue, B-grade account for 15% of revenue, and C-grade products account for only 5% of your revenue. 
• View the Low stock report to see which products and variants you’re running low on, create purchase orders, and avoid stockouts. 
• Use the Stock on hand report to see the cost and retail value of inventory you have in your warehouse and retail stores. You can filter the data by date range or to view inventory on hand from a specific vendor.
• Set reorder points to get low stock notifications and ensure you have enough lead time to replenish inventory of a product before quantities reach zero.

Common challenges with POS data

There are a few challenges that come with POS data analysis:

Poor data quality

Inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to overstocking or understocking inventory, misidentifying top-selling products, or failing to engage customers effectively. 

Platforms like Shopify help reduce manual errors by unifying inventory reporting and sales data automatically across locations and channels. One report found 69% of Shopify POS customers that switched from Square agree they now have better data insights.*

Lack of unification

When your online and physical store data exist in silos, it’s next to impossible to get a clear view of your business. Separate systems can lead to inventory discrepancies, missed sales opportunities, and an incomplete understanding of customer behavior.

The most effective way to execute on a unified commerce strategy is by opting for a commerce operating system with natively unified POS and ecommerce solutions. This provides a single source of truth for inventory, customer insights, and sales performance, making it easier to identify trends and act on them. 

“Shopify’s unified approach to data management leads to a substantial decrease in the time and technical resources spent on maintenance, eliminating the need for middleware by up to 60%,” says Corey Hnat at Pepper Palace.

No real-time integration

Without real-time integration, businesses may rely on outdated information to make decisions. Delayed inventory updates, for example, can result in stockouts or overselling, while waiting for sales reports can make it harder to react to fast-changing trends.

Modern cloud-based POS systems make real-time syncing more accessible by updating data across locations and sales channels as transactions happen. Invest in a POS system with real-time syncing capabilities to ensure you always have up-to-date information.

Benefits of POS data analysis

Unifying all your commerce is the only way to make the most informed business decisions. POS data analysis allows you to get the big picture of your complete business, including the ability to:

• Reduce stockouts. Stockouts are costly for merchants. POS data analysis mitigates discrepancies and helps store owners pinpoint inventory issues. “We know exactly what we need based on real sales data, so we’re not tying up cash in excess inventory or missing sales due to stockouts,” says Tyler Angelos, CEO of Angelus Direct.
• Improve the customer experience. POS data analysis allows for personalization on an advanced level. Shopify enhances customer data collection and customer segmentation for higher return on marketing investment. In fact, Shopify POS enables an 8.9% gross merchandise value (GMV) increase through unified commerce on average.
• Speed up implementation. With the right tools, implementing POS data analysis systems and workflows can be simple. Shopify POS has fast deployments with minimal downtime, and a 20% faster implementation time compared to competitors. 
• Increase operational efficiency. POS data analysis empowers businesses with insights they need to improve operations and reduce associated costs. Operational improvements created by Shopify POS enable up to 5% uplift in GMV, for example.

*Methodology: Online survey among 1,000 Shopify POS customers, conducted in November 2023 by the Shopify Research Team.