What is order history? 

Order history is a list of all the orders you’ve received from customers in the past. It includes the specific items they purchased and how much each costs, along with information about the customer and when they bought the products.

Understanding your store’s order history 

With a good point-of-sale system, you can easily navigate your dashboard to find order history. With Shopify POS, all you have to do is click on the Orders tab in your dashboard and then you can browse order history using various data points, from the customer themselves to individual products and sales broken down for specific dates.

You can tag and add notes to open orders, view an order’s timeline, follow up with customers, and more easily and effectively manage your orders.

As you and your staff make sales, you can create thorough customer profiles to learn more about your customers and their shopping habits.

Getting this information is step one (so make sure your POS allows you to track it). Step two? Knowing how to use order history data to boost sales in the future.

How to use order history to improve sales 

Order history is like a glimpse at what works and what doesn’t in terms of the products customers want to buy from you. But what’s the easiest way to put the data to use? Look for trends:

• Dates. Are there specific times during the month where sales increased in the past? What about the year as a whole—when were your slow periods? What about times when you sold much more than average? See if you can spot any date-related trends in your order history, and use that information to plan ahead to better manage your shop and inventory.

• Products. Are there products that consistently outperform all others? What about items that never seem to sell at all? Do customers commonly buy certain products together? Analyzing product sales trends through order history gives you the information you need to offer the right products to the right people. It can also inform how you organize your store (or your website), so that products frequently purchased together are displayed together. 

• Customers. Do certain customers buy certain items? Do they buy at particular times? What percentage are repeat buyers, and how many might you need to entice back by offering coupons, deals, or exclusive sales?

You can look at the order history for your store and use that data for marketing purposes, too. Here are some ideas you can try once you use your POS to understand sales trends:

• Upsell and make specific recommendations. Customers who make one purchase from you are likely to make another in the future—especially if you make it easy for them and give them a nudge.
• Create opportunities to upsell. Let’s say you filter your order history by specific product: in this case, maybe it’s a killer dress. Identify the customers who bought the dress, then send them a follow-up marketing email featuring a great pair of shoes that go perfectly with the outfit. You can offer tailored coupons and offers, too. Customers who show an interest in a specific product may buy a related item when offered a coupon for the second product.
• Create personalized marketing messages. Because you know who bought what and when after looking at your store’s order history, you can tailor your marketing messages in really specific ways. This is more effective than sending generic (and general) emails to your entire list. Create segments based on customer activity and purchases. Then send campaigns that are highly relevant to their interests—which you know, because you can see what they buy. 
• Target your promotions and advertisements. Use customer demographic data to target audiences on paid social advertisements and other promotions you want to run. If you know you have a bestselling item that everyone wants around Mother’s Day, for example, an ad you create and run in April and early May will likely get more traction than an ad you run for the same item in September.