VirtueMart Analytics - How To

Article Index
VirtueMart Analytics - How To
Getting Started
5 Report Types
Working with the Pivot Table
All Pages

Change Log

VirtueMart Analytics v1.3

Add support for mysqli database driver

VirtueMart Analytics v1.2

New measeure value was added to the orders analytics report, that aggregates the number of orders. This is important addition as it enables, beside seeing the number of orders per any filter, also calculating the average order amount per any filter. This is done by creating a formula for dividing orders amount by orders count.Watch this video to learn how it is done:

Install and Uninstall

Install

1. Download VirtueMart Analytics install file.
2. In your administrator web site, go to Extensions  Install/Uninstall .
3. Go to Upload Package File and browse for the VirtueMart Analytics install file.
4. Press Upload file & Install.

Uninstall

1. In your administrator web site, go to Extensions  Install/Uninstall.
2. Click on Components  and then select VirtueMart Analytics component.
3. Click on Uninstall.

Getting Started with VirtueMart Analytics

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fter the installation completed, you are ready to start working with VirtueMart Analytics. Login to your Joomla administrator site and select from the menu component  VirtueMart in order to go to VirtueMart admin page. Once the page has been loaded, select from the left side menu Reports  VirtueMart Analytics. The following report selection page will load up.

 

 

 

Understand the report selection page

The report selection page has 2 main controls that help you create the reports:

1. The report's date boundaries – select the start and end date of the time period you wish to analyze.
   Quick tip: Large reports can take some time. Try to narrow your time period as much as possible.

2. The report's type – Select the types of reports you wish to display.

VirtueMart Analytics Supports 5 Report Types:

1. Global Orders Heat map – This report will display a world map, powered by Google visualization geomap, where for each country you can see the total orders value for that country. Hover on the marks on the map to see the values.

Figure 1 - Global orders heat map

2. US Orders Heat map – This report is much like the previous one, only this time only USA map is displayed, and the orders' values are per state.

3. Analyze Orders – This report will display the Panorama's powerful pivot table, which allows you to interact with your orders' data and look at it in various ways in a simple drag and drop environment. Use this report to ask questions about orders, statuses, regions sales etc., and get the answers.

Figure 2 - Order analysis

4. Analyze Items – This report uses Panorama's pivot table, but this time the analysis is done for items data. Use this report to ask questions about best selling items per region per time, best vendors, seasonal effects, etc. and get answers.

Figure 3 - Items analysis

 

5. Analyze Coupons – This is also a pivot table based report that analyzes the coupons usage in your VirtueMart store. By creating different coupons and analyzing how they are used you can learn a lot about your customers' preferences.

Working with the Pivot Table:

1. Read the tutorial - Panorama pivot table allows you to interact with your data, slice and dice it in a simple drag-and-drop environment in order to ask business questions and get answers immediately. This tutorial will teach you how to use it.



2. Save your view - After you created a view, you may save it by clicking the save icon on the top left corner of the gadget. Saving your view will ensure that the pivot table will start next time with the same view. Quick Tip: When you save the view, what being saved is the meta data and not the data itself, therefore, if you will start next time with different data, i.e. different start and end dates, the pivot table will display the new data with no problem.
   

3. How to work with dates – Dates considered special case in the pivot table. Understanding how to work with dates will allow you to get fast answers to important questions. There are 3 date entities:

   1. Year

   2. Quarter

   3. Month

Date entities, like all other entities, can be nested. For example in Figure 2 you can see that quarter is nested inside year, which generates aggregation of the values per quarter/year. However, in Figure 3 month is standing alone without been nested under year (and year is also not part of the filter), which leads to aggregation of the values per month with no consideration of the years. If you look at the grid in Figure 3 you see that 3 items were sold on January. In fact 2 items were sold on Jan/2009 and 1 on Jan/2008 but the pivot table aggregated them together. This is great feature for understanding seasonal effects. If you know that your customers usually buy more on January, you will know that you need to get prepared; you may also want to launch a campaign in order to beat your competitors, and so on.