Using Analytics

Display

Analytics offers 4 display modes (or types of graphs) for your sales data:

• Time series (total): displays the curve of the selected unit of measurement over the desired period
  • Example: Total monthly sales for the last year, for all booksellers
• Time series (total): displays the curve of the selected unit of measurement according to the desired period and grouping
  • Example: Total monthly sales for the last year, by bookseller
• Histogram: displays the decreasing distribution of values for the selected unit of measurement
  • Example: Number of unique titles sold per month by each publisher in the last year
• Pie chart: displays areas representing sales data according to the selected grouping and period
  • Example: Number of copies sold to various audiences in the last year
    
    

Hover the mouse pointer over each point or area on the graph to display a tooltip with the specific values represented.

Unit of measurement

Analytics offers a range of predefined units of measurement that serve as the basis for the graph:

• Sales (units): number of copies sold
• Sales amount before tax: total amount of copy sales, before tax
• Average sale amount: average value of sales
• Refunds (units): number of copies refunded
• Sales amount: total amount of copies sales, including tax
• Number of unique titles sold: total number of titles (not copies) sold
  
  

Interval

You can distribute the graph data according to the following time intervals:

• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Yearly
  
  

A monthly interval is especially suitable to viewing your sales over a full year.

Grouping

Analytics allows you to group sales data, both in the graph and in the Results list, using some 20 predefined groupings.

Here are some examples of what a combination of units of measure and groupings allow you to examine:

• the number of copies sold by country
• the amount of sales by bookseller
• the number of copies reimbursed by publication
• the number of unique titles by publisher
• the average selling price by audience
• the amount of sales before tax by category
• etc.

Selecting the number of copies sold by publication is a good way to see your best sellers.

To determine the category of your publications, the platform uses the main category that has been documented in your metadata. This is why it is important, when adding categories to a publication (in the Metadata > Classification section), to always designate one as the main category, which will also be used primarily by the booksellers.

Period

The period is the time scale used by the graph, and represents the period (start date and end date) during which the sales took place. Analytics offers several predefined periods, as well as the option of customizing your own.

You can further refine the applied period by selecting a range of the graph (clicking and dragging with the mouse). Analytics then refreshes the view according to the selected period.

Data source

Analytics allows you to select the data source best suited to your business practices.

• Financial data: sales data found in the financial reports filed manually in the platform
• Statistical data: sales data compiled daily by the platform

Filters

The Filters section displays, in the form of labels, the criteria applied to the dataset used by the graph.

You can add a filter criterion, or a combination of criteria, to the current graph from the Results list. Simply click on any item in the list.

For example, if you want to know what are the most popular literary genres on leslibraires.ca, group your sales by bookstore, and click on leslibraires.ca in the Results list. Then select the Category as a grouping, and you will get a list of all the literary genres, in descending order, for leslibraires.ca. You can combine as many groupings as you like.

To remove an applied filter:

• Click on the pencil icon under the graph heading to display the Parameters panel
• Under the Filters section, click on the "X" to the left of the desired criteria
• Click on the Apply button

Sales type

This option allows you to use sample sales as a data source, for testing or troubleshooting purposes.

Test sales are sample or dummy sales, having no impact on billing. They are only declared through the API, and used in exceptional situations - for example during platform integration.