LIGHTSPEED ANALYTICS

The business intelligence tool for independent businesses.

Using data from your retail POS to generate custom reports that'll help you better understand your customers, employees and business.

Analytics Glossary

Here are a list of terms used often in Analytics, and our definitions.

  • A.

    Active Customers

    One of the three statuses of your repeat customers, along with At-Risk and Dormant. If a customer is active, it means they visit at a frequency that matches the top 80% of all your repeat customers.

    At-Risk Customers

    Another of the three statuses of repeat customers, along with Active and Dormant. If a customer is At-Risk, it means their frequency of visits is within the bottom 20% of all your customers. So they are still shopping with you, but their length between visits is so slow they may soon become dormant without some form of outreach.

  • B.

    Basket Size/Value

    These are ways to measure employee performance. Basket size is the average number of sale lines in a transaction. Basket Value is similar to Basket Size, but measures dollars instead of items. Basket value, then, is the average sale total without tax.

  • C.

    Capture Rate

    A measure that calculates a percentage of all sales that had a customer’s email, phone or address attached. You can customize what information is important to capture in the Configurations page. The Customer Capture Rate Report lets you see how effectively each employee is capturing a customer’s information at the time of a sale.

    Completed Date

    The date that a sale was rung up and finished in the register. This field is most commonly used for filtering sales to a period of time.

  • D.

    Days to Sell Out

    Pre-calculated amount of days until the current quantity sells out, based on the quantity sold of this item over the last 90 days. This measure is available in our Inventory Reports.

    Dimensions

    A core part of all reports, alongside measures. Dimensions are a way to define and group what is to be reported upon, and refer to fields that are static. An item's name or category would be a dimension, for example, as would an employee's or shop's name. Dimenions can be added as columns, used as filters to narrow the results down, or used as a pivot to extend the comparative capabilities of your reports. They really can do it all.

    We have a video on dimensions and measures that you can watch here: Learning about Dimensions and Measures

    Dormant Customers

    he last of the three statuses of customers, after Active and At Risk. If a customer is Dormant, their frequency of visits is within the bottom 10% of all your customers. In other words, they were repeat customers but the current length between visits is long enough that they may not shop with you again without some form of outreach.

    Dusty Inventory

    Stock that has been in stock for too long without any sales, and so is just "gathering dust" on your shelf. (We cannot say whether the items are literally dusty, but figuratively they are covered in the stuff). The length of time an item takes to become "dusty" will depend on the type of item it is and the dustiness levels you've set on your configurations page. We have a report dedicated to dustiness, and you can read more about it here: Our Guide to Dusty Inventory.

  • E.

    Employee Hours

    Timeclock entries of the employees in your store. Total Hours is the sum of all hours worked during a specified time frame.

  • G.

    GMROI

    Stands for "Gross Margin Return on Investment". It's an inventory measure that tracks how much profit you've gained for each dollar you've invested in inventory (or a particular segment of your inventory). GMROI is derived from the inventory log and current quantity on hand as follows:

    • We take the inventory log, which is all +/- changes to quantity on hand, and use that to calculate the average QOH for every item over the time period.
    • Then we multiply the average QOH of every item by its current average cost.
    • The last step is to divide the summed up profit from every item sold by (average QOH * average cost).

    We have a report dedicated to this measure, which you can read more about here: Our Guide to the GMROI Report.

  • L.

    LTV

    Stands for "Lifetime Value", specifically the lifetime value of your customer. A customers historical LTV tracks how much they've spent at your store so far. Your customers' average LTV would be the average of all your customers' lifetime value. This measure is used often in our marketing reports, specifically the "Customer Lifetime Value Report", which you can of course read more about here: Our Guide to the Customer Lifetime Value.

  • M.

    Measures

    A core part of all reports, and the companion to dimensions. Measures are calculations upon a report's set dimensions, and relate to dynamic fields. So the number of sales, or the total dollar value earned, or an employee's profit per hour would all be measures, as these fields would change depending on the date range, filters, and dimensions set.

    We have a video on dimensions and measures that you can watch here: Learning about Dimensions and Measures.

    Miscellaneous Sale

    Any sale line that was added using the “Miscellaneous Sale” button.

  • O.

    On Order

    An item is considered 'on order' when it’s either on a purchase order that’s ordered but not received, or on a transfer that’s sent but not received. This concept is used in our On Order report, where you can see all of the “on order” items and when they expect to arrive.

  • R.

    Repeat Customer

    Any customer that had more than one sale in the past.

  • S.

    Sale Vs. Sale Line Employee

    Sale employee is the employee that rung up a sale. Sale line employee is the employee attached to an individual sale line. It is possible to have multiple sale lines on one sale that are attached to different employees. There are reports in Analytics for both sale and sale line employees. For example, the Employee Performance Report displays sale line employees, and the Capture Rate Report tracks the sale employees.

    Sell-Through

    The percentage of items received on a purchase order that are no longer in inventory. Sell through is usually displayed per Order Vendor to see which suppliers are more profitable in your store. Check out our report guide here: Sell Through Report Guide

  • T.

    Turns

    An inventory measure that shows how often you sell through your entire stock, or "turn over" your stock. We have a report dedicated to this measure, and you can read more about it here: Our Guide to the Turns Report.

  • U.

    Upsell

    When a customer buys at least two items in a single sale, one of them is considered an upsell. You can configure the filters that define which item is the 'primary item' and which one is the 'upsell item' in our Upsell Report. It is most typically used to evaluate the upsells of lower price items onto a high priced item.