Product BI Analytics
Product BI Analytics helps you understand how one product has changed over time. It combines annual and monthly sales, quantity, and realized price into three views designed for different questions.
Use it when you need to answer:
- Is this product improving or deteriorating versus another year?
- Is the change coming from quantity, realized price, or both?
- Which months deserve attention?
- Is the current partial month being compared fairly?
:::info Before you begin Product BI must be enabled for the selected store. The analysis uses the history available from that store's POS and does not require daily manual entry. :::
Create or open an analysis
- Select the store you want to analyze.
- Open Products → BI Analytics.
- Search the library for an existing analysis by UPC, PLU, product name, or title.
- If it does not exist, select New analysis.
- Enter or scan the UPC/PLU.
- Choose the first and last year. You can include up to ten years.
- Optionally enter a title and select Generate analysis.
The result is saved for the store and shared with authorized team members. You can leave the page while it is calculated. Your visible metric selections and hidden analyses are personal preferences; they do not change the shared result.
Read the analysis header
Before interpreting a change, check the context shown below the product name:
| Header item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Data through | Latest date included in the saved result |
| Calculated | When StorePulse generated the result |
| Coverage not confirmed | Dates and recorded days are known, but the source cannot prove that every expected transaction is present |
| Refresh data | Requests a new calculation from the latest available history |
Recorded days describe the observations found. They do not prove complete coverage, and a month with no records is not automatically a month with zero sales.
Choose the right view
| Your question | Best view |
|---|---|
| How is the product performing overall? | By year |
| What happened in a specific month? | Compare months |
| Where are the patterns across many years? | Full table |
Changing a tab, year, comparison year, metric, display mode, or selected cell only changes your view. It does not generate another analysis.
By year
Use By year for the fastest executive reading.
YTD cards
The top cards show:
- YTD sales: sales amount through the analysis cut-off date.
- YTD volume: pounds or units sold through the same cut-off date.
- Realized price: sales divided by comparable quantity.
- Main signal: the most important comparable deterioration detected in the saved periods.
For an in-progress year, StorePulse compares the current result only with the same month and day in the base year when an aligned version 2 result is available.
Main signal and drivers
The main signal identifies the largest comparable sales deterioration. The Drivers section then separates the arithmetic movement into:
- Volume: change in pounds or units sold.
- Price: change in realized price.
- Sales: resulting change in revenue.
These drivers describe the numbers; they do not claim an operational cause.
Annual history
The annual table shows observed sales, quantity, realized price, and change versus the previous included year. Expand a year to inspect its monthly periods without starting a new request.
Compare months
Use Compare months to examine the same month across two years.
- Choose the current year.
- Choose Compare with for the base year.
- Read the trend chart for overall shape.
- Use the annual map to find the strongest differences quickly.
- Review the monthly table for current value, base value, and delta.
On mobile, tap a month row to reveal all its sales, volume, and price details.
Partial months
If the latest month is still in progress, StorePulse uses an aligned MTD comparison: for example, October 1–2 is compared with October 1–2 of the base year, not with the entire prior October.
An older version 1 result cannot make that aligned comparison. It displays Partial period without aligned cut until the analysis is refreshed.
Full table
Use Full table to scan monthly patterns across as many as ten years.
- Select Sales, Volume, or Realized price.
- Choose Value + change, Value only, or Change only.
- Scroll horizontally inside the matrix to inspect additional years.
- Select a cell to open its period detail.
- Use Open monthly comparison to continue investigating that month.
The month column remains fixed while the years move. The final columns summarize the historical average and the most recent comparable signal.
On mobile, horizontal movement is contained inside the matrix. Selecting a cell opens a bottom sheet; closing it returns focus to the selected cell.
Understand colors and signals
For sales and volume, StorePulse initially classifies comparable changes as follows:
| Signal | Initial band | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Below −25% | Large deterioration to investigate |
| Review | From −25% to below −10% | Meaningful deterioration |
| Stable | From −10% through +10% | Limited relative movement |
| Improvement | Above +10% | Meaningful positive movement |
The color is always accompanied by a sign, arrow, label, or explanation. These bands describe comparison magnitude, not a universal business priority.
Realized price uses neutral directional colors. A higher price is not automatically good, and a lower price is not automatically bad.
Understand unavailable states
StorePulse explains why it cannot show a comparison instead of displaying an ambiguous dash.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not comparable | There is no valid base period for this calculation |
| No data | No usable observations were found for the period |
| Pending | The calendar period has not occurred yet |
| Zero base | The base value is zero, so a percentage change is undefined |
| Partial period without aligned cut | The saved result does not contain a fair same-day comparison |
| Unit needs verification | Quantity scale or unit could not be confirmed |
| Mixed units | The period combines pounds and units |
| Units not comparable | Current and base periods use different units |
Sales may remain available even when quantity and realized price are unavailable.
Realized price is not the current shelf price
Realized price is calculated as:
sales ÷ comparable quantity
It reflects the average amount realized during a period. It can be affected by promotions, weighted items, mix, or other transaction behavior. It is not necessarily the current POS price, shelf price, cost, or margin.
Practical examples
Sales rise while volume falls
If sales increase 18% while volume decreases 10.5% and realized price rises 31.8%, revenue improved but fewer pounds or units moved. Do not conclude that demand improved without further evidence.
Sales and volume fall together
If sales fall 31.5% and volume falls 24.3%, the product deserves investigation. Check availability, assortment, promotions, and store operations, but remember that Product BI does not identify which of those caused the change.
The current month is partial
Use the aligned MTD value and confirm the Data through date. Do not compare the partial month with a full base month.
A simple review routine
- Confirm the store, product, Data through date, and coverage message.
- Start with By year and read the main signal.
- Check whether volume or realized price explains most of the movement.
- Open Compare months for the affected month.
- Use Full table to determine whether the pattern repeats in other years.
- Investigate operational causes outside Product BI before taking action.
What Product BI does not determine
Product BI does not currently prove:
- Stockouts or on-hand inventory.
- Profit, cost, or margin.
- Promotion effectiveness or price elasticity.
- Returns, discounts, or coupon attribution in the analysis.
- Forecasts or recommended order quantities.
- The current shelf or POS price.
Use the module as decision support based on observed sales history, not as proof of an operational cause.