This week has been all about testing out the brand new SamCart platform at the office. And things are going great. We have it working with 3 major merchants providers. We're able to create limited recurring products. All the emails integration are looking great. And we're working out any bugs that pop up. Next week we're looking to move over all sales from Get10000Fans.com and 5MinuteMarketing.com so we can see the next system in action for the first time, live. (yes, we use SamCart exclusively for our own sites) But, as cool as all of that stuff is, something else I got my hands on this week was even better.

Why the Reports Tab is So Damn Important

Our designers sent me the initial design for the SamCart Reports tab, where you'll be able to see valuable stats like:

1. Gross sales
2. 1-Time sales
3. Recurring sales
4. Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly sales trends
5. Sales by products
6. Refunds
7. Upsell & Upsell Funnel Conversion Rate
8. Average Order Value
9. Customer Lifetime Value
10. Stick Rate
11. Sales from Specific Referrers (Organic, PPC, Email, Direct, etc)
12. Sales from Affiliates

and a whole lot more.

The Information Overload Problem

The problem with all those stats is...figuring out an easy way to display all the information, so that you (the marketer) can find the info you need to make better business decisions. Decisions like focussing more on email marketing because that's where the sales are coming from. Turning off certain banner ads that aren't leading to sales. Promoting certain subscription products because the lifetime value of those customers far outweighs your other products. That's the info we, as marketers, need. Without it, we're blind. And the sad part is, that's how most of us operate online right now. Most tools we're using don't talk to each other. And the tool at the center of our business (our shopping cart) needs to know what's going on outside of itself. Our email marketing software doesn't tell our cart which email the sales came from. Our split testing software doesn't tell the cart which variation leads to a greater lifetime customer value. Our carts don't tell our membership site software when people cancel or refund. And our traffic platforms aren't telling us which ads are leading to the most sales.

No More Guess-Work

Seems crazy that in 2015 we're still playing the guessing game. Not anymore. If we have it our way, we'll put that information back in your hands. And it starts with the all new reports inside SamCart. Let me know how you like the design in the comments down below. It might look a little different by the time we release in March...but you get the idea. ;-)