Real-Time Business Visibility for eCommerce Operations

About project

A tailored BI solution for a mid-sized U.S. eCommerce company that unified operational data into accessible dashboards and automated recurring reporting across sales, logistics, and marketing.

Challenge

Our client — an eCommerce company with 80+ employees — was growing across multiple sales channels (Shopify, Amazon, and DTC), but lacked centralized visibility into performance.

Key issues:

• Operational and marketing data were scattered across spreadsheets, platforms, and tools
• Weekly reports were built manually and inconsistently
• Business users couldn’t easily track metrics without technical support
• There was no shared, up-to-date view of core KPIs across departments

They needed a scalable BI solution to consolidate data, reduce manual reporting, and give teams real-time access to trusted business metrics — without requiring SQL or full-time analysts.

Solution

1. Data Infrastructure & Integration

We implemented a lightweight ETL pipeline using Airbyte to connect and sync:

• Shopify and Amazon (orders, fulfillment, returns)
• ERP and warehouse systems
• Google Sheets (for budgeting and ops)
• Marketing sources: Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Klaviyo

All data was normalized into a PostgreSQL data warehouse, structured around shared business dimensions.

2. Role-Based Dashboards

We designed pre-built dashboards in Metabase (self-hosted), tailored by team:

• Executive: Revenue, margins, CAC trends
• Marketing: Channel performance, ROAS, campaign metrics
• Logistics: Inventory movement, order delays, delivery SLAs
• Procurement: Restock triggers, vendor timelines, stock coverage

Each dashboard included filters by product, channel, and timeframe, with no need for manual SQL queries.

3. Automation & Alerts

• Weekly summary reports were scheduled via Slack and email (PDF or Excel)
• Alerts triggered when specific KPIs fell below thresholds (e.g., ROAS < 2.0)
• Dashboard exports supported team reporting and leadership meetings

Project Team

• 1 Project Manager
• 1 Data Engineer
• 1 BI Analyst
• 1 Backend Developer
• 1 QA Engineer

Tech stack

Impact

The BI platform gave the client a clear, consistent view of business operations — accessible to both technical and non-technical users.

• According to internal tracking, report preparation time dropped by over 70%, saving several hours weekly across departments
• More than 60% of operational and business-facing staff accessed dashboards weekly
• Non-technical users were able to explore routine performance metrics without relying on analysts
• Procurement teams identified restocking needs earlier, reducing supply gaps
• Leadership now uses unified dashboards in weekly planning meetings

Business Outcome

Faster decisions, reduced reporting overhead, and shared alignment across sales, marketing, and operations — all without increasing headcount.