What is Order History? How to View and Keep Track of Purchases

As a retailer, it’s easy to get caught up in shiny new sales tactics in a rush to drive growth. But research shows retailers who make decisions based on data are seeing twice the growth and four times the profitability because they're looking at what's already working and doubling down on it.

Order history data is a powerful yet often overlooked tool for increasing revenue. It's like a cheat sheet for your business telling you exactly what your customers buy, when they buy it, and what deals got them to pull out their wallets. Instead of throwing money at new tactics hoping something sticks, use data based on real results to create targeted strategies that boost sales and strengthen customer relationships.

Ahead, learn how to evaluate your order history data and turn it into actionable insights for better decision-making.

What is order history? 

Order history is a list of all the orders you’ve received from customers in the past. It includes the specific items they purchased and how much each cost, as well as additional information about the customer and when they bought the products.

How to view order history 

With a good point of sale (POS) system, you can easily navigate your dashboard to find order history. The POS system keeps a record of all orders placed in-store. 

Unified platforms like Shopify POS take this one step further by unifying orders from every sales channel. Whether you’ve sold a product in your retail store, through a marketplace, or via your online store, order data feeds back to one centralized management system. 

To find this order history, head to the Orders tab in your Shopify dashboard. From here, you can browse order history using various data points—like an individual customer, a particular SKU, or orders placed within a specific date range.

Shopify also lets you tag and add notes to open orders, view an order’s timeline, follow up with customers, and more easily and effectively manage your orders.

How to analyze order history

Dates

Analyze your monthly and yearly order history to identify peak seasons and slow periods. For example, if you sell beachwear and order history data shows a spike in sales in May and June as customers prepare for summer, stock up on inventory in the first quarter and launch marketing campaigns in early spring. 

If you spot that October sees minimal activity, plan clearance sales for August. You could also introduce complementary products (like resort wear) or focus on pre-season promotions to maintain cash flow during slower seasons. 

Products

Monitor your order history to identify bestsellers, underperforming items, and common purchase combinations. This gives you the information you need to offer the right products to the right people. It can also inform how you organize your store (or your website), so that products frequently purchased together are displayed together. 

For example, a coffee shop's sales data might reveal that medium roast consistently outsells other varieties while its dark roast struggles. Based on this insight, they could adjust their inventory accordingly and strategically place complementary items (like coffee filters and grinders) near the popular medium roast display to boost overall sales.

Customers

Your customers' shopping habits paint a picture of who they are and what makes them tick. Analyze their purchase patterns to identify buying preferences, peak shopping times, and repeat purchase rates. This order data can inform strategic decisions about loyalty programs, promotional timing, and targeted marketing campaigns to maximize customer retention and lifetime value.

Shopify POS connects your inventory, sales, and customer data across every channel. Its unified commerce system centralizes all your customer data—including comprehensive order information from accelerated checkouts like Shop Pay. This integration provides valuable insights into how customers prefer to pay and complete their purchases, whether through traditional methods or convenient options like Shop Pay Installments.

You can quickly pull up key customer information at checkout, like purchase history and preferences. Then, clienteling tools integrated with Shopify customer profiles can be used to offer customized recommendations and deliver personalized experiences, while payment flexibility through Shop Pay can help increase average order values and conversion rates.

💡Take advantage: Research from a leading independent consulting firm found that retailers using Shopify POS see sales grow by 8.9% on average.

How to boost sales using order history

You can look at the order history for your store and use that data for marketing purposes, too. Here are some ideas you can try once you use your POS to understand sales trends.

1. Upsell and make specific recommendations

With your customers’ order history data, you can make informed product recommendations that shoppers will most likely buy based on their past interactions with your business. 

Let’s say you filter your order history by specific product: in this case, maybe it’s a white bridesmaid dress. Identify the customers who bought the dress, then send them a follow-up marketing email featuring a great pair of shoes that go perfectly with the outfit. You can offer tailored coupons and offers, too. Customers who show an interest in a specific product may buy a related item when offered a coupon for the second product.

Product recommendation apps like ReConvert and Selleasy make it easy to show your customers the perfect product pairings right when they're most excited about their purchase. These automated tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) integrate with your Shopify customer data and can suggest made-for-each-other items that will turn a customer’s purchase into something they’ll love.

2. Create personalized marketing messages

Order history also lets you improve the experience you offer to consumers, one customer at a time. Instead of sending generic (and general) emails to your entire list, you can tailor your marketing messages in really specific ways. 

Again, it’s all about trends: review a repeat customer’s order details to know when they make purchases, what they buy, and how often they shop with you.

Use Shopify’s dynamic segmentation tools to group customers based on the unified data in their customer profiles. From there, proactively curate their experience and send campaigns that are highly relevant to their interests to leave them feeling more satisfied and highly valued, encourage brand loyalty, and increase customer lifetime value.

Want to give it a whirl? Try something like:

• Sending personalized, timely replenishment reminders based on customers' purchase history and typical buying cycles—and including a small gift or coupon for what they purchase most frequently to encourage a bigger sale in the future.
• Offering special or exclusive deals that only “top customers” receive. They’ll feel valued and might add something new or extra onto their usual purchase.
• Setting up automated welcome campaigns for new customers with tailored product suggestions based on their first purchase.
• Creating win-back campaigns with time-limited discounts for customers who haven't purchased in a while.
• Aligning seasonal promotions with geographic data and past purchase patterns to deliver targeted campaigns that drive higher engagement.
• Create a streamlined checkout experience for repeat customers by saving their preferences, shipping details, and payment information through Shop Pay to increase checkout conversion.
• Developing strategic cart abandonment campaigns that address common purchase barriers and provide personalized solutions.
• Launching birthday and anniversary campaigns that celebrate customer milestones with special rewards to create emotional connections with your brand.

“We identified the segment in Shopify, created a discount, communicated with them in a way that was very personalized, and we saw about 30% of those people convert,” says Alex Dashefsky, co-founder of Airsign.

3. Target your promotions and advertisements

Use customer demographic data to target audiences on paid social advertisements and other promotions you want to run. If you know you have a bestselling item that everyone wants around Mother’s Day, for example, an ad you create and run in April and early May will likely get more traction than an ad you run for the same item in September.

Retail media networks like Shopify Audiences can help you find high-intent buyers and optimize your advertising performance across platforms. It offers targeting data to reach relevant customers at scale and lower acquisition costs.

Ecommerce furniture brand Nathan James struggled with marketing inefficiencies due to a lack of ad attribution and targeting. The retailer expanded to a 10% Lookalike Audience to avoid higher advertising costs (CPMs) and saved money on ads. However, this strategy increased targeting to low-intent buyers, resulting in lower click-through rates (CTR), higher customer acquisition costs, and a sharp drop in return on ad spend (ROAS). 

Nathan James started using Shopify Audiences, leveraging Shopify’s first-party data and precise targeting capabilities to create highly relevant target audiences. This enabled the brand to create optimized Facebook lookalike audiences that:

• More than doubled purchase rates
• Lowered customer acquisition costs by 52%
• Drove a 176% increase in conversion ratios
• Gained over $100,000 in incremental revenue

4. Send thank you notes

In the rush to ring up the next sale, you may forget to appreciate customers for purchasing something from you and for their loyalty. Nothing builds that relationship like saying “thank you” at the right time in an unexpected or personal way. 

Use direct mail to send a handwritten note expressing your appreciation for their business, or send a swag bag filled with a few branded goodies. For example, a beauty retailer might send personalized skincare recommendations and samples with a thank-you note after a customer's third purchase to boost loyalty and increase sales.

Sending a handwritten note in every order might not be sustainable at scale. Combine automated thank-you messages through email and SMS and reserve handwritten notes for milestone purchases or key customers to maximize efficiency while maintaining authentic connections.

5. Reduce stockouts 

Order history serves as a blueprint when you need to decide how to boost sales. Instead of guessing, you can make informed choices based on data and trends.

That includes keeping accurate inventory, even during your busiest periods. Maintaining stocked shelves means you don’t run out of stock and miss out on sales opportunities—and you keep customers happy.

It also means knowing what sells well and creating plans and promotions to feature that in-store and online to encourage even more sales. On the flip side, you can discontinue the products that take up shelf space but aren’t popular with customers.

Plus, order history data helps you market better by providing you with the necessary information to create highly targeted campaigns and ads. You can send relevant messages and offers to specific groups of customers based on their recent purchases.

💡Pro tip: The Stocky app for Shopify POS can help you manage inventory and prevent stockouts. Generate reports to find out your optimal stock levels for each SKU, then have the app automatically raise purchase orders with the relevant supplier when quantities dip below your threshold.

Make the most of order history data 

Ready to make use of customer order history to make smart decisions about how to market products and keep shelves stocked? You can get started right away, provided you have the right POS. 

If you still need a system that allows you to dive deeply into the data to better manage your shop, try Shopify now. It unifies order data from every sales channel—including your retail stores, ecommerce websites, marketplaces, and social media storefronts—to give the full picture of who’s buying what.