Use Claude for Shopify Analytics (Step-by-Step Guide)

Someone shared this workflow on Twitter and it blew up: “Export your Shopify order data, upload to Claude, talk, enjoy useful insights.”

It sounds too simple to be powerful. But I tried it, and the insights I got would have cost thousands from an analytics consultant.

Here’s exactly how to do it.

What You Can Learn From Your Shopify Data

Your Shopify data contains patterns you’ve never noticed:

• Which products are frequently bought together
• What time of day your customers shop
• Customer lifetime value by acquisition source
• Seasonal trends and anomalies
• Which discounts actually drive profitable sales
• Product combinations that increase average order value

Shopify’s built-in analytics are good but limited. Claude can dig deeper.

Step 1: Export Your Data

In Shopify Admin:

1. Go to Orders -> Export
2. Select the date range you want
3. Choose “All orders” or filter as needed
4. Export as CSV

For deeper analysis, also export:

• Customers (Settings -> Customer accounts -> Export)
• Products (Products -> Export)

Start with just orders. That’s usually enough for great insights.

Step 2: Upload to Claude

Open Claude (claude.ai or Claude Code). Upload your CSV file.

Claude can read CSV files directly. No preprocessing needed unless your file is massive (in which case, filter to recent orders first).

Step 3: Ask Smart Questions

Here are questions that generate valuable insights:

Product Analysis:

• “What are my top 10 products by revenue? By profit margin?”
• “Which products are most often bought together?”
• “Are there products that are frequently abandoned in cart?”

Customer Analysis:

• “Segment my customers by purchase frequency and spending”
• “What’s the average time between first and second purchase?”
• “Which customer segments are most profitable?”

Timing Analysis:

• “What day of week do I get the most orders?”
• “Are there seasonal patterns in my sales?”
• “When during the day are customers most likely to buy?”

Promotion Analysis:

• “Which discount codes drove the highest AOV?”
• “Do discounted orders have lower repeat purchase rates?”
• “What’s the ROI of my different promotion types?”

Step 4: Get Recommendations

Once Claude understands your data, ask for action items:

“Based on this data, what are the three biggest opportunities to increase revenue?”

“What products should I promote more based on margin and demand?”

“What customer segment should I focus my marketing on?”

Claude will synthesize the patterns and give you specific, actionable recommendations.

Real Example

I did this with a client’s Shopify data (with permission). Here’s what we found:

• Their second-best selling product was their highest margin. They’d been pushing their #1 seller, which had lower margins.
• Customers who bought a specific product combination had 3x higher lifetime value. They created a bundle and promoted it.
• Tuesday afternoons had unusually high conversion rates. They moved their email sends to Tuesday mornings.
• One discount code was driving high volume but negative profitability. They killed it.

Total time: about 45 minutes. Changes implemented increased profit by 20% over the next month.

Advanced: Building Custom Reports

Once you’re comfortable with basic analysis, try this:

“Create a weekly report template that tracks: revenue, AOV, new vs returning customers, top products, and refund rate. Show me how to automate updating it.”

Claude can generate code that processes your data exports and creates formatted reports. Set it up once, run it weekly.

Privacy and Security

Some important notes:

• Customer data contains personal information. Handle it carefully.
• Claude doesn’t store your data between sessions (it’s not trained on uploads).
• Consider anonymizing data before upload if you’re sharing sensitive info.
• Check your privacy policy if you’re concerned about third-party processing.

Beyond Shopify

This workflow works for any business data:

• Stripe payment exports
• Google Analytics data
• Email marketing metrics
• Ad platform exports
• CRM exports

Export the data, upload to Claude, ask questions. The pattern is the same.

You don’t need to hire analysts or learn complex BI tools. You just need to ask the right questions.