Shopify Sidekick is an AI assistant that analyzes your store performance data based on a question you ask in natural language and produces a visualized report. As Nodus Works, in the store management work we carry out, we've observed that most of the time spent preparing a weekly report goes into finding and filtering the data, while the actual analysis takes much less time. Sidekick eliminates exactly this first part: a question like "what was the best-converting traffic source in September?" turns into a report with a chart in seconds. We covered Sidekick's general capabilities and its place in store operations more broadly in our article on Sidekick and AI transformation on Shopify; this guide focuses solely on the reporting/analytics side, walking through its relationship with ShopifyQL and the right question patterns for the most common report types step by step.
How Does Reporting With Sidekick Work in Shopify?
Reporting with Sidekick means writing a question in natural language into the ShopifyQL query editor opened via "New exploration" under Analytics > Reports, and having Sidekick turn that question into a structured data query and show the result as a chart or table. According to Shopify's ShopifyQL schema documentation, this editor covers orders, customers, web performance, payments, and fulfillment, as well as inventory, marketing, profitability, returns, discounts, and tax data.
The mechanism works in three steps: first you write your question in natural language ("Which product category had the most returns this month?"); Sidekick converts this question into a ShopifyQL query behind the scenes; the query runs and the result is automatically visualized with the appropriate chart type (line chart, bar chart, or table). According to Shopify's documentation, Sidekick can also show you the query it generated; this provides transparency for users who want to verify the logic behind the report.
Sidekick keeps your previous questions in the conversation history; this means that after getting a report, you can narrow it down with a follow-up question like "now show this only for mobile users." This resembles an interactive analysis process rather than a one-off query.
What Is ShopifyQL, and How Does Sidekick Use It?
ShopifyQL is a query language Shopify developed to query store data; it resembles SQL but is specific to e-commerce concepts (orders, products, customer segments). This is the technical foundation of Sidekick's reporting feature: you ask a question in natural language, and Sidekick translates it into a valid ShopifyQL statement.
For developers who want to write ShopifyQL directly, there's also a separate "ShopifyQL editor" in the admin panel; but the real value of Sidekick is that you can reach the same result without ever learning this syntax. In the stores we manage at Nodus Works, we see store owners without a technical team getting reports at the same depth just by asking Sidekick, never opening the ShopifyQL editor at all.
ShopifyQL's scope isn't limited to order and product data; it also covers payment, fulfillment, and web performance data. That's why the range of questions you can ask Sidekick goes well beyond simple queries like "best-selling product" — a cross-cutting analysis like "how does the return rate vary by payment method" can also be obtained with a single question.
Step by Step: Get Sidekick to Generate Your First Report
To get your first Sidekick report, it's enough to open the analytics query editor from the admin panel and write a question in natural language; the steps below walk through this process from start to finish.
Step 1: Go to the Analytics > Reports section in your Shopify admin and open the query editor via "New exploration." Since Sidekick supports 20 languages including Turkish, you can write your question directly in your own language.
Step 2: Write your question clearly and around a single metric. A specific question like "Show net sales by category over the last 30 days" makes it easier for Sidekick to generate the correct ShopifyQL query, compared to a general question like "Show my sales."
Step 3: Review the chart Sidekick generates and ask a follow-up question if needed. A follow-up like "filter this to only orders from Istanbul" narrows the report by building on the previous result.
Step 4: For a report you'll need regularly, note down the ShopifyQL query Sidekick shows, or save the report to a dashboard; this way you don't have to write the same question again every time.
7 Common Report Types and the Right Question Patterns
The question pattern you use with Sidekick directly determines the quality of the report you get; the seven report types and example question patterns below cover the most frequently needed analysis scenarios.
| Report Type | Example Question Pattern |
|---|---|
| Sales trend | "Show my weekly net sales over the last 90 days" |
| Product performance | "List the top 10 best-selling products this month along with their return rates" |
| Traffic source analysis | "Which traffic source has the highest conversion rate this month?" |
| Customer segmentation | "List customers who haven't ordered in 90 days but placed more than 3 orders before that" |
| Campaign/coupon analysis | "Compare the most-used discount codes in the last campaign by average cart value" |
| Return analysis | "Group the products with the highest return rate in the last 60 days by collection" |
| Payment/fulfillment analysis | "Compare average delivery time by payment method" |
What these patterns have in common is that they include a metric, a time range, and a breakdown dimension. "Show sales by category" instead of "show my sales" lets Sidekick correctly segment the result.
Limits of Sidekick Reports and When You Need Manual Analysis
Sidekick is limited to Shopify's own data sources (orders, customers, web, payments, fulfillment); it can't directly query data in non-Shopify systems like an ERP, accounting software, or an ad platform. If you want to analyze cost data coming from an ERP like Nebim or SAP together with your sales data in Shopify, these two sources first need to be merged (usually through an integration or a data warehouse layer).
For brands selling across multiple channels (marketplaces like Trendyol, Amazon, Noon), there's an important distinction: if an order coming from a marketplace is written into Shopify as a Shopify order by your integration tool, Sidekick sees this sale too and includes it in reports. Sidekick's real limit is data that's never written into Shopify at all and stays only in the marketplace panel (such as the marketplace's own commission or ad spend); this type of data needs a separate reporting layer. If you need broader reporting that also includes your store's SEO performance, we cover that separately as part of our SEO reporting and performance tracking service; Sidekick focuses on operational store data, while SEO reporting is a discipline specific to search engine visibility.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to know ShopifyQL to get a report with Sidekick?
No. Sidekick translates the question you ask in natural language into a ShopifyQL query behind the scenes. Knowledge of ShopifyQL is only useful for those who want to write and customize the query directly in the editor.
Can I ask Sidekick questions in my own language?
Yes. Sidekick has supported 20 languages, including Turkish, since May 2025, and automatically detects the language you write in; you can ask questions directly in your own language regardless of the admin panel's language.
What data sources do Sidekick reports cover?
Orders, customers, web performance, payments, and fulfillment data. Non-Shopify sources like ERP, accounting, or ad platforms fall outside Sidekick's scope.
Do I need to ask the same report again every week?
You can note down the ShopifyQL query Sidekick generates or save the report to a dashboard; this way you don't need to rewrite the same question every time.
Can I trust the "why" explanation Sidekick gives?
Sidekick's explanations are based on patterns in the data, not definitive proof of causation. We recommend verifying this inference with other data before making important decisions.
Conclusion
Reporting with Shopify Sidekick reduces data analysis from learning ShopifyQL or manual filtering down to simply asking a question. A store owner who uses the right question pattern (metric + time range + breakdown dimension) can complete what used to be hours of manual report preparation in seconds; the only real limit shows up where Sidekick can't reach non-Shopify data sources.
If you'd like to build a setup that reports both your in-Shopify operational data and your marketplace/ERP data together, get in touch with Nodus Works; let's evaluate your current data sources and determine together which integration will complement Sidekick's limits.
