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Markers

Mark events such as a newsletter or a price promotion in the statistics charts and compare the time before and after.

A marker records when something happened that may affect sales: a newsletter, a price promotion, a maintenance window. Markers show up in the time charts of the statistics. With Show impact you compare orders and revenue after the event with the time before and with the usual level.

Where to find it

Open Reports > Markers. The page is called Markers and impact. It has two parts: the list Markers and the area Show impact.

Markers also appear directly in the time charts under Statistics, for example on Reports > Statistics and Reports > Statistics > Orders.

What you need

  • The permission View markers to see your own and team markers and to open the impact analysis.
  • Edit own markers to create, change and delete your own markers.
  • Manage all markers to see and change other people's private markers and to open the audit log of the markers.
  • Export impact (CSV) to download the impact analysis.
  • For the impact analysis: order data from the connected shop, see Onboarding wizard.

Permissions are assigned in Access.

How do I create a marker?

  1. Open Reports > Markers.
  2. Click New marker.
  3. Fill in the fields:
Field What to enter
Label A short name, for example "Spring newsletter".
Start (date and time) When the event began. Times are in German time, to the minute.
End (optional) When it ended. Leave empty for a single moment. A marker can span one year at most.
Type Shop switch, Maintenance / outage, Promotion, Price promotion, Event / newsletter, Process change or Other.
Note Anything that helps later, for example the target group.
Link (optional) A web address that starts with https:// or http://.
Visible to Private (you and admins) or Team.
  1. Click Save. The message "Marker saved." appears and the marker is in the list.

Note: Each person can have at most 300 markers.

How do I create a marker directly from a chart?

  1. Open a statistics page with a time chart, for example Reports > Statistics.
  2. Click New marker on the chart card. The button appears only with the permission Edit own markers.
  3. The start is filled in with the current time. Change it if needed, fill in the other fields and click Save.

How do I see markers in the charts?

  1. Open Reports > Statistics or Reports > Statistics > Orders.
  2. Choose a period that contains the event.
  3. The markers of this period are drawn in the time charts.
  4. Click a marker and choose Show impact to open its impact analysis.

You see your own markers and the markers with the visibility Team. Private markers of other people are visible only with Manage all markers.

How do I check the impact of an event?

  1. Open Reports > Markers.
  2. Click a marker in the list. The area Show impact loads.
  3. Read the sentence at the top. It says in plain words how orders and revenue changed, for example compared with the same length of time before.
  4. Read the table. Per key metric (Orders, Revenue, Avg. basket, Items per order, With voucher) it shows After, Before, Usual, vs. before and vs. usual.
  5. The charts Orders and Revenue show three lines: After, Before (same length) and Usual (4-week avg.).

Choosing the time window

Use Time window after to set how long after the start plinth looks: Automatic, 1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours or 7 days. Automatic picks a window that fits the length and age of the marker.

While the window is still running, the result is marked Live and refreshes by itself.

Warning: Timing alone doesn't prove an effect. Other things may have happened at the same time. Read the impact as a hint, not as proof.

How do I compare several markers?

  1. Open Reports > Markers.
  2. Tick up to 3 markers in the list.
  3. Click Compare. The impact of the selected markers is shown one below the other.

How do I export the impact as CSV?

  1. Open the impact of one or several markers.
  2. Click Download CSV in the area Show impact.
  3. The file contains the time series (orders and revenue after, before and usual) and the key metrics with their changes.

The button appears only with the permission Export impact (CSV).

Note: There is no file import for markers. Markers are created one by one in the dialog.

How do I change or delete a marker?

  1. Open Reports > Markers.
  2. Click Edit on the marker.
  3. Change the fields and click Save, or click Delete and confirm "Delete this marker?".

You can change your own markers. With Manage all markers you can also change the markers of other people; the list then shows the Owner.

How do I see who changed a marker?

  1. Open Reports > Markers.
  2. Click Audit log at the top of the page. The button appears only with the permission Manage all markers.
  3. The dialog Who changed what lists the action, when it happened and who did it.

Common errors and fixes

Message Cause Fix
"...: enter date and time (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM)." The start or end has no valid date and time. Enter date and time completely.
"The end is before the start." The end date lies before the start. Correct End (optional) or leave it empty.
"A marker can span one year at most." Start and end are more than one year apart. Shorten the marker or create several.
"The link must start with https:// or http:// (or be a path like /stats)." The link is not a web address. Enter the full address including https://.
"... can't be empty." / "... is too long (at most ... characters)." A required field is empty or a text is too long. Fill in the field or shorten the text.
"Each person can have at most 300 markers." You have reached the limit. Delete old markers you no longer need.
"This marker belongs to someone else." You tried to change a marker of another person. Ask the owner or a person with Manage all markers.
"There is no impact analysis for this type." The marker has the type Shop switch or Maintenance / outage. These are never analysed with a before/after comparison. Use these types only to mark the event in the charts.
"The event is still in the future." The start has not been reached yet. Open the impact after the event.
"Too early to say: the event happened only a few minutes ago." Too little time has passed. Look again later.
"Too few orders for a reliable comparison (...)" Fewer than 10 orders in one of the windows. Choose a longer Time window after.
"That didn't work. Reload the page and try again." The page is out of date or the connection failed. Reload the page and repeat the step.

See also