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How to Create a Retail Dashboard in Google Sheets with ChatGPT

Cody Schneider•

Making sense of your retail data can feel overwhelming, especially when it’s spread across different systems. Building a dashboard is the perfect solution, but figuring out complex spreadsheet formulas can stop you before you even start. This tutorial will walk you through creating a powerful retail dashboard in Google Sheets, using ChatGPT as your personal formula expert to do the heavy lifting for you.

First, Why Use Google Sheets and ChatGPT?

Before building, let's look at why this combination is so effective for retail businesses. It’s accessible, fast, and doesn't require a data science degree.

The Power of Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a fantastic starting point for dashboards for several reasons:

  • It's Free and Accessible: Anyone with a Google account can use it. No special software is needed.

  • Cloud-Based and Collaborative: Your dashboard is live online, making it easy to share with your team, business partners, or investors. Everyone sees the same version, updated in real-time.

  • Familiar Interface: Most people have some experience with spreadsheets, so the environment feels less intimidating than a dedicated business intelligence tool.

Adding a Secret Weapon: ChatGPT

This is where things get interesting. The biggest hurdle in Google Sheets is often remembering the right formulas to calculate metrics and manipulate data. ChatGPT can act as your on-demand data analyst, translating your plain-English questions into precise formulas you can copy and paste.

Instead of searching for "how to sum a column based on a condition," you can simply ask ChatGPT: "Give me a Google Sheets formula that adds up all the sales from the 'Apparel' category." This fundamentally changes the game, making powerful analysis accessible to everyone.

Step 1: Get Your Retail Data Organized

A great dashboard is built on a foundation of clean, well-structured data. You can't visualize what you don't have, so the first step is always gathering and organizing your numbers.

Gathering Your Essential Data

Most retail businesses have data coming from a few key sources. You’ll want to export your reports as a CSV or Excel file from platforms like:

  • Point of Sale (POS) System: Shopify, Square, Lightspeed (for sales transactions, products sold, revenue, customer info).

  • E-commerce Platform: Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce (for online orders, traffic sources, conversion rates).

  • Marketing Platforms: Facebook Ads, Google Ads (for ad spend, clicks, cost per acquisition).

For this tutorial, we will focus on core sales data. Create a new Google Sheet and export a simple transaction report containing fields like Date, Order ID, Product Name, Category, Units Sold, and Price.

Cleaning and Structuring Your Data Tab

Once you have your export, it’s time to set up your Google Sheet. It's best practice to keep your raw data separate from your dashboard visuals.

  1. Create a new Google Sheet. Rename the first tab to "RawData".

  2. Paste your exported sales data into this tab.

  3. Consistency is key. Make sure your column headers are simple and clear (e.g., 'Date', 'Category', 'Revenue'). Check for consistent formatting — dates should be in a standard date format, and numbers should be formatted as currency or plain numbers.

Step 2: Designing Your Dashboard Layout

Now, let's create the canvas for your visuals. Create a new tab and name it "Dashboard". Think about the most important questions you need to answer about your business at a glance. These are your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

A good retail dashboard often includes:

  • High-Level KPIs: Total Revenue, Total Units Sold, Average Order Value (AOV).

  • Trend Analysis: A chart showing sales over time (daily, weekly, or monthly).

  • Performance Breakdowns: A chart showing top-selling products or best-performing product categories.

Organize your "Dashboard" tab by mapping out where each KPI and chart will go. You can use cell borders and colors to create distinct sections. This visual organization makes the final product much easier to read.

Step 3: Building The Dashboard with ChatGPT's Help

This is where the magic happens. We'll go block by block, asking ChatGPT for the formulas we need to bring our dashboard to life. For each prompt, be specific about what you need, referring to your tab name ("RawData") and column headers.

Calculating High-Level KPIs

Let’s start with the big numbers at the top of our dashboard. Let's assume your revenue data is in Column F of your "RawData" sheet.

Go to ChatGPT and use this prompt:

I have a Google Sheet with a tab named "RawData". All my sales revenue is in Column F. What is the formula to calculate the total sum of this column?

ChatGPT will likely give you something clear and simple:

=SUM(RawData!F:F)

Copy this formula and paste it into the "Total Revenue" cell on your "Dashboard" tab. Now, let’s get the Average Order Value (AOV). A simple AOV is total revenue divided by the number of unique orders. Let's say your Order ID is in Column B.

Here’s another prompt:

Using the same "RawData" tab, I need a formula for Average Order Value. Total revenue is the sum of Column F. The number of unique orders can be found by counting the unique Order IDs in Column B.

It will provide a more advanced formula, likely combining SUM and COUNTUNIQUE:

=SUM(RawData!F:F) / COUNTUNIQUE(RawData!B:B)

Paste this into your AOV cell. Just like that, you have two critical KPIs calculating automatically, with no need to read through lengthy formula documentation yourself.

Creating a "Sales Over Time" Chart

Visualizing trends is essential. A line chart that shows your revenue by date is perfect for this. But first, we need to summarize the data.

This is an ideal task for Google Sheet’s powerful QUERY function, which can feel very intimidating to write from scratch. Not with ChatGPT.

Your prompt:

My "RawData" tab has Dates in Column A and Revenue in Column F. Can you write a Google Sheets QUERY formula to sum the total revenue for each date? The headers are in the first row.

ChatGPT will return a formula that creates a perfect summary table for you:

=QUERY(RawData!A:F, "SELECT A, SUM(F) WHERE A IS NOT NULL GROUP BY A LABEL A 'Date', SUM(F) 'Total Revenue'")

Paste into an empty section of your "Dashboard" tab or in a new "ChartData" tab. This formula will generate a new table with two columns: one for the date, and one for the total revenue on that date. Simply highlight this new table, go to Insert > Chart, and select a line chart. Voila! You have a dynamic sales trend visual.

Visualizing Top Product Categories

Next, let's find out which product categories drive the most revenue. This is another perfect job for the QUERY function.

Your prompt to ChatGPT:

In my "RawData" tab, Product Categories are in Column D and Revenue is in Column F. Write a QUERY formula to show me the total revenue for each category, sorted from highest revenue to lowest.

The output will be something like this:

=QUERY(RawData!A:F, "SELECT D, SUM(F) WHERE D IS NOT NULL GROUP BY D ORDER BY SUM(F) DESC LABEL D 'Category', SUM(F) 'Total Revenue'")

Paste this into your dashboard to create a summary table. Highlight it, go to Insert > Chart, and choose a Bar Chart or Pie Chart. You’ll instantly see which categories are your top performers.

Pro-Tips for an Effective Dashboard

Building the components is half the battle. Presenting them effectively makes the difference between a pretty picture and an actionable tool.

  • Don’t Overclutter: Focus on 3-5 key questions. A dashboard that tries to show everything often communicates nothing. Stick to the metrics that matter most for your daily, weekly, or monthly decisions.

  • Use Clear Titles and Labels: Label your charts and axes clearly. Someone should be able to understand what they're looking at in under five seconds without needing an explanation.

  • Keep It Updated: A dashboard is only useful if the data is recent. In this Google Sheets setup, you'll need to manually add new sales data to the "RawData" tab periodically. Make it a routine — for example, update it every Monday morning.

Final Thoughts

You’ve just seen how to transform a plain spreadsheet into a dynamic retail dashboard that provides valuable insights for your business. By combining the accessibility of Google Sheets with the power of ChatGPT as a formula assistant, complex data analysis becomes surprisingly straightforward, empowering you to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

While this manual process in Google Sheets is a massive step up from having no dashboard at all, keeping the data fresh can become a chore, especially as your business grows. We built Graphed to eliminate that final, frustrating step. Instead of exporting CSVs and pasting data, you can connect your Shopify, Google Analytics, and ad platforms directly. From there, just ask questions in plain English — like "show me my revenue by product category" or "compare Facebook ad spend to Shopify sales" — and our AI instantly builds a live, real-time dashboard for you that never goes out of date.