T51 Executive dashboard monthly commentary
Executive dashboard monthly commentary
What Delacroix Home Goods' August executive dashboard shows, why the numbers moved and what leadership should do about it. Prepared by Clearview Analytics for the Delacroix leadership team. All figures below are labelled as either measured from the client's connected systems or modeled, and cover Aug 1 to Aug 31, 2026 unless stated otherwise.
Sample template: the firm, people, clients and figures are fictional and shown for illustration only.
Live example from the Dashboards app, shown with Willow & Peak's demo data.
Metric by metric
Live example from the Dashboards app, shown with Willow & Peak's demo data.
| Metric | July | August | Change | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net revenue | $395,700 | $412,300 | +4.2% | |
| Gross margin | 58.8% | 57.0% | -1.8 pts | |
| Average order value | $86.40 | $91.10 | +5.4% | |
| Returning customer rate | 28.9% | 31.0% | +2.1 pts | |
| Paid marketing ROAS (blended) | 3.4 | 3.1 | -0.3 | |
| Cart abandonment rate | 68.2% | 71.5% | +3.3 pts |
Why revenue and AOV rose
The mid-August bundle promotion (buy two candles, get a diffuser at 30% off) lifted average order value from $86.40 to $91.10 and drove 62% of the month's revenue growth. Returning customers responded more strongly than new customers, which also explains the rise in returning customer rate: repeat buyers already knew the products well enough to add the diffuser without hesitation.
Why margin fell
Gross margin dropped 1.8 points because the bundle promotion carries a lower blended margin than standalone candle sales, and freight costs rose after the carrier's August rate adjustment. Neither is a data problem; both are expected effects of a margin-trading promotion that leadership approved on Aug 3.
Why ROAS fell and cart abandonment rose
Paid marketing ROAS fell from 3.4 to 3.1 while cart abandonment rose to 71.5%. These two are linked: a checkout page change shipped Aug 19 added a mandatory account-creation step before payment, which we believe is suppressing conversion on paid traffic specifically, since paid visitors are less tolerant of friction than direct visitors. This is a hypothesis, not yet confirmed by a controlled test.
Data quality caveat: blended ROAS
Paid marketing ROAS is calculated as total paid ad spend against last-click attributed revenue across three ad platforms, then modeled to remove estimated duplicate attribution. It is not a platform-reported number and should not be compared directly to any single platform's dashboard. Treat the 3.1 figure as directionally accurate, not precise to one decimal.
Checkout friction needs a controlled test
We have not yet run an A/B test isolating the Aug 19 checkout change from the ROAS decline; the link is our working hypothesis based on timing and the size of the cart abandonment jump. We recommend an A/B test removing the mandatory account step for one week before committing paid budget changes. Owner: Delacroix product team, with Clearview providing the analysis. If not tested by Sep 30, September's ROAS trend will remain unexplained.
Recommended actions
What leadership should decide this month
- Continue, adjust or end the bundle promotion given the margin trade-off.
- Approve the checkout A/B test and its owner on the product side.
- Confirm freight carrier negotiation is worth the analyst time to pursue in September.
Metric definitions
- Net revenue: order value after refunds and discounts, excluding tax and shipping, from the order system.
- Gross margin: (net revenue minus cost of goods sold minus freight) divided by net revenue, from the finance export.
- Returning customer rate: share of August orders placed by a customer with at least one prior order, from the order system.
- Blended ROAS: total paid ad spend across all platforms against last-click attributed revenue, deduplicated by a modeled adjustment. See the data quality caveat above.
- Cart abandonment rate: carts with at least one item that did not reach a completed order, from the analytics platform.
How to use this template
Duplicate this page each month per client. Replace every figure from the connected dashboard and finance export; if a metric cannot be pulled for the period, write Unavailable next to it rather than estimating.
| Variable | Meaning | Required |
|---|---|---|
{{client.name}} | Client whose dashboard the commentary covers | Required |
{{report.period}} | Reporting month and comparison period | Required |
{{metric.table}} | Metric values, prior period, change and status for each row | Required |
{{narrative.why_moved}} | Explanation for each significant movement, with hypothesis flagged if unconfirmed | Required |
{{data_quality.caveat}} | Any metric that is modeled, blended or otherwise not a direct platform figure | Required when applicable |
{{action.owner_date}} | Recommended action with owner and deadline | Optional |
Never present a modeled or blended figure as a direct platform measurement; carry its caveat next to the number wherever it appears.