Does deleting products impact store analytics and customer order history?

[AyushGarg]

Hi, I am actually at a place where I'm rebooting my brand and just adding a few new products, as I delete the old ones, which we are no longer going to sell. Before I delete all the current products and add fresh new designs, I wanted to know how drastic of an impact it could have on my store analytics?

- Will it mess up my total sales?

- Will it mess up my total orders till date?
- Will it remove order details of customers who previously purchased a product that is now deleted?

- Will I no longer be able to see what products a customer previously bought if that product was deleted?
- Are the deleted products simply going to be erased from abandoned carts and could I still see which product was abandoned?

[Holly]

Hi @AyushGarg !

These are all great questions. Having deleted products on my own store, I can tend to these questions for you. I will paste your questions and answer them below in bold:

- Will it mess up my total sales?

No - your sales are based on monetary income and not solely on the type of product that was sold. Reporting on sales will not be affected.

- Will it mess up my total orders till date?

No - you can go as far back as you'd like to view total orders and sale amounts without being affected by product deletion. The same applies for any kind of report you wish to pull that may have included the deleted product. It will still show data for it.
- Will it remove order details of customers who previously purchased a product that is now deleted?

No - every order will continue to display the product name as it was when it existed or before it was modified. Any deleted product will still apear in the order timeline but will not be a link you can click from the backend. 

- Will I no longer be able to see what products a customer previously bought if that product was deleted?

No - as stated above, the product name will appear - just not hyperlinked to the actual backend of the product.
- Are the deleted products simply going to be erased from abandoned carts and could I still see which product was abandoned?

From my experience with this earlier in the year, the product will still appear in abandoned carts but the link will be broken when the customer tries to access it. So it's best to keep on top of those carts so that you can keep customers informed.

Another thing you can consider is simply archiving the product. It will be moved in a specific section of your admin's product page and can be retrieved in future should you decide to make it live again. Deleting the product will permanently delete it from your account - without impacting analytics. Simply the details and specs of the product will no longer be accessible. 

I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Cheers!

[amyLXC]

Hi Holly - are there any plans to be able to archive variants?

This seems to be a big gap in the product when only 1 variant of a given item is sold out or discontinued and we want to remove it. The only option is to delete variants, or spend money building workarounds to manage variants in a more flexible way.

Thanks!

[CrystalGirl]

Hello, what about COGS, will that stay attached to the order for year end tax reporting or will that be lost when we delete a product? 

Thank you 

Mindy 

[Houseof423]

Hi Crystal, I’m wondering this same thing. Did you find an answer from anyone that you could pass along?