Advanced Insights is currently available to Lightspeed Restaurant customers in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. To get access to this feature, contact your Sales Account Manager or Lightspeed Support.
Customer retention is an important indicator of a restaurant’s profitability and success. Visit this report for a breakdown of new vs. repeat customers, and discover if guests are returning to your restaurant.
Advanced Insights defines a "customer" as an individual who pays with a credit card. When a new customer pays with a card at your restaurant, the system creates a unique profile for that customer. If the customer returns and uses a different credit card with the same name, Advanced Insights counts them as a repeat customer and adds the transactions to the same unique profile. A separate card transaction is counted as a distinct visit even if the transactions occurred on the same day.
Accessing the Card sales report
Advanced Insights organizes your card sales data in a graph and table. To get started, choose your location and time frame.
- Sign in to your Advanced Insights dashboard.
- In the main navigation menu, click Sales. On the Sales page, select the Card sales tab.
- At the top of the navigation menu, click the Location drop-down and select whether to run the report for a particular location or All locations.
- By default, the report displays data for the last 28 days. To choose a different time frame, click the calendar drop-down in the upper right corner. Optionally, click Custom to specify the time period using a calendar, but you cannot select a date range longer than three months.
Filtering the report
After running the report, you can filter your data or compare it for two different time periods.
- To filter your results, use the View by drop-down and select Day or Week.
- To compare two time periods, use the Compare to drop-down and select from Previous period, Previous year, or Daily averages.
For a description of each comparison type, see the table below.
Comparison type descriptions
| Comparison type | Description |
| Previous period | Compares the selected time period with the prior time period. For example, if you are viewing sales for the last 14 days, the report compares these sales to sales from the 14 days prior. |
| Previous year | Compares the selected time period with the same time period from the previous year. For example, if you are viewing sales for June 22, 2022, the report compares these sales to sales for June 22, 2021. |
| Daily averages | Calculated by taking the average values for that specific day of the week, using all historical data up to that point. For example, the daily average for Friday, May 20, 2022, is calculated from the sales for all Fridays until the 20th. |
Understanding the Card sales bar-line chart
The Card sales bar-line chart is a visual representation of your card sales data. The chart displays your data as a bar graph in two colors: light blue represents your new customers and dark blue represents your repeat customers. If you are comparing your data, the graph displays an orange line to represent the previous time period.
Hover over the bar for a day or week to view a breakdown of Card sales, New sales, Repeat sales, and Transactions. For a description of each metric, see the table below.
Card sales metrics
| Metric | Description |
| Card sales | Total credit card sales by day or week for a specified period of time. |
| New sales | The percentage of sales that are new sales, based on the card that was used. |
| Repeat sales | The percentage of sales that are repeat sales, based on the card that was used. |
| Transactions | The total number of transactions by day or week for a specified period of time. |
Understanding the Card sales table
The Card sales table can be filtered by day or week and by location for a specified period of time. If you are comparing time periods, the table also displays the percentage increase (in green) or decrease (in red) in gross sales.
For a description of each column, see the table below.
Card sales columns
| Column | Description |
| Date or Location |
If you view card sales data for one location, the table organized your data by days or weeks for the specified time. If you select All Locations, the table lists the card sales totals for each location. |
| Total card sales | Total credit card sales by day or week for a specified period of time. |
| New sales | The percentage of sales that are new sales, based on the card that was used. |
| Repeat sales | The percentage of sales that are repeat sales, based on the card that was used. |
| Average sales | The average card sale amount. This is calculated by dividing the total card sale amount by the total number of transactions. |