Seller Spending Insights
Introduction
Spending Insights is a unified dashboard in Seller Center that brings together all of your business costs, including base commissions, promotional spending, advertising, and affiliate fees — into one clear, transparent view. It provides AI-powered insights and actionable recommendations to help you understand where your money is going and how to get the best returns.
What are the benefits?
- See all your costs in one place: No more jumping between Fund Center, Ads Manager, and Data Compass. Your commissions, promotions, ad spend, and affiliate costs are all broken down by category on a single page.
- Get AI-powered insights: Spending Insights automatically analyzes your cost and GMV trends and explains what changed and why, so you don't have to figure it out yourself.
- Discover new growth opportunities: The page surfaces actionable recommendations, like joining a growth package, activating commission savings, etc.
- Make smarter investment decisions: With unified metrics like Total Cost, Marketing Efficiency Ratio, and New Customer Orders, you can compare the performance of different investment channels and decide where to put your money next.
How to access Spending Insights
Spending Insights appears as a new sub-menu under Marketing in the Seller Center left navigation. Go to Seller Center > Marketing > Spending Insights to access it.
How to use Spending Insights
Step 1: Review your Investment Overview
The top of the page gives you a snapshot of your total business investment. Key metrics include:
- Total Cost: All commissions, promotions, ads, and affiliate spend combined, with a period-over-period comparison, so you can see how your spending is trending.
- GMV and Net Sales: Your revenue metrics with clear definitions. Just hover over any metric to see the exact calculation.
- Marketing Efficiency Ratio: How much revenue each dollar of marketing spend is generating. You can choose whether to include referral fees in the calculation by clicking on the metric.
- New Customer Orders: How many first-time buyers placed orders in your shop during the selected period.
The AI-powered insight card at the top explains what changed in your costs and performance, why it changed, and what actions you can take next. This helps you quickly spot trends without digging through numbers yourself.
Step 2: Understand your commission costs
Scroll down to the Referral Fee section to see:
- Referral Fee: The actual commission you paid (excluding refunded orders), along with your effective fee rate.
- Rebate Amount: Any settled rebates you received during the period (will be shown only if you have any rebates available)
Hover over any metric for a detailed definition. Commission policy cards explain which reduction programs are currently active for your shop and how much they saved you.
Step 3: Optimize your marketing spend
The Marketing Costs section breaks down all your promotional and traffic costs:
- Smart Promotion Package: Costs from ongoing smart promotions you're participating in.
- Campaign Fees: Costs from different campaigns you've participated in.
- Growth Package: Costs from growth-oriented paid packages.
- GMV Max: Your ad spend with a drill-down to see Gross Revenue and ROI.
- Affiliate: Creator commission costs with a drill-down to see creator-attributed GMV.
Strategy cards in this section guide you toward specific actions:
- Join a growth package: When you're eligible, a card shows the estimated incremental GMV and a one-click apply button.
- Transfer self-marketing budget: When your self-marketing ROI is low, the hub recommends shifting a portion of that budget to platform-optimized growth packages, with pre-filled configurations ready to go.
- Activate dynamic commission: When you're eligible for commission savings through GMV Max, a card shows the offer with your enrollment status.
Step 4: Take action on recommendations
Each strategy card includes clear buttons to get started:
- Join Now: Opens a quick-registration drawer for the recommended campaign or package.
- View Details: Opens the relevant detail page, like your campaign dashboard, Ads Manager, or Affiliate insights.
- Apply Recommended Strategy: Pre-fills growth package settings (budget, target products) based on your current self-marketing spend, ready for one-click confirmation.
All recommendations are based on your actual shop data and platform-defined thresholds. You stay in full control; recommendations are suggestions, not requirements.
Step 5: Track your progress over time
Use the time filter at the top of the page (default: last 7 days, maximum 3 months) to compare periods and see how changes in your investment affect performance. The overview automatically recalculates all metrics and updates the AI insights for the selected period, so you can track your progress at a glance.
Spending Insights FAQs
Q: What is Spending Insights?
A: Spending Insights is a unified dashboard in Seller Center that brings together all your business costs — including base commissions, promotional spending, advertising, and affiliate fees — into one clear, transparent view. It provides AI-powered insights and actionable recommendations to help you understand where your money is going and how to get the best returns.
Q: What metrics are included in Total Cost?
A: Total Cost includes all commissions, promotions, ads, and affiliate spend combined, with a period-over-period comparison so you can see how your spending is trending.
Q: How is Spending Insights different from the Fund Center or Ads Manager?
A: Unlike the Fund Center or Ads Manager, which show individual cost categories in isolation, Spending Insights consolidates all your business costs into a single dashboard with AI-powered analysis, cross-channel comparisons, and actionable recommendations — eliminating the need to jump between multiple tools.
Q: What time periods can I view?
A: You can view data for any period up to 3 months using the time filter at the top of the page. The default view is the last 7 days.
Q: How often is the data updated?
A: The data in Spending Insights refreshes regularly to reflect your latest costs, GMV, and performance metrics. The overview automatically recalculates all metrics for your selected time period.
Q: How are the AI-powered insights generated?
A: The AI automatically analyzes your cost and Net sale trends, identifies significant changes, and explains what changed and why. It then surfaces actionable recommendations based on your actual shop data and platform-defined thresholds.
Q: Can I take action directly from Spending Insights?
A: Yes. Each strategy card includes clear action buttons such as "Join Now" to enroll in recommended campaigns or packages, "View Details" to navigate to the relevant detail page, or "Apply Recommended Strategy" with pre-filled settings for one-click confirmation.
Q: Is Spending Insights available to all sellers?
A: Spending Insights is being rolled out to eligible sellers. You can check availability by looking for the Spending Insights sub-menu under Marketing in your Seller Center navigation, or on the AI-powered Seller Center homepage.
Q: What is the Marketing Efficiency Ratio?
A: Marketing Efficiency Ratio measures how much revenue each dollar of marketing spend generates. You can choose whether to include referral fees in the calculation by clicking on the metric itself.
Q: Can I customize which metrics I see?
A: The dashboard presents a comprehensive set of key metrics by default. Hover over any metric to see its exact calculation and definition. The time filter allows you to compare different periods to track your progress over time.