RetailRadar: Main Street Shop Sales & Foot Traffic Dashboard

Problem and target customer

Why this exists

Customer problem

Independent retail store owners track sales, inventory turns, and customer patterns across spreadsheets and disconnected POS exports, making it hard to quickly identify underperforming products or low-stock items before they cost revenue.

Who pays

Solo or small-team independent retail shop owners who use Shopify POS or manual daily entry and need a focused analytics dashboard without building custom software.

Business model

Monthly SaaS subscription with usage-based add-ons for higher record processing volume.

Editorial note

RetailRadar targets independent retail shop owners who currently juggle POS exports and spreadsheets to understand what is selling and what is running low. The MVP focuses on one workflow: import a month of sales data, immediately see best and worst performing days and products, flag low-stock SKUs, and set a revenue goal with progress tracking.

The first version accepts Shopify POS CSV exports and a manual daily entry form, avoiding the complexity of real-time POS API integration. A warm, approachable dashboard with a dark sidebar, cream and amber KPI tiles, and responsive charts keeps the experience focused for non-technical owners.

Weekly summary emails generated from an LLM reading aggregated sales data give owners a low-effort reason to return. SMS alerts and maps-based foot traffic visualization are deferred until beta usage confirms demand.

Choose your next step

What do you need next?

Evaluate the operating tradeoffs quickly, or inspect how to build the MVP.

Evaluate this ideaSee the cost and deployment preview

Compare the three operating paths at the default workload before opening the full calculator.

See cost preview Build this ideaInspect the build blueprint

Review MVP scope, workflow, states, data rules, architecture, and acceptance criteria.

Open blueprint

Evaluation preview

What would it take to run?

Directional infrastructure estimates for the current 400 orders assumption. Open the full calculator when you are ready to change it.

Open full cost and deployment

ManagedSelected

$25-$65/ month

Managed app hosting, database, backups, and basic observability for the ecommerce workflow.

Lowest operating effort

Lean self-hosted

$8-$28/ month

One small VPS running the app, database, media volume, and backup job.

Lowest baseline cost

More control

$45-$125/ month

Separate app, data, storage, and worker capacity for cleaner operations.

Most separation and control

Build blueprint

Build the first paid use case

Product goal

Who it serves and what it must change

Target user: Independent retail shop owner using Shopify POS or manual daily entry
Problem: Sales, inventory turns, and low-stock items are scattered across POS exports and spreadsheets with no unified view
Measurable outcome: Owner can import one month of sales data and identify their worst-performing product and lowest-stock SKU within 5 minutes

MVP scope

What ships now and what waits

Included

CSV import with field validation and SKU deduplication
KPI dashboard with daily sales, inventory turns, and low-stock tiles
Product performance ranking by day and SKU
Revenue goal setting with progress tracking
Weekly summary email with LLM-generated insights

Excluded

Real-time POS API sync
Multi-store consolidated reporting
Foot traffic sensor hardware
Predictive demand forecasting

UX and user flow

Screens, actions, and states

Import

Upload Shopify POS CSV or fill manual daily entry form

Select CSV fileMap columns to SKU, date, units, revenueSubmit for validation

Dashboard

View KPI tiles, performance charts, and low-stock alerts

Review daily sales totalCheck inventory turn rateClick low-stock alert for SKU detail

Product Ranking

See best and worst performing days and products

Sort by revenue or unitsFilter by date rangeDrill into a SKU's daily trend

Revenue Goal

Set monthly target and track progress

Enter target amountView progress bar against imported salesEdit or reset goal

Primary flow

Import sales data
Validate and index records
Review performance dashboard
Set revenue goal
Receive weekly summary email

Loading, empty, and error states

No data imported
Import validation error
Dashboard loaded with data
Low-stock alert triggered
Goal progress updated

Core entity outline

Entities and business rules

Workspace

Represents a single retail shop account

Fields: id, name, owner_email, created_at
Relations: Has many Users, Has many SalesRecords, Has many Goals

SalesRecord

Stores one row of daily sales per SKU

Fields: id, workspace_id, date, sku, units_sold, revenue, source
Relations: Belongs to Workspace, References SKU

SKU

Represents a product with inventory metadata

Fields: id, workspace_id, name, current_stock, reorder_threshold
Relations: Has many SalesRecords, Belongs to Workspace

Goal

Monthly revenue target with progress tracking

Fields: id, workspace_id, month, target_amount, current_amount
Relations: Belongs to Workspace

Business rules

Each SalesRecord must have a valid date, SKU, units_sold greater than zero, and revenue greater than zero
SKU names are deduplicated within a workspace on import by matching existing SKU identifiers
Low-stock alert triggers when current_stock falls below reorder_threshold
Goal progress is recalculated after each successful import by summing revenue for the goal month
Weekly summary email sends only if the workspace has at least one SalesRecord in the past 7 days

Architecture and data flow

Components, integrations, and controls

Import Service

Accepts CSV uploads, validates fields, deduplicates SKUs, writes normalized rows to Supabase

Dashboard API

Queries Supabase for KPI aggregates, product rankings, and goal progress

Insight Generator

Calls OpenAI with aggregated weekly sales data to produce plain-language summary text

Notification Scheduler

Make scenario that runs weekly, triggers insight generation, and sends transactional email

Integrations

Supabase for data storage and auth
OpenAI API for weekly insight generation
Transactional email via Make email module
Shopify POS CSV export format for import

Data flow

Owner uploads CSV to Import Service
Import Service validates and writes SalesRecords and SKUs to Supabase
Dashboard API queries Supabase for KPI tiles and rankings
Make scenario queries weekly data and sends to OpenAI
OpenAI returns summary text and Make emails it to owner

Failure handling

Invalid CSV rows are skipped and reported back with row numbers
OpenAI timeout falls back to a templated summary without LLM text
Email send failure retries 3 times then logs error for manual review

Security

Workspace-level row security policies in Supabase isolate each shop's data
Auth required for all dashboard and import endpoints
CSV uploads limited to 10MB per file

Rate limits

OpenAI calls capped at 1 per workspace per week for MVP
CSV import limited to 1 concurrent upload per workspace
Dashboard API queries cached for 5 minutes to reduce database load

Deliverables and acceptance

Definition of done for the MVP

Deliverables

Import screen accepting Shopify POS CSV and manual entry
Dashboard with KPI tiles, product ranking charts, and low-stock alerts
Revenue goal screen with progress bar
Weekly summary email via Make and OpenAI

Acceptance criteria

Owner can upload a Shopify POS CSV with 30 days of sales and see KPI tiles populated within 10 seconds
Dashboard correctly identifies the worst-performing SKU by revenue for the imported period
Low-stock alert appears on the dashboard when a SKU's current_stock is below its reorder_threshold
Owner can set a monthly revenue goal and see a progress bar reflecting imported sales for that month
Weekly summary email is sent to the owner's email with at least 3 insights derived from the past week's data

Recommended stack

Enough technology for the first version

Frontend

Lovable

Generates the dashboard UI with dark sidebar, cream/amber KPI tiles, and Recharts-style charts from a structured prompt.

Backend

Supabase

Provides PostgreSQL for sales records, SKUs, goals, and workspace auth without custom server code.

Automation

Make

Schedules weekly summary email generation and triggers low-stock alert notifications from database changes.

Hosting

Railway

Hosts any custom backend services or scheduled jobs that Supabase and Make do not cover natively.

LLM Insights

OpenAI API

Generates plain-language weekly summary insights from aggregated sales and inventory data.

Why this is sufficient

Lovable builds the dashboard interface from the design spec. Supabase handles durable sales records, SKU indexing, and goal tracking. Make glues the weekly email and low-stock alert workflows. Railway hosts any edge services. OpenAI generates readable insight summaries from structured sales data.

Not required for the MVP

Maps API for the first MVP since foot traffic visualization is secondary to sales and inventory analyticsSMS provider until beta users confirm they want mobile low-stock alerts over emailAdvanced analytics module beyond the core KPI tiles and product ranking

Next stepTurn the blueprint into an execution plan

Copy the build prompt, model the operating cost, and choose where to deploy.

Build and ship

Execution

Build, price, and deploy the MVP

Once the blueprint is clear, use the prompt, cost model, and deployment options to start building.

Build prompt

Copy this into a builder

Lovable

Build prompt

Your build prompt is ready

Open the prompt pack whenever you are ready to take this blueprint into your builder.

Based on the blueprintReady for your builderFollow-up steps included

Cost calculator

Model the MVP operating cost

A technical run-cost estimate for the first production version. Team, acquisition, payment fees, and business COGS are excluded.

Estimated monthly total$25-$65

$13-$33 per 200 orders

Orders processed / month400 orders

Selected pathEasiest

Pricing checkedAug 2, 2026

Cost breakdown

$25-$65 per month

Low and high values allow for usage variance and plan headroom.

Managed infrastructure

Managed app hosting, database, backups, and basic observability for the ecommerce workflow.

50K orders included, then $8-$20 per 100K orders

$25-$65

Transactional email

Transactional email is implied by the source workflow or feature list.

3K orders included

Maps API

Maps API is implied by the source workflow or feature list.

1K orders included

Included

Application hosting
Relational database
Basic backups
products, shopper choices, and orders state
Transactional email
Maps API

Not included

Paid acquisition
Founder or team time
Tax or legal review
Custom enterprise procurement

Pricing basis

The estimate combines the selected infrastructure path, required operating modules, selected optional modules, and usage above included monthly allowances. Taxes and regional uplifts are excluded.

Managed app baseline Resend pricing Google Maps Platform pricing

Deployment options

Pick the operational tradeoff

Choose based on operating preference, not only the headline price.

EasiestRecommended

Railway

Fast Docker deployment for the app, database, worker, and preview workflow without managing a VPS.

$15-90/month before usage-heavy add-ons

Good fit

Fast setup
Low starting cost
Good preview workflow

Limitation

Usage billing needs active monitoring as traffic and jobs grow.

Open Railway

Cheapest

Vultr

Run the app, worker, and database on one small Vultr VPS with Docker Compose and explicit backups.

$8-60/month before managed add-ons

Good fit

Predictable baseline
Portable setup
Room for workers

Limitation

You own patching, backups, monitoring, and incident response.

Deploy on Vultr View the lean VPS guide

More control

DigitalOcean

Separate application, worker, data, storage, and backup responsibilities as the workload grows.

$10-120/month before managed add-ons

Good fit

Cloud VPS control
Global regions
Room for workers

Limitation

You own server setup, patching, backups, and operational monitoring.

Explore DigitalOcean View the separated cloud guide

Start building

Prototype, automate, then deploy

Recommended route

01Vibe-coding builderBuild the RetailRadar Dashboard UI

Generate the dashboard with dark sidebar navigation, cream/amber KPI tiles for daily sales and inventory turns, low-stock alert cards, product performance ranking charts, and a revenue goal progress bar using Recharts-style components.

Open Lovable 02AutomationAutomate Weekly Summary and Low-Stock Alerts

Schedule a weekly Make scenario that queries Supabase for the past week's sales and inventory data, sends the payload to OpenAI for insight generation, and dispatches a transactional email summary to the workspace owner.

Open Make 03DeployHost Import Processing Service

Deploy a lightweight Node service on Railway that accepts CSV uploads, validates and deduplicates SKU records, and writes normalized rows to Supabase for dashboard queries.

Open Railway

RetailRadar: Main Street Shop Sales & Foot Traffic Dashboard

Is this worth validating?

Build this if

Avoid this if

Validate first

Why this exists

Customer problem

Who pays

Business model

What do you need next?

What would it take to run?

Build the first paid use case

Who it serves and what it must change

What ships now and what waits

Included

Excluded

Screens, actions, and states

Primary flow

Loading, empty, and error states

Entities and business rules

Business rules

Components, integrations, and controls

Integrations

Data flow

Failure handling

Security

Rate limits

Definition of done for the MVP

Deliverables

Acceptance criteria

Enough technology for the first version

Lovable

Supabase

Make

Railway

OpenAI API

Why this is sufficient

Not required for the MVP

Build, price, and deploy the MVP

Copy this into a builder

Your build prompt is ready

Model the MVP operating cost

Usage assumptions

$25-$65 per month

Included

Not included

Pricing basis

Pick the operational tradeoff

Railway

Good fit

Limitation

Vultr

Good fit

Limitation

DigitalOcean

Good fit

Limitation

Prototype, automate, then deploy

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