> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Orders by State/Region, BigCommerce > Orders by State/Region for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Order count by state / region (`billing_state` for US, province for CA, region for UK / AU) over the trailing 30 days. The sub-country geographic decomposition that complements [BC AOV by Country](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/aov-by-country) and [BC Orders by Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/bc-orders-by-channel-id). Useful for state-tax routing decisions, regional shipping zone optimisation, and identifying geographic concentration risk (one state contributes 40%+ of revenue = exposure to that state's consumer trends). | | | | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(orders) GROUP BY billing_country_code, billing_state` over the trailing 30 days. The country-state combination is the unique key, "California" appears under US; "Bavaria" under DE. Excludes Cancelled and Incomplete. | | **API endpoint** | `GET /v2/orders` exposes `billing_address.state` and `billing_country_iso2`. The OpenSearch index materialises per-state-per-day order counts. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a, count metric. | | **Shipping** | n/a, but states with high shipping cost (HI, AK in US) tend to have outsized AOV due to shipping inflation. | | **Discounts** | n/a. | | **Refunds** | Refunded orders still count by their original state. | | **Cancelled orders** | Excluded. | | **`Incomplete` orders** | Excluded. | | **Currency** | n/a. | | **State coverage** | All ISO 3166-2 codes BC indexes. **US states**: 50 + DC + territories (PR, GU, etc.). **Canadian provinces**: 13. **UK regions**: typically not populated by BC's address fields (UK doesn't widely use county / region in addresses); UK reads as country-level only. **AU states**: 8 (incl. NT, ACT). **EU regions**: variable; some countries populate, some don't. | | **Sub-country granularity gotchas** | **Country reads correctly; state varies by country.** US, CA, AU well-populated; UK, DE, FR poorly populated. The card auto-degrades to country-level for poorly-populated countries; configure under Settings → Geography. | | **B2B Edition behaviour** | B2B orders use the wholesale account's billing state, which is the customer's HQ rather than the delivery state. **For ship-to attribution, configure Settings → Geography → Use shipping state**. | | **Multi-storefront** | Per-storefront filter available; useful for "is my UK storefront actually attracting English vs Scottish customers?". | | **Time window** | `30D` rolling. | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card; pairs with [BC Alert Channel Revenue Drop](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/channel-revenue-drop-alert) for state-level anomaly detection (configurable per-state). | | **Roles** | owner, marketing | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your BigCommerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US homewares brand on BigCommerce Pro. Snapshot for 1 Apr to 30 Apr 26, US-only view (top 10 states by order count). | State | Orders | % | AOV (context) | Notes | | --------------- | --------- | ----- | ------------- | --------------------------- | | CA | 1,180 | 24.5% | \$124 | Largest state, high-AOV | | NY | 720 | 14.9% | \$138 | High-AOV, premium urban | | TX | 540 | 11.2% | \$112 | Volume-driven, broad demand | | FL | 420 | 8.7% | \$115 | Volume-driven | | IL | 310 | 6.4% | \$128 | Premium urban | | WA | 240 | 5.0% | \$135 | Premium urban | | MA | 220 | 4.6% | \$142 | Highest AOV in top-10 | | GA | 180 | 3.7% | \$108 | Volume-driven | | NJ | 160 | 3.3% | \$130 | Premium urban | | PA | 145 | 3.0% | \$118 | Mid-AOV | | Other 40 states | 705 | 14.6% | various | Long tail | | **Total US** | **4,820** | | \$120 | | What's interesting: 1. **CA + NY together = 39% of order count.** This is healthy concentration for a US homewares brand; the two largest population states should be \~40%. **Concentration above 50% would be a risk** (single-state-trend exposure); concentration below 25% would suggest under-coverage in core states. 2. **The state-AOV pattern reveals demographics.** Higher-AOV states (NY, MA, WA) trend urban / premium; volume states (TX, FL, GA) trend value-conscious. **The merchant could test premium-positioning ads in high-AOV states and value-positioning in volume states**, the same product, two different funnels. 3. **MA at 4.6% but \$142 AOV is the standout.** The Boston / Cambridge demographic loves the brand; AOV is 18% above headline. **Worth investigating**, is there an academic / professional cluster the brand resonates with? Doubling MA spend would likely produce above-average ROI. 4. **Long tail at 14.6% across 40 states is moderate.** Healthy stores see 15-25% in the long tail (national reach with concentration); below 10% means under-covered (geographic gap to fill); above 30% means under-concentrated (no flagship markets). 5. **Sales-tax routing implications**: states with >5% revenue share need tax-nexus consideration. CA, NY, TX, FL, IL all qualify here. **Cross-reference with [BC Settings → Tax](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/settings/tax) configurations to ensure proper sales-tax collection in these states.** Action priority order: 1. **Identify top-3 states** for marketing concentration; ensure your ads spend matches your customer base. 2. **Identify high-AOV niche states** (MA in this example) for double-down testing. 3. **Audit long-tail coverage**, are there mid-population states (NC, VA, MI, AZ, CO) absent from the top 10 that should be present? 4. **Cross-reference with [BC AOV by Country](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/aov-by-country)** for the country-level comparison. 5. **For sales-tax purposes**, ensure states above 5% revenue have tax-nexus configured in BC. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Orders by State/Region | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [BC AOV by Country](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/aov-by-country) | Country-level rollup; this card is sub-country decomposition. | | [BC Channel Currency Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/currency-mix-by-channel) | Currency context for international stores. | | [BC Orders by Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/bc-orders-by-channel-id) | Channel × geography cross-cut. | | [BC Channel Conversion Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/conversion-rate-by-channel) | Geography may correlate with conversion (urban vs rural broadband). | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Revenue context for prioritisation. | | [BC Top Customers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-customers) | High-LTV customers tend to cluster geographically. | | [BC Channel Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/refund-rate-by-channel) | Some states have higher refund rates (return-friendly culture, or shipping-damage risk). | | [BC Alert Channel Revenue Drop](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/channel-revenue-drop-alert) | State-level anomaly detection. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel:** [Analytics → Customers](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/analytics/customers) (Plus / Pro / Enterprise) shows per-country customer counts but not natively per-state. [Reports → Custom](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/reports) lets you build a state-level report. For tax-nexus configuration: [Settings → Tax → Tax Zones](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/settings/tax) shows configured tax states. For shipping-zone analysis: [Settings → Shipping → Shipping Zones](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/settings/shipping) shows configured zones; cross-reference against this card's state distribution. **Why our state breakdown may differ from BC reports:** | Reason | Direction | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- | | **Billing vs shipping state**. Default we use billing; BC's reports vary, gift orders cause divergence. | Either direction | | **State name normalisation**. BC sometimes stores "California" instead of "CA"; we normalise to ISO 3166-2 codes. | Different rows for same state | | **Tax-state vs billing-state**. Some BC tax features attribute to tax-state (which can differ from billing-state for nexus purposes); we use billing. | Different rows | | **Multi-storefront aggregation**. We aggregate across storefronts; BC's reports are per-storefront. | Different denominators | | **B2B billing-state**. B2B uses HQ billing rather than delivery state; the gap can be material for distributed wholesale customers. | Different rows | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when shipping and tax integrations are connected):** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`shippo.shippo_shipments_by_state`](/nerve-centre/shippo/shippo_shipments_by_state) | Shippo's shipping-state breakdown should match within 10% | Shippo uses shipping address; we use billing. Gift orders diverge. | | [`avalara.avalara_tax_state_revenue`](/nerve-centre/avalara/avalara_tax_state_revenue) | Avalara's per-state tax revenue correlates with this card | Avalara aggregates by tax-jurisdiction; some states use county-level tax. | | [`taxjar.tj_state_orders`](/nerve-centre/taxjar/tj_state_orders) | TaxJar's per-state order count should match within 5% | TaxJar uses ship-to for tax; we use billing. | **The orders-by-state view is BC-aligned with similar cards on Shopify (per `billing_address.province_code`) and Adobe Commerce (per `region_code`); merchant-facing semantics are equivalent.** ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.orders_by_province`](/nerve-centre/shopify/orders_by_province) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.orders_by_region`](/nerve-centre/adobe_commerce/orders_by_region) (planned)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My UK orders show no state breakdown. Why?** Because UK addresses don't widely use state / county fields. BC's address forms collect city and postcode but not always county. The card auto-degrades to country-level for UK; configure under Settings → Geography to enforce postcode-prefix grouping if you want pseudo-region UK reads (London, Manchester, Birmingham, etc.). **My CA (Canada) orders show provinces correctly but my US states are jumbled. Why?** US BC stores using "California" vs "CA" inconsistently in the billing form. We normalise to ISO 3166-2 codes; if your customers hand-type, expect 2-5% data quality issues. Configure address validation in BC Settings to enforce the dropdown. **Should I attribute orders to billing or shipping state?** Depends on use case. Marketing decisions: billing (where the customer lives). Shipping decisions: shipping (where the package goes). Tax decisions: depends on the state; most are ship-to. **Default is billing**; configure under Settings → Geography → Attribution. \*\*My state breakdown shows Hawaii at 0.5% but my AOV in Hawaii is $250 (more than 2x normal). Real?** Yes. Hawaii / Alaska / remote-area customers have shipping-inflated AOV; the actual basket value is similar to mainland but the shipping cost adds $50-100. **For comparable per-state AOV, configure Settings → Display → Exclude shipping**. **I'm in NY but my BC store is registered in DE. Are state collections correct?** This card uses customer billing state, not your business state. NY customers buying from your DE-incorporated store appear under NY here. For tax-nexus compliance, this is the right view (you owe NY tax on NY sales above NY's threshold). **My multi-storefront US + UK reads aggregated. Should it?** Default per-storefront. Use the storefront filter to switch. Aggregating US + UK states is rarely useful (different country tax rules); split is the norm. **Why is my "long tail" so big (40% of orders across 30+ states)?** Geographic spread suggests national-brand reach without flagship-state concentration. Healthy stores typically have 60-75% in top-10 states; 40% in long tail with 60% in top-10 is normal-tilted-toward-coverage. Below 40% top-10 means under-concentrated; above 80% top-10 means under-covered. **I see orders from "Other" / "Unknown" state. What does that mean?** Orders where the state field was empty or didn't map. About 1-2% on most US-heavy stores. Higher percentages indicate address form quality issues; audit the BC checkout form. **Should I run state-specific promotions based on this card?** Possibly. State-by-state promotions work well for (a) free-shipping campaigns to remote-area states, (b) tax-holiday-day campaigns timed to specific state events (TX has back-to-school tax holiday), (c) regional brand-building (NE patriotism for Boston-based brand). They don't work well for general percentage-discount campaigns. **My B2B portal shows mostly NY but my B2B customers are nationwide. Why?** Probably the wholesale accounts use a corporate HQ billing address. A B2B customer headquartered in NY but with offices nationwide will appear as NY. **Configure Settings → Geography → Use shipping state** to attribute B2B by delivery location instead. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Orders by State/Region* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.