Shopify profit calculator: profit per order, in three steps
Revenue in your Shopify admin is not profit. Enter your order value, landed COGS, shipping, payment fees, marketing per order and return rate, and this calculator steps each order down to CM1, CM2 and CM3, then multiplies it out to a month and takes off your fixed costs.
Order value after discounts and excluding GST, so it matches how your accounts report revenue.
Cost plus freight-in plus duty for the items in an average order. Build it with the landed cost calculator.
Pick, pack, packaging and postage, less any shipping the customer paid you.
Defaults are Shopify's published Basic plan online card rate in Australia (checked September 2026). Your blended rate is likely higher: work it out with the Shopify fee calculator.
Monthly ad, affiliate and promo spend divided by orders.
Share of orders refunded in full, and what handling each return costs you (return postage, processing, write-offs).
Costs that do not move with orders: wages, rent, Shopify plan and apps, software.
Each order keeps A$21.57 after marketing. CM2 of A$39.57 is the most marketing could spend per order before it loses money.
Three rungs, three decisions
CM1 asks whether the product can carry its cost. CM2 asks whether the operation can deliver it. CM3 asks whether you can acquire the order profitably. Fixed costs come off last, once, for the month.
The rungs follow The Math: CM1, CM2 and CM3. Assumptions, stated: a returned order is refunded in full and its stock goes back on the shelf, so its COGS is recovered; outbound shipping and payment fees are still paid on it. If returned stock cannot be resold, add the write-off to the cost per return.
The defaults are demonstrative numbers, not a benchmark. Change a number in the calculator and this example follows.
Each rung points at a different fix
A weak CM3 does not tell you what to change. The rung where the margin disappears does.
It is a price or sourcing problem
No amount of ad tuning fixes a product that cannot carry its own cost. Look at supplier terms, freight and the price increase headroom.
It is an operations problem
Shipping, fees and returns are eating the order. The free shipping threshold and cost of returns are the usual places to look.
It is an acquisition problem
Marketing is spending most of what CM2 leaves. Your break-even ROAS is set by CM2, not by a benchmark.
Questions operators ask
Start with order value, take off refunds, then landed COGS for CM1. Take off shipping, fulfilment, payment fees and return handling for CM2. Take off marketing for CM3. On the default A$90 order that runs A$82.80 of net revenue to A$53.36, A$39.57 and A$21.57. Fixed costs come off the monthly total, not each order.
It depends on the category and the model, so compare yourself with your own history first. For context, The Math cites a median brand contribution margin of about 25% across hundreds of 7 to 8 figure brands (Finaloop aggregated dataset, US data). Use it as a reference point, not a target.
COGS is what the product costs you landed. Payment fees, shipping and fulfilment are what it costs to sell and deliver the order, so they sit on the next rung. Keeping them apart shows whether a thin margin comes from the product or from the operation, which call for different fixes.
Up to CM2 per order, and you break even. On the default example CM2 is A$39.57, so marketing above that loses money on every order. As a ROAS that is A$90 ÷ A$39.57, about 2.27x on order value. Spend below CM2 is what leaves CM3 to cover fixed costs. See break-even ROAS.
CM1, CM2 and CM3 on every order
This page runs one average order. Blufire computes this per order, customer and SKU, reconciled to your ledger, so you see which products, channels and customers sit above the average and which drag it down.