Ecommerce Profit Calculator
Add one period of sales and the costs behind it to see what your store actually kept. This is the same contribution profit calculation the ProfitSimple dashboard runs automatically on your Shopify data.
Refunded amounts leave revenue; costs already spent on those orders stay.
Enter 0 if your sales figures already exclude VAT.
Your store kept 20.4% of net revenue after variable costs and advertising, before fixed costs.
- Net revenue
- €40,040.00
- Payment fees
- €736.10
- Contribution margin before advertising
- 41.4%
- Contribution margin
- 20.4%
- Profit per order
- €15.07
- MER (revenue ÷ ad spend)
- 4.76×
- Break-even MER
- 2.41×
MER measures advertising efficiency, not profit. Compare it with platform ROAS to judge your advertising, then read contribution profit to see what the store kept.
Fixed costs such as salaries, rent and software are not included.
How we calculated this
- Gross sales
- €42,840.00
- Discounts
- − €1,840.00
- Refunds
- − €960.00
- Tax collected
- − €7,435.00
- COGS
- − €12,194.00
- Shipping
- − €2,439.00
- Packaging & handling
- − €650.40
- Payment fees
- − €736.10
- Other variable costs
- − €0.00
- Advertising
- − €8,420.00
- Contribution profit
- €8,165.50
What is ecommerce contribution profit?
Contribution profit is the money left after every cost that scales with sales, including advertising. It is the honest answer to “how did we do this month”, and it is usually far smaller than the revenue headline in the Shopify admin.
How is ecommerce profit calculated?
Net revenue = gross sales − discounts − refunds − tax collected
Contribution before advertising = net revenue − COGS − shipping − packaging − payment fees − other variable costs
Contribution profit = contribution before advertising − advertising
Shipping, packaging, other variable costs and the fixed part of payment fees are multiplied by order count; the percentage part of the payment fee applies to revenue. Enter 0 for tax if your reported sales already exclude VAT.
Refund assumption: refunds are removed from revenue in full, but the costs already incurred on those orders are not added back. Product cost is only recovered if the item is returned in resellable condition, shipping and packaging are usually gone for good, and most payment providers keep at least the fixed part of the transaction fee. Enter COGS for the orders you actually shipped, and reduce it only by the value of stock genuinely returned to inventory.
Example
A store with 542 orders bills €42,840.00 gross, gives €1,840.00 in discounts and refunds €960.00. After €7,435.00 of tax it keeps €40,040.00 of net revenue. Subtracting €12,194.00 of product cost, €2,439.00 of shipping, €650.40 of packaging, €736.10 of payment fees and €8,420.00 of advertising leaves €8,165.50 of contribution profit — 20.4% of net revenue, and €15.07 per order — to pay salaries, rent and yourself.
Why this matters for ecommerce stores
Discounting, hiring, restocking and ad budget decisions all depend on this single number. When it is only calculated at the accountant's pace, you learn about a bad month long after you could have changed it.
Frequently asked questions
- Is contribution profit the same as net profit?
- No. Contribution profit stops at variable costs plus advertising. Net profit also subtracts fixed costs such as salaries, rent, software and accounting fees.
- Why subtract tax from revenue?
- VAT or sales tax collected from customers belongs to the tax authority, not to your store. Leaving it in revenue inflates every margin calculated from it. If your reported sales already exclude tax, enter 0.
- How are refunds treated?
- Refunds are subtracted from revenue in full, and the costs already spent on those orders are deliberately not credited back. Shipping and packaging are gone, payment providers typically keep the fixed transaction fee, and product cost only returns if the item comes back resellable. This is the conservative view — if a meaningful share of your returns goes back into sellable stock, reduce the COGS figure you enter by that amount.
- What is MER and how does it differ from platform ROAS?
- Platform ROAS is attributed revenue divided by that platform's ad spend. MER is total store revenue divided by total advertising spend across every channel. MER measures advertising efficiency at store level — it is not a profit measure, because it ignores product, fulfilment and payment costs.
- How should I use ROAS, MER and contribution profit together?
- Compare platform ROAS with blended MER to understand advertising efficiency, then use contribution profit to understand what the store actually kept after variable costs and advertising.
Stop rebuilding your profit calculation in spreadsheets.
Connect Shopify and automatically track what remains after product, fulfilment, payment and advertising costs.
Connect ShopifyRelated guides
- What Is a Good Ecommerce Profit Margin? — Understand gross margin, contribution margin and net profit — and why there isn't one “good” margin for every ecommerce brand.
- ROAS vs MER: What's the Difference? — Understand what ROAS and MER actually measure, when to use each, and why neither tells you your profit.
Related calculators
- Contribution Margin Calculator — what's left per sale after variable costs
- Break-even ROAS Calculator — the ROAS you need before ads become profitable
- Discount Profitability Calculator — what a promotion really costs you
- All free ecommerce calculators