How It Works
Subtract any discount from the selling price to get net revenue.
net profit = revenue − product − packaging − shipping − platform fee − payment fee − ads − return loss
- Calculate the platform fee and payment fee as percentages of net revenue, adding the fixed payment fee.
- Add up product, packaging, shipping, fees, and ad cost to get total variable cost per order.
- Subtract variable cost from net revenue, then subtract a return-loss allowance to get net profit.
- Multiply net profit per order by monthly orders for an estimated monthly profit.
Worked Example
A product sells for 50 with a 15 product cost, 2 packaging, 5 shipping, a 15% platform fee, a 2.9% + 0.30 payment fee, 4 in ads per order, and a 5% return rate.
Net revenue
50 − 0 discount = 50.00
Platform fee
15% of 50 = 7.50
Payment fee
2.9% of 50 + 0.30 = 1.75
Variable cost
15 + 2 + 5 + 7.50 + 1.75 + 4 = 35.25
Profit before returns
50 − 35.25 = 14.75
Return loss
5% of (15 + 5 + 2) = 1.10
Net profit per order
14.75 − 1.10 = 13.65
You keep about 13.65 per order, a 27.3% margin, or roughly 6,825 a month at 500 orders. A common mistake is forgetting the payment fixed fee and the cost of returns; both quietly shrink margin, and on low-priced items the 0.30 flat fee alone can be the difference between profit and loss.
Ecommerce Profit Calculator: Find What You Actually Keep Per Order
Eight cost lines between price and profit
A selling price is not profit — an online order is whittled down by product cost, packaging, shipping, platform commission, payment processing, advertising, discounts, and returns before anything reaches you. This calculator subtracts all eight and reports net profit per order, the margin, a break-even price, and an estimated monthly profit, so you can judge a product at its current price instead of guessing.
Why fees come off net revenue, not the list price
Remove any discount from the selling price first to get net revenue, because platform and payment fees are charged on what the customer actually pays. Take those percentage fees plus the fixed payment fee off net revenue, sum the product, packaging, shipping, fees, and ad cost into total variable cost, subtract it, then subtract a return-loss allowance. Multiply the result by monthly orders for the monthly figure.
Contribution margin is the lever the SBA break-even model runs on
Every line in this calculator that scales with a sale is a variable cost; what is left of revenue after them is contribution margin. The U.S. Small Business Administration frames break-even around exactly this figure — fixed costs divided by contribution margin per unit gives the volume at which the business stops losing money. The per-order profit here is the contribution before fixed overhead, so a product with strong per-order profit but high fixed costs (software, salaries, warehouse rent) can still be loss-making until volume catches up. Read the order-level number as the input to that wider break-even question, not the whole answer.
Margin is the cushion; break-even is the floor
Net profit per order is the headline, but the margin tells you how much cushion survives a cost rise — a thin margin means one fee increase or a handful of extra returns wipes out the profit. Set the break-even price against your selling price to see exactly how far the price can fall before the order starts costing you. As a share of revenue, the percentage margin is also what lets you compare a $20 impulse buy against a $200 considered purchase fairly: the dollar profit differs wildly, but the margin says which one converts revenue into profit more efficiently.
The fixed fee and returns that vanish from spreadsheets
The most expensive omissions are the flat payment fee, advertising per order, and returns — on a low-priced item the 0.30 fixed fee alone can flip an order from profit to loss. Sellers also confuse the shipping they charge the customer with the shipping they pay; only your actual cost belongs here. Stale fee percentages flatter the result, so confirm current rates before pricing.
Pricing a listing, a promo, or a supplier quote
Reach for this before you list, while negotiating a supplier price, or when deciding whether a promotion is affordable. The cost-breakdown chart makes it easy to compare two products or two sales channels side by side and to spot the single line — usually fees or ads — doing the most damage to margin.
Sources & References
Figures on this page are checked against primary, authoritative sources. Links open in a new tab.