Shopify profit calculator: what does your store really keep?
Enter your store's numbers and see the full monthly P&L, from the first visit to the money left after tax. Then get your action plan: the moves that grow your profit most, ranked for your store, with what to do first.
1Enter your numbers on the left. Don't know one? Keep the example value.
2Read your P&L on the right. It updates as you type.
3Follow your next 3 moves, ranked by how much profit each one adds.
Prices are before sales tax, which is collected at checkout and passed on. Payment fees use Shopify Payments Basic (2.9% + 30¢), and tax uses the 21% federal corporate rate (state tax extra). All amounts in US dollars. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Built from your numbers. First, what needs fixing; then every move ranked by how much profit it adds, with the actions to take and one test to start with. A/B test each change before you roll it out: what works for other stores might not work for yours.
From −$10K to +$10K a month
An example $100K-a-month US store that loses money, fixed in seven steps. Each step changes one or two numbers and keeps the rest. Click a step to load it into the calculator above. Every change in a real store should be A/B tested before you roll it out.
Step
What changed
Sales / month
Net profit / month
Change
Which number moves your profit most?
Each bar improves one number by 10% and keeps everything else the same. The longest bar is where your next test should go.
What to strive for
Where your store sits against common benchmarks. These come from industry reports and analytics vendors, not audits, and every category is different, so treat them as direction rather than law.
Metric
Your store
Average
Good
Great
Source
How to calculate Shopify profit, step by step
Shopify shows you sales. It doesn't show you what you keep. To get from one to the other, take every cost off in the order money leaves the business. This is exactly what the calculator does, using the example store it opens with: 62,500 sessions a month, a 1.6% conversion rate and a $100 average order.
Line
Formula
Example store
Gross sales
sessions × conversion rate × average order value
62,500 × 1.6% × $100 = $100,000
Net revenue
gross sales − discounts − refunds
$100,000 − $12,000 − $12,320 = $75,680
CM1, gross profit
net revenue − product cost
$75,680 − $28,758 = $46,922
CM2
CM1 − shipping − payment fees
$46,922 − $10,000 − $2,852 = $34,070
CM3
CM2 − ad spend
$34,070 − $27,000 = $7,070
EBITDA
CM3 − team, agencies, apps, overhead
$7,070 − $17,000 = −$9,930
Net profit
EBITDA − corporate tax (only on a profit)
−$9,930
A store that sells $100,000 a month and loses almost $10,000. Nothing looks broken in Shopify's dashboard: the sales are there, the ads report a decent ROAS. The loss only shows up when every line sits in one table.
What is a good profit margin for a Shopify store?
Look at two margins, not one:
CM3, what is left after product, shipping, fees and ads. 20–25% of net revenue is healthy for a direct-to-consumer brand, and 35%+ is great. Under 10%, the ads are buying revenue, not profit. The example store sits at 9%.
Net profit, after the team and overhead. Usually 5–15% for a growing brand. It depends on how much you reinvest, so judge it next to CM3, not alone.
The fastest way to see which margin is the problem is the P&L above: the first line where the number turns small is where your money goes.
Break-even ROAS and MER: when ads lose money
Break-even MER (marketing efficiency ratio) is net revenue ÷ CM2: how many dollars of revenue each ad dollar has to bring back before you make anything. In the example store it's 2.22×. Its real MER is 2.80×, so the ads are above break-even, but the margin they leave doesn't cover the team and overhead.
Use blended MER (all revenue ÷ all ad spend) rather than the ROAS inside Meta or Google. The platforms count the same order more than once and claim sales that would have happened anyway.
Run the levers chart on almost any store and conversion rate or average order value comes out on top. They raise revenue without raising ad spend, so most of the extra revenue drops to profit. In the turnaround example, a conversion rate going from 1.6% to 1.9% and an order going from $100 to $108 do more than cutting ads, discounts and returns together.
But test before you implement. Something that works for other stores might not work for yours: I've seen a single five-star review under the Add to Cart button add 8% revenue per visitor on one store and cut orders on another. An A/B test tells you which one you are before you roll a change out to all your traffic.
How do I calculate the profit of my Shopify store?
Start from gross sales (sessions × conversion rate × average order value). Take off discounts and refunds to get net revenue. Then subtract product cost, shipping and payment fees, ad spend, fixed costs (team, agencies, apps, overhead) and tax. What is left is net profit. The calculator above does every step for you and shows the full P&L.
What is a good profit margin for a Shopify store?
Many healthy direct-to-consumer brands keep 20–25% of net revenue after product, shipping, fees and ads (CM3), and 35%+ is great. Net profit after the team and overhead is usually much lower: 5–15% is solid for a growing brand. A store below 10% CM3 is buying revenue, not profit.
What is the difference between CM1, CM2 and CM3?
CM1 (gross profit) is net revenue minus product cost. CM2 also takes off shipping and payment fees, so it shows what one order really leaves you before marketing. CM3 also takes off ad spend, so it shows what is left after you pay for customers.
What conversion rate do I need to break even?
It depends on your traffic, order value, costs and ad spend, not on an industry average. The calculator shows it as “Break-even conversion rate”: the conversion rate at which net profit is zero, with your current traffic, prices and ad spend. Above it you make money, below it you lose money. A high-ticket store can be profitable at 0.2%, while a low-price store can lose money at 2%.
What is break-even MER or ROAS?
Break-even MER is the revenue you need for every dollar of ad spend so the ads do not lose money: net revenue ÷ CM2. In the example store it is about 2.2×. If your blended MER (all revenue ÷ all ad spend) is below it, every extra dollar in ads makes the business poorer.
Which number should I improve first?
The one with the longest bar in “Which number moves your profit most?”. For most stores it is conversion rate or average order value, because they raise revenue without raising ad spend. Test the change with an A/B test before you roll it out: what works for another store might not work for yours.
Is the Shopify profit calculator free?
Yes. It runs in your browser, nothing is saved or sent anywhere, and you can copy a link with your numbers to share with your team or accountant.
Does it work for stores outside the US?
The defaults are US: prices before sales tax, Shopify Payments Basic fees (2.9% + 30¢) and 21% federal corporate tax. Every number can be changed, so you can set your own payment fees and tax rate. If your prices include VAT, enter revenue and costs without VAT.