How to find your real profit from your order exports

Most sellers know their sales. Fewer know their profit, because the numbers sit in different places: orders in each marketplace, costs in a spreadsheet, shipping in another account. This guide is a simple routine for turning your order exports into profit per order, per marketplace and per month, and it lists the mistakes that make profit look better than it is.

Step 1: get your orders out

Each marketplace lets you download your orders as a CSV file from its seller reports or orders page. Names and layouts differ and change over time, so open the file and look at the column headings. You want, at least, the item total, the date, the order number and, if it is there, the fees and the shipping you charged. Download one file per marketplace and keep the date range the same.

Step 2: decide what each order really costs you

Profit is revenue minus everything it cost to earn it. Make a list of these costs before you look at any result:

• The cost of the goods, per item. If it is the same for every order, a fixed amount or a percentage is enough. If it varies, keep a short table of cost per SKU.
• The postage label and the packaging for each order.
• Marketplace fees. Some exports include them. If yours does not, they can be calculated from the marketplace's published rates.

Step 3: read the result by marketplace and by month

Total profit hides the interesting part. Look at each marketplace on its own, because fees differ, and at each month, because seasons and promotions change your margin. Then look at the orders with the lowest profit. A handful of loss-making orders, often small ones where a fixed fee takes a big share, can explain a lot.

Mistakes that make profit look better than it is

• Counting sales tax as income. Tax collected from a buyer is passed on to the authority. It is not part of your revenue.
• Forgetting refunds. A refunded order often appears as a negative row. If it is left out, profit is overstated.
• Leaving out postage and packaging. They are real costs even when the buyer paid for shipping, because the amounts rarely match.
• Using one cost for every product. If your products have very different costs, a single average hides which ones lose money.
• Missing advertising and subscription costs. Costs that are not in an order file, such as ads, still reduce your real profit.
• Mixing currencies. Add up amounts only in the same currency.

Doing it in the Profit Tracker

The Multi-Marketplace Profit Tracker follows exactly this routine in your browser. You drop in one file per marketplace, it guesses which column is which from the headings, and you check the guesses and the first rows it read. Then you enter your cost of goods and your postage and packaging per order, and it shows profit by marketplace, by month and by order. Your files are not uploaded, and only the columns you choose are read, so buyer names and addresses are never used.

For a single sale, use the Seller Price & Profit Studio, and to check what a parcel really costs to send, use the Shipping Cost Calculator.

This guide is general information, not financial or tax advice.