> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Shipping Cost as % of Revenue, BigCommerce > Shipping Cost as % of Revenue for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Total shipping revenue as a percentage of total revenue. The "how much of what customers pay is for shipping" KPI. Most BC stores sit at 4-12%; outside this band suggests either over-charging (above 15% looks predatory and depresses conversion) or under-charging (below 3% means shipping is a cost centre rather than a revenue line). Different from [BC Free vs Paid](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/free-vs-paid-shipping), which is the boolean breakdown; this card gives the dollar share. | | | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **What it counts** | `SUM(shipping_cost) / SUM(total_inc_tax)` over the period. Customer-paid shipping divided by total customer-paid revenue. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | Both numerator and denominator are tax-inclusive (UK / EU) or tax-exclusive (US) consistent with the store's tax-handling configuration. | | **Shipping** | This card *is* the shipping percentage. | | **Discounts** | Free-shipping discounts pull this card down. Shipping-discount coupons (50% off shipping) reduce the shipping numerator without affecting the denominator. | | **Refunds** | Not deducted. Gross shipping divided by gross revenue. | | **Cancelled orders** | Excluded from both numerator and denominator. | | **Currency** | Multi-currency: per-currency calculation, or weighted-average for blended view. FX-conversion not applied. | | **Channels / sources** | All channels aggregate. Per-channel breakdown via toggle: marketplace channels (Amazon) typically have shipping baked into the product price (showing 0% here); DTC channels have explicit shipping (4-12%). | | **B2B Edition behaviour** | B2B orders typically have palletised LTL shipping with much higher per-order shipping cost (often 8-20% of order). High-B2B stores see this card pulled up. | | **Per-channel rate-set caveat** | BC's per-channel shipping rate sets mean the same SKU can have different shipping costs on different channels. The blended figure averages across channels weighted by order count. | | **Time window** | `30D` (rolling 30 days). | | **Alert trigger** | `>20% (margin pressure)`. Above 20% indicates either undue shipping cost (bad carrier rates) or low-value orders (small AOV with fixed shipping costs). | | **Sentiment key** | `shipping_pct` | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your BigCommerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US apparel brand on BigCommerce, 30-day window. Multi-channel. | Channel | Revenue (\$) | Shipping (\$) | Shipping % | Notes | | ---------------------- | ------------- | ------------- | ---------- | ------------------------ | | Web (`channel_id = 1`) | \$172,000 | \$14,800 | 8.6% | Standard for apparel DTC | | Amazon UK | \$42,400 | \$0 | 0.0% | Amazon-paid, Prime | | B2B Edition | \$6,800 | \$1,180 | 17.4% | Palletised LTL pulls up | | POS | \$1,800 | \$0 | 0.0% | In-store, no shipping | | **Blended** | **\$223,000** | **\$15,980** | **7.2%** | | What's interesting: 1. **Web at 8.6% is the read that matters.** This is the actionable number; B2B and Amazon distort the blend. **Apparel DTC sits at 5-9% typically; 8.6% is at the upper edge of healthy.** A merchant looking to improve margin should investigate whether shipping is overcharged (loses competitive conversion) or undercharged (consuming margin). 2. **B2B at 17.4% is normal for palletised orders.** B2B AOV is high (\$500+ typical); LTL freight quotes scale linearly. This is not a problem, just a structural difference. 3. **Amazon at 0%** because Amazon Prime customers don't see shipping line items; the cost is bundled into Amazon's FBA fees. **Margin per Amazon order is lower than apparent;** the FBA fee (10-15% of order value typically) is the hidden equivalent. 4. **The 7.2% blended is not the actionable number.** Reading the channel-mix-aware version is more useful: web 8.6% means web shipping margins; B2B 17.4% means B2B is structurally shipping-heavy; Amazon 0% means margin is in Amazon's hands. 5. **Watch for drift over time.** A web shipping % gradually climbing from 8% to 11% over 6 months suggests carrier rate inflation outpacing price increases; renegotiate carrier rates or raise shipping prices. Action playbook this card surfaces: 1. **Compare to category benchmarks.** Apparel: 5-9%. Beauty: 4-7%. Home goods: 6-12%. Furniture: 8-18%. B2B: 12-25%. Outside the band investigate. 2. **Investigate per-channel anomalies.** Web shipping % rising while AOV is flat = carrier rates rising; raise shipping prices or renegotiate carrier contracts. 3. **Audit free-ship-threshold sensitivity.** A 1pp shift in shipping % typically corresponds to a 5-10% change in free-ship-eligible order share. 4. **Consider postcode-zone-rate optimisation.** Stores using flat-rate shipping miss zone-rate opportunities; switch to zone-rate where carrier APIs allow. 5. **Cross-reference [BC Channel Revenue Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-mix-by-channel)** to understand whether channel-mix shifts are driving shipping % changes (B2B share growth pulls % up). ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Shipping % | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [BC Total Shipping](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-shipping-revenue) | Absolute dollars. This card is the ratio; that one is the magnitude. | | [BC Shipping Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/shipping-methods) | Composition by method. Tells you which methods drive the percentage. | | [BC Free vs Paid](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/free-vs-paid-shipping) | Boolean breakdown of order-level shipping. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Denominator. | | [AOV](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/average-order-value) | Lower AOV stores have higher shipping % (shipping is fixed cost, AOV scales). | | [Discount % of Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/discount-of-revenue) | Pair to see total customer concession (discount + shipping subsidy). | | [BC Channel Revenue Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-mix-by-channel) | Channel-mix shifts drive shipping % changes. | | [BC Top Cities](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-cities-by-orders) | Geographic distribution affects shipping % (long-haul shipments cost more). | | [Cancellation Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/cancellation-rate) | High shipping % can drive cancellations from sticker-shock at checkout. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/refund-rate) | Damaged-in-transit refunds correlate with shipping cost; cheap shipping methods often cause more damage. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce's own dashboard:** BC Insights doesn't expose shipping % directly. The merchant calculates it by dividing two figures from BC reports: * **Shipping revenue:** Reports → Sales by Date or Insights → Shipping Methods (sum the cost column). * **Total revenue:** Reports → Sales by Date. Divide the two for the comparable figure. A spreadsheet pivot from the Orders export is more reliable for finance audit. **Why our number may legitimately differ from the vendor's:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ----------------------- | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Tax handling** | Either | If BC reports show ex-tax revenue but inc-tax shipping, the ratio is inflated; we use consistent tax treatment. | | **Refund treatment** | Either | We include shipping on refunded orders in the numerator; if the merchant calculates from net data, the figures differ. | | **Multi-currency** | Either | We compute per-currency; BC may convert. | | **Channel aggregation** | Either | Our default blended view weights by orders; BC may weight by revenue. | | **Time zone** | Trivial | Boundary days off. | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when both connectors are connected for this merchant):** This is BC-native; no direct cross-connector twin. The closest is the gateway view (Stripe, PayPal) which sees total revenue but not shipping-specific lines. ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) Shipping % is a universal metric with similar definition across platforms. The benchmark bands by category are roughly the same. * [`shopify.shipping_pct`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/shipping-cost-as-of-revenue) * [`adobe_commerce.shipping_pct`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/shipping-cost-as-of-revenue)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My shipping % jumped from 6% to 9% in a month, what changed?** Three usual causes: (1) carrier rate increase (UPS, FedEx, USPS publish rate changes; check carrier announcements), (2) channel-mix shift (more B2B or international orders pulled the percentage up), (3) free-ship threshold change (raising the threshold pushes more orders to paid shipping). Pull [BC Channel Revenue Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-mix-by-channel) and check Settings → Shipping for recent changes. **Is 12% shipping % bad?** Depends on category. Furniture and home-decor merchants commonly run at 12-18%; apparel at 12% is high. The benchmark band is the answer. **Should I raise shipping prices to improve margin?** Cautiously. A 10% rate increase typically reduces conversion by 1-3% and reduces order count by similar. The net effect on revenue is usually small but margin improves. A/B test before rolling out. **Why is my web shipping % higher than my competitors'?** Possible reasons: (1) you offer fewer free-ship promotions, (2) your carrier contracts are less negotiated (smaller volume = worse rates), (3) you ship from one warehouse to a wide geography (long-haul costs more). Use [BC Top Cities](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-cities-by-orders) to see if order distribution is geographically wide. **Can I see shipping % per shipping method?** Yes via Ask Viq: "shipping % for UPS Ground over last 30 days". Useful for identifying which methods are well-priced versus overcharged. **Why does my Amazon channel show 0% shipping?** Amazon Prime / FBA orders show \$0 customer-paid shipping; Amazon pays the carrier and charges you a fulfilment fee instead. The shipping % on Amazon is structurally always 0; the equivalent cost lives in [BC Channel Revenue Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-mix-by-channel) margin reports. **Should I bake shipping into product prices instead of charging separately?** Free-shipping with prices-include-shipping ("baked in") improves conversion by 5-15% on most stores but reduces apparent unit price by 5-15%. Net revenue impact varies; A/B test for your category. **My B2B is showing 22% shipping, is that a problem?** Probably not. LTL freight is structurally expensive; 15-25% on B2B is normal. The customer expects it. If buyers complain, consider negotiating LTL rates with a 3PL or offering pickup discounts. **Can I see shipping % over time?** Yes via Ask Viq: "shipping % over time for last 90 days". The chart will show day-by-day or week-by-week movement; useful for catching carrier-rate-change effects. **Why does my POS channel show 0% shipping?** POS = in-store transactions; no shipping involved. Always 0% structurally. **My shipping % is 3%, should I raise prices?** Probably yes; below 4% means you're absorbing shipping cost. Even raising to 5% closes a margin gap of 2pp = \~2% net margin improvement. Test the customer reaction. **Does this include handling fees?** Yes if the merchant uses BC's `handling_cost` field. Some merchants charge handling separately; others bake into shipping. The card aggregates both because customers don't distinguish them. **Should this match my carrier invoice?** No. This card shows what customers paid for shipping; the carrier invoice shows what you paid the carrier. The difference is your shipping margin (often 30-60% on standard methods, near-zero on calculated rates). *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Shipping Cost as % of Revenue* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.