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Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Ecommerce Platform

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At a glance

Total customer-paid shipping revenue over the period. The dollar twin of BC Shipping % and BC Shipping Methods. On BigCommerce specifically, this aggregates across per-channel rate sets: a SKU shipped on web, on Amazon Channel Manager, and on a B2B portal can have three different shipping rates, all summed here. The card answers “how much did customers pay us for shipping?”, which is different from “how much did shipping cost us” (the carrier-invoice number).

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Calculation

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Worked example

A US apparel brand on BigCommerce, 30-day window. Multi-channel. Against $223,000 total revenue: shipping % = 7.2%. What’s interesting:
  1. **Web average shipping is 3.07/order∗∗whichislowforapparel.Thismeansmostordersqualifyforfreeshipping;themerchanthasagenerousthreshold(likely3.07/order** which is low for apparel. This means most orders qualify for free shipping; the merchant has a generous threshold (likely 50). Free shipping is the customer experience win, but the unit economics need monitoring: each free-ship-eligible order at low AOV may actually lose money on shipping cost vs revenue.
  2. Amazon at $0 shipping revenue because Amazon Prime customers don’t see shipping line items. Margin per Amazon order is invisible at this card’s level; the equivalent cost is the FBA fulfillment fee (10-15% of order value typically), which sits in BC Channel Revenue Mix.
  3. **B2B avg 13.41/order∗∗reflectspalletisedfreightonbulkorders.∗∗Per−palletLTLshippingisstructurallyexpensivebutcustomersexpectit∗∗;B2BAOV(13.41/order** reflects palletised freight on bulk orders. **Per-pallet LTL shipping is structurally expensive but customers expect it**; B2B AOV (600+ typical) absorbs the cost.
  4. Total 15,980vsrevenue15,980 vs revenue 223,000 = 7.2% shipping %. Sits in the healthy band for apparel (5-9%); not a concern.
  5. POS at $0 because in-store transactions involve no shipping. Always structurally zero on this card.
Action playbook this card surfaces:
  1. Monitor the dollar absolute and the rate jointly. Absolute shipping rising with revenue rising is normal scaling; rate creeping up means carrier costs outpacing pricing.
  2. Renegotiate carrier rates annually. UPS, FedEx, USPS all publish rate increases each year; without negotiation, your absolute shipping spend grows 4-6%/year.
  3. Audit free-ship-threshold sensitivity. If 60%+ of orders qualify for free shipping, threshold may be too low.
  4. Use BC Shipping Methods to see which methods drive most shipping revenue; some methods may be over-priced (depressing conversion) or under-priced (eating margin).
  5. Pair with BC Top Cities to see geographic distribution of shipping revenue; long-haul cities (Alaska, Hawaii, Pacific Coast for East-Coast warehouses) drive disproportionate shipping cost.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

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Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in BigCommerce’s own dashboard: The native view is BC Control Panel → Reports → Shipping Reports (Plus and Enterprise) or the Sales by Date report exported to CSV (all tiers). Sum the shipping_cost column for the comparable figure. For finance reconciliation, Settings → Data Solutions → Export → Orders with the shipping fields included is the working data. Why our number may legitimately differ from the vendor’s: Cross-connector reconciliation (when both connectors are connected for this merchant): This is BC-native; no direct cross-connector twin. Closest is the carrier invoice (UPS, FedEx) which shows merchant-side shipping cost (different number; this card is customer-side).

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Why is my total shipping less than my carrier invoice? Because this card is customer-paid shipping (revenue), not merchant-paid shipping (cost). Customers paid you Xforshipping;youpaidthecarrierX for shipping; you paid the carrier Y for shipping. The two numbers are unrelated; the difference is your shipping margin. Should this be a profit centre or a cost recovery line? Depends on strategy. Most apparel and small-goods merchants run shipping as cost-recovery (charge customer roughly what carrier charges them). Premium / luxury merchants often absorb shipping (free for all orders) as part of the experience. Mass-market merchants sometimes price shipping as a profit centre (charge $5 above carrier cost). Why is my Amazon channel showing $0 shipping? Amazon Prime / FBA orders don’t show customer-paid shipping; Amazon absorbs the customer-side cost and charges the merchant a fulfilment fee separately. The shipping economics are inverted; you don’t see them on this card. My shipping revenue dropped 20% this month, what changed? Likely a free-shipping promotion or threshold change. Cross-check Discount Over Time, Shipping Methods utilisation. A drop in absolute shipping with stable revenue means more orders qualified for free shipping. Can I see shipping revenue per shipping method? Yes via BC Shipping Methods which is the breakdown by method. This card is the aggregate. Why does my B2B show high shipping but my web shows low? Structural difference: B2B uses LTL freight (50−300/order);webusesparcel(50-300/order); web uses parcel (5-15/order). Same shipping field, different unit economics. Should I worry if this number stays flat while orders grow? Yes, slightly. Means shipping is becoming relatively cheaper to customers (often via free-ship-threshold). If you’re not raising prices to absorb the discount, margin is being eaten. Does this include international shipping? Yes if your store ships internationally. International orders typically have higher per-order shipping cost; the contribution skews this card up. My handling fees are showing in shipping; can I separate them? By default no (we sum them because customers see them combined). Use Ask Viq to separate: “show shipping vs handling for last 30 days”. Why did my UPS Ground revenue rise but UPS rates didn’t change? Volume rose, or order weight rose (heavier items = higher shipping). Check BC Top Products; if a heavier SKU jumped in popularity, that’s the cause. Can I use this for ship-cost forecasting? Indirectly. You forecast revenue; multiply by historical shipping % to get expected shipping revenue. Use carrier-invoice / customer-paid ratio to estimate carrier cost. Why does my POS show $0? POS orders involve no shipping (in-store transactions). Always structurally zero on this card. **My free-shipping promo cost 4,200intheperiod,butthiscard′snumberdidn′tdrop,what?∗∗Free−shippingpromosreducetheshippingrevenueyouwouldhavecollected;they′reaforegone−revenueconcept.The4,200 in the period, but this card's number didn't drop, what?** Free-shipping promos reduce the shipping revenue you would have collected; they're a foregone-revenue concept. The 4,200 is what customers would have paid; if the promo also drove incremental orders, the absolute number can stay flat or even rise. Use BC Discount Over Time for the promotional cost view. Can I see this card by destination region? Yes via Ask Viq: “shipping revenue by state for last 30 days”. Distance from your warehouse correlates with shipping cost; revenue distribution per region is informative for warehouse-location decisions. Why is my shipping revenue lower than competitor benchmarks? Three usual causes: (1) you offer more free shipping (lower threshold), (2) your AOV is higher (each order subsidises shipping more easily), (3) carrier rates are favourable (negotiated contracts).

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Total Shipping 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 or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.