At a glance
Total shipping revenue collected from customers in the 30-day window. The single-number version of Shipping % of Revenue; useful for shipping P&L reconciliation.
| What it counts | SUM(totalShippingPrice) across orders in the window. Customer-paid shipping; not actual carrier cost. |
| VAT / tax treatment | Inherits store mode. UK / EU shipping carries VAT; US shipping varies by state. |
| Shipping | This is the metric. |
| Discounts | Free-shipping promo orders contribute zero to this total; some configurations route through discount mechanism. |
| Refunds | NOT subtracted. Refunded shipping (when refund includes shipping line) doesn’t reduce this. |
| Cancelled / voided orders | Included if Shopify indexed them. |
| Currency | Multi-currency arithmetic without FX. |
| Channels / sources | All channels. POS sales typically have zero shipping (instore pickup). Online and marketplace contribute most. |
| Time window | 30D (default 30D rolling) |
| Alert trigger | None directly; pair with carrier-cost data for shipping-margin alerts. |
| Roles | owner, operations |
Calculation
Worked example
A US small-electronics DTC brand on Shopify. 30D window 12 Apr 26 to 12 May 26.| Period component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Total revenue (gross) | $312,500 |
| Total shipping charged | $24,300 |
| Shipping % of revenue | 7.78% |
| Shipping method | Orders | £ shipping | Avg ship per order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (paid) | 1,840 | $11,040 | $6.00 |
| Express (paid) | 580 | $5,800 | $10.00 |
| Next-day (paid) | 320 | $5,440 | $17.00 |
| Free over $50 | 1,260 | $0 | $0 |
| International | 65 | $2,020 | $31.00 |
| POS / pickup | 95 | $0 | $0 |
- Total shipping ($24,300) is ~10% of total revenue. The ratio sits in healthy range for small-electronics DTC; pair with Shipping % of Revenue for the trend.
- Free-shipping cohort is meaningful. 1,260 orders qualified for free shipping = ~30% of orders. They contribute £0 to this total but ate the absorbed cost on the brand’s P&L. The unit-economics: at 7 = $8,820 absorbed.
- Express + Next-day = $11,240 of high-margin shipping. These are mostly profit (carrier markup); paid express tier is a margin lever.
- International is small but expensive. 65 orders, $2,020 of shipping. International shipping is high-cost-high-revenue; net margin per order varies dramatically.
- Net shipping P&L. Total shipping revenue 20,000 actual) = $4,300 of shipping profit. Pair with carrier invoices for true number.
- Refund-blind. Customer who refunded order with 10 is still here. Real net is slightly lower.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Total Shipping is the £-aggregate. Companions:| Card | Why pair it with Total Shipping |
|---|---|
| Shipping % of Revenue | The ratio version. |
| Shipping Methods | Breakdown by method; reveals method-mix shifts. |
| Free vs Paid Shipping | Direct decomposition of the shipping cohort. |
| Total Revenue | Aggregate context. |
| Revenue Breakdown | The shipping slice of total. |
| Customer Countries | Geographic context; international orders skew shipping totals. |
| Top Cities | Local cluster context. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in Shopify Admin:Shopify Admin → Analytics → Reports → “Total sales” look at the Shipping column for the same windowThe most direct equivalent. Should match this card to within sync-lag tolerance. Other Shopify Admin views:
- Reports → “Sales by shipping method”: per-method breakdown.
- Apps: ShipStation, Shippo, ShipBob expose shipping-cost data; combine with this for shipping P&L.
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Refund treatment | Either | Shopify Net Sales subtract refunded shipping; we show gross. |
| Time zone | Boundary | UTC vs store time zone. |
| Multi-currency | Aggregate distortion | We don’t FX-normalise. |
| Channel filter | Either | Reports filtered to “Online Store” only differ from blended. |
| Sync lag | Ours lower for “today” | Most-recent 5-15 min may not be in. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier portal revenue (revenue carriers received from your account) | Should be lower than this card | Carriers receive only their portion (negotiated rates); customers pay your retail rates. The gap is shipping margin. |
| 3PL invoice totals | Should be lower than this card | 3PL pick + carrier cost typically less than customer-paid shipping for healthy operations. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Is shipping revenue or cost? Both. This card shows what customers paid. Real shipping P&L = customer paid minus what you paid the carrier. If carrier cost > customer paid, you’re subsidising; if carrier cost < customer paid, you’re profiting. Why is my shipping revenue zero on some days? Possible causes:- Free-shipping site-wide promo: nobody paid shipping for that period.
- Marketplace channel only sales: if all sales went through a marketplace that doesn’t expose shipping to Shopify, you’d see this gap.
- Sync issue: rare; check Shopify Admin for the same period to confirm.
- Method-based free shipping (“free over 0 to this total; all costs absorbed by brand.
- Discount-code free shipping (“FREESHIP code”): may show as discount cost rather than shipping zero; depends on Shopify config.
- Monthly P&L reconciliation: total shipping vs carrier cost = shipping margin. Track over time.
- Free-shipping threshold tuning: if free-shipping share grows >40%, raise threshold; if <20%, consider lowering.
- Method mix: pair with Shipping Methods to find paid-vs-free shifts.
- International review: international shipping is high-margin opportunity if priced correctly; high-loss if priced too generously.
- Carrier negotiation leverage: this number tells carriers your revenue scale; useful in rate negotiations.
- Customer-experience trade-off: lowering shipping prices increases conversion but reduces margin; A/B test before deciding.