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Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Ecommerce Platform

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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.

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Calculation

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Worked example

A US small-electronics DTC brand on Shopify. 30D window 12 Apr 26 to 12 May 26. Shipping breakdown by method (drilled down): Six things to notice:
  1. 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.
  2. 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 7averagecarriercost,free−shippingsubsidy=1,260×7 average carrier cost, free-shipping subsidy = 1,260 × 7 = $8,820 absorbed.
  3. Express + Next-day = $11,240 of high-margin shipping. These are mostly profit (carrier markup); paid express tier is a margin lever.
  4. International is small but expensive. 65 orders, $2,020 of shipping. International shipping is high-cost-high-revenue; net margin per order varies dramatically.
  5. Net shipping P&L. Total shipping revenue 24,300minuscarriercost(assume24,300 minus carrier cost (assume 20,000 actual) = $4,300 of shipping profit. Pair with carrier invoices for true number.
  6. Refund-blind. Customer who refunded order with 10shipping:the10 shipping: the 10 is still here. Real net is slightly lower.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Total Shipping is the £-aggregate. Companions:

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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 window
The 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.
Why our number may legitimately differ from Shopify Admin: Cross-connector reconciliation:

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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:
  1. Free-shipping site-wide promo: nobody paid shipping for that period.
  2. Marketplace channel only sales: if all sales went through a marketplace that doesn’t expose shipping to Shopify, you’d see this gap.
  3. Sync issue: rare; check Shopify Admin for the same period to confirm.
Free shipping impact? Two ways:
  • Method-based free shipping (“free over 50"):contributes50"): contributes 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.
Audit your specific configuration; the bookkeeping varies. Why is this card not net of refunds? Design choice; we show gross customer-paid. For net, subtract refunded-shipping component (available in Shopify Refunds report). Net shipping card on roadmap. My subscription store, do recurring billings include shipping? Yes if the original purchase had shipping. Each recurring billing inherits shipping line. Subscription brands often see steady shipping revenue from recurring billings. Action playbook for using Total Shipping:
  1. Monthly P&L reconciliation: total shipping vs carrier cost = shipping margin. Track over time.
  2. Free-shipping threshold tuning: if free-shipping share grows >40%, raise threshold; if <20%, consider lowering.
  3. Method mix: pair with Shipping Methods to find paid-vs-free shifts.
  4. International review: international shipping is high-margin opportunity if priced correctly; high-loss if priced too generously.
  5. Carrier negotiation leverage: this number tells carriers your revenue scale; useful in rate negotiations.
  6. Customer-experience trade-off: lowering shipping prices increases conversion but reduces margin; A/B test before deciding.

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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 Shopify 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.