In too many ecommerce P&L reviews, I see the same pattern...

In too many ecommerce P&L reviews, I see the same pattern:

GMV looks great, but by the time you walk through each “step” of the cost stack, most of the profit has quietly disappeared.

If you redraw it as a simple waterfall, the money journey usually looks like this:

1. GMV – total order value.

2. Minus discounts, vouchers, COD fails → Net Revenue.

3. Minus COGS (actual landed cost, not a guess in Shopify).

4. Minus platform + payment fees (2.9–3.9% + $0.30 per order, often higher cross‑border).

5. Minus shipping + fulfillment + warehousing.

6. Minus refunds/returns (15–30% of orders in some categories).

7. Only then minus marketing (ads, KOL, affiliates).

---------

Most dashboards show founders the first few steps (GMV, Net, maybe COGS).

But it’s steps 4–7 that kill you: each one looks like “just 3–5%,” but together they erase the entire margin.

The funny thing is: once founders see this waterfall at the SKU level, they often say it before I do:

“This SKU needs a higher price.”

“This one is just for traffic; don’t over‑spend on ads.”

“This one is so deep in the red we should cut it entirely.”

-------

With Okiela, I’m trying to draw that waterfall automatically and in enough detail:

1. Pull data from Shopify (or CSV).

2. Rebuild the steps from GMV → Net → Gross → Net Profit → True Profit.

3. Show how much each layer is taking, at SKU, channel, and order level.

In a 2025–2026 environment where every margin point matters, I think every ecommerce founder should, at least once, look at their business as a clean profit waterfall. Only then does it make sense to decide whether to tune ads, pricing, or operations first.

--------

#buildinpublic #analytics #data #shopify #ecommerce #saas #solofounder #okiela #shopifytips #ecommerceprofits #ecomtips #shopifytutorial #dropshippingtips #shopifystore #smallbusinessowner #aitools #profit #pricing