Blog
The numbers under a store, explained properly.
Written for operators rather than accountants. Every piece is about a number you can act on this week, and the figures in them are computed by the same engine that builds the product's P&L.
Every post, newest first
Austria's parcel tax (Paketsteuer): who pays the €2
Since 1 October 2026 Austria taxes parcels to consumers at €2 each. Only sellers above €100 million of Austrian sales owe it. What it means for your shop.
nouz vs TrueProfit: price, cost history and P&L depth compared
TrueProfit charges by orders, with a fee past each tier; nouz is a daily P&L priced per plan, with every cost dated. Both priced at five volumes, and which store each suits.
nouz vs BeProfit: Shopify depth or multichannel breadth
BeProfit puts Shopify, Amazon and WooCommerce in one dashboard on one-shop tiers; nouz is a 34-line daily P&L for Shopify alone. Prices, shops and depth compared.
nouz vs Lifetimely: LTV in contribution terms or a profit agent
Lifetimely leads with predictive LTV and an AI profit agent; nouz leads with a 34-line daily P&L and cohort LTV in contribution terms. Prices, costs and fit compared.
nouz vs Bloom: the low-price profit dashboard or the full P&L
Bloom sells profit tracking with unlimited orders from twenty dollars a month; nouz is a 34-line daily P&L with every cost dated. What each costs, and what each covers.
nouz vs Kleio: one flat price per store or a full statement
Kleio sells everything for one flat monthly price per store; nouz is a 34-line daily P&L with per-parcel logistics and a forecast. Prices, stores and costs compared.
TrueProfit pricing: what each plan costs at your order volume
TrueProfit's four plans, the fee it charges past each tier and the monthly caps, priced at 100, 500, 1.000 and 5.000 orders, with what each plan includes.
BeProfit pricing: four plans, one shop each, and what each includes
BeProfit's four plans as its App Store listing shows them, priced at 100, 500, 1.000 and 5.000 orders, with what each includes and where the one-shop limit ends.
Lifetimely pricing: the free plan, six paid tiers and the add-ons
Lifetimely's free plan, its six paid tiers and two add-ons, priced at 100, 500, 1.000 and 5.000 orders a month, with what every paid tier includes.
The Black Friday margin checklist: ten checks before the discount goes live
Black Friday is judged on revenue and paid for out of contribution. Ten checks before the discount goes live, from the extra orders it owes to the cash it needs.
Shopify sales forecasting from your own orders: a method you can check
The simplest honest forecast moves your own last year forward, weekday by weekday, scales it by how you are really growing, and prices it with the costs that will apply.
Ecommerce cash flow forecast: the VAT dates most templates leave out
A profitable month can still drain the account when the VAT return and the supplier invoices fall due. How to build a cash flow forecast that knows both dates.
Profitable on paper, no cash in the bank: the four calendars
The statement says the store earns money and the account still falls. The four calendars that separate profit from cash, and the plan that fits a genuinely profitable store.
Why your Shopify numbers never match, and which one to trust
Shopify, the payout report, the bank, the ad manager and your accountant each report a different number for the same day. Every gap has a boring cause; here is each one.
How to calculate your Shopify store's true profit, step by step
Strip the VAT, price the goods, subtract parcel, fees and ad spend, then spread the fixed block: the full method for computing what your Shopify store actually keeps.
The Shopify P&L statement, explained block by block
What a real P&L for a Shopify store looks like: the margin ladder from net revenue to operating profit, the recognition rules, and how to read a month off it.
Which products actually make money? Rebuild the bestseller list
Your bestseller list is a revenue ranking. Rebuilt as a profit ranking, it reorders: discounts, returns, parcels and fees decide which products actually earn.
Are Shopify fees eating your profit? Itemise before you panic
Every order loses a slice to fees, and the fixed part bites hardest on small baskets. The full fee stack, the mechanics that inflate it, and the four levers that help.
Ads eating your profit? Find your MER floor before you cut
Spend is up, profit is down, and every platform claims success. Find your blended MER floor, separate the marginal euro from the average, and cut in the right order.
Returns killing your margins? Diagnose, price, then reduce
A return takes back the margin, the parcel and more. Where returns concentrate, what a normal rate is, the levers that actually reduce them, and how to survive the lag.
Bloom alternatives: from an affordable dashboard to a full P&L
Bloom fits simple costs on a tight budget. Kleio is one price per store, Lifetimely leads on LTV, and nouz is a 34-line daily P&L with every cost dated.
Kleio alternatives: from one flat plan to a full P&L
Kleio puts every feature in one low price per store. Bloom costs less for the core job, Lifetimely leads on LTV, nouz adds per-parcel costs and a forecast.
Five ways to raise CM1 without touching your prices
The margin after goods moves on cost, mix and shrinkage as readily as on price. Five levers, their arithmetic, and what each one is worth on a real catalogue.
Negotiating a carrier rate card, with the arithmetic in hand
Carriers price by bracket, zone and volume. What each part is worth per parcel, which asks are cheap for them, and how to size the request before you make it.
Box size economics: the cheapest margin you are not taking
A box two sizes too big costs more to buy, more to fill, more to ship and more in EPR fees. What right-sizing is actually worth, computed four ways.
Setting an ad budget from your margin, not from last month
Most budgets are last month's number plus a feeling. Build one from contribution instead: what the orders leave, what the fixed block needs, what is left to spend.
The quarterly fixed cost review, in ninety minutes
Fixed costs creep by subscription and renewal, never by decision. A short quarterly routine that prices every line in orders and cancels what nobody defends.
Free shipping thresholds: the arithmetic before the offer
Set the threshold at your average order and you discount half your orders for nothing. Where the line actually sits, and the two numbers that prove it worked.
Discount strategy: what each code costs before it sells anything
A ten percent code takes about a quarter of what an order keeps. The volume it must bring, where scoping beats depth, and how to judge a promotion honestly.
Bundle economics: what one parcel instead of three is worth
A bundle is judged against the discount and paid for partly by fulfilment. The three worlds to compare, and the depth at which a bundle stops earning.
The price rise playbook: how much volume you can afford to lose
Almost every cent of an increase reaches contribution. The tolerance line, how to stage a rise, and what to watch in the four weeks after it lands.
Margin-based pricing: building a price from what it must cover
Cost plus a percentage prices for the goods and nothing else. Build the price from the costs an order really carries, then sanity-check it against the market.
A chargeback and a return are not the same cost
Both hand money back. Only one hands the goods back, and only one charges a fee whichever way it goes. Why a P&L has to treat them separately.
Gift cards are not revenue, and counting them twice is easy
Selling a gift card is a liability. The revenue happens on redemption, where the card is only a payment method. What that means for a P&L.
Nobody gives the payment fee back when you refund
A refund returns the money and not the fee. Why that makes a refunded order worse than a sale that never happened, and how it should sit on a statement.
Cancelled and test orders: small numbers that move a month
Both sit in every export and neither is trade. What each one does to revenue, order counts and average order value if it is left in.
Which day is today? Store timezones and the month boundary
An order at 00:30 in Berlin belongs to today for you and to yesterday in a report kept in UTC. Why one timezone everywhere is the only defensible answer.
What a split shipment really costs, and why nobody sees it
One order, two parcels, two of every fulfilment cost. Why per-order averages hide it, what causes splits, and what reducing them is worth.
Partial refunds: the goodwill that quietly reprices your catalogue
A ten euro adjustment costs more than ten euros of margin and never appears in a discount report. How to count goodwill honestly.
Exchanges on a P&L: two events wearing one word
An exchange is a return and a new order, and treating it as neither hides two parcels and a restock. How to book it so the costs stay visible.
Compare-at price hygiene, and why bad data flatters revenue
A compare-at price left on a product turns an ordinary sale into a permanent discount line. What good hygiene looks like and what bad data does to a statement.
When a refund credits the cost of goods, and at which price
Refunded units come back into stock at the cost that was effective on the original order, not at today's. Why the rule prevents phantom margin.
The rounding drift: how a cent a parcel became €600 a year
Packaging fees are fractions of a cent. Rounding each parcel loses the same fraction every time, in the same direction. What we found and how we fixed it.
Spreading overhead: the arithmetic that makes a day readable
Rent billed on the first is consumed all month. How proration works, why 365ths, and what happens to a daily P&L without it.
Backdating a cost safely, when you find out late
A supplier raised prices in March and told you in June. How to apply it from when it really started without rewriting everything else.
Anatomy of a losing day: reading a bad Tuesday properly
A negative day is usually one of five things, and only two of them are problems. How to tell them apart before reacting to any of them.
Net sales and gross sales in Shopify: which one is which
Shopify's gross sales and net sales both leave out VAT and shipping; total sales puts them back. What each one contains, and which one a margin belongs on.
Reconciling a Shopify payout, line by line
A payout is not a day of sales. What is inside one, why it never matches your revenue, and how to tie a single payout to its orders in an hour.
Where the fees hide: six charges and where each one appears
Subscription, processing, third-party surcharge, currency conversion, disputes and apps. Which invoice each lands on, and which belong to an order at all.
Reading refund reports without misreading your month
Refund reports answer a cash question, not a margin one. What they include, what they leave out, and how to turn one into a return rate you can act on.
Shopify Analytics and a P&L are two different documents
One measures the shop, the other measures the business. What each is genuinely good at, and why using either for the other's job goes wrong.
Which Shopify reports your accountant actually wants
Most of what gets sent is a screenshot of a dashboard. The four exports that answer their questions, and the two things they will not do for you.
Historical COGS on Shopify: what the cost field keeps, and what it cannot
Shopify records cost per item with each sale but keeps no dated history you can read or correct. What historical COGS needs, and how to keep it.
Tax reports and VAT: what belongs to you and what never did
The tax reports answer a filing question. A P&L needs a different one: how much of what you collected was never revenue in the first place.
TrueProfit and BeProfit compared, on the axis that decides it
Two Shopify profit trackers that both price by order volume, in different ways. What each is built for, where their prices cross, and which store each one suits.
BeProfit and Lifetimely: two tools answering different questions
One is a multichannel profit tracker, the other an LTV and cohort specialist. Comparing them on price alone misses what each is actually for.
Switching profit trackers without losing your history
Moving from TrueProfit or any tracker means re-entering costs and re-establishing history. The order to do it in, and what does not transfer.
Moving off the spreadsheet without losing what it taught you
The sheet is where most stores learn their own economics. What to keep from it, the four errors it almost certainly has, and when to stop maintaining it.
A profit tracker and accounting software are not substitutes
One answers what yesterday earned, the other what the year owes. Where each is authoritative, why their monthly numbers differ, and what happens with only one.
Packaging rules for small shops: there is no exemption to find
Small sellers keep looking for the threshold that lets them out. Simplified reporting exists; relief from the obligation does not. What that costs per parcel.
Mono-material packaging: cheaper to buy, cheaper to declare
Mixed materials cost more in fees, more in handling and more in reporting. What switching to one material is worth, and where it does not work.
Packaging fees across borders: where the waste is, not where you are
Fees follow the market where packaging becomes waste, which means a warehouse in one country and customers in three creates obligations in all of them.
Where the margin went, across 137.947 orders
Fourteen months of an example store's order book, priced by the real engine: what €15,7M of ticket value left behind, line by line, and which stage took most.
Fourteen months of returns: when they arrive, and what they cost
9.357 refunds across an example store's order book. The lag curve, why a young month always flatters itself, and what the delay does to a monthly review.
Small baskets pay more: the fee rate against order size
Across 137.947 orders, the blended payment fee rate falls from 3,45% on baskets under €40 to 2,64% above €150. The fixed fee is the whole reason.
Which weekday actually earns: 137.947 orders, sorted
Saturday takes 31% more revenue per trading day than Monday on an example store's order book. What that does to campaigns, staffing and daily reading.
Discounted orders are bigger orders: what the data actually shows
Across 137.947 orders, discounted baskets are larger than undiscounted ones. Why that is not evidence discounts work, and what it does show.
Making sales but no money in the bank? Follow the euros
Orders keep coming and the account keeps shrinking. Where the money goes between a Shopify dashboard and your bank, euro by euro, and the habit that ends the mystery.
Does Shopify show profit? Partly, and the part misleads
Shopify shows gross profit for products that have a cost, and quietly drops the rest. What its numbers can and cannot tell you, the four gaps, and how to close them.
Is my Shopify store profitable? The three-check audit
Three checks decide it: does your best seller pay, does the month clear its fixed costs, and does the trend hold? The audit, with real numbers at every step.
Where is profit in the Shopify admin? A map of what's there
The four places people look for profit in the admin, what each one really holds, why no profit page exists, and the shortest honest path to the missing number.
Shopify profit after ad spend: the number the ROAS hides
Every platform reports a return; none reports your profit. The blended method that cannot double-count, the MER floor your margin sets, and one honest subtraction.
High revenue, no profit: the four growth taxes
The store grew and the bottom line did not follow. Why scale amplifies weak unit economics, the four taxes growth quietly levies, and the afternoon diagnosis.
The best Shopify profit tracking apps, compared
SimplyCost and Bloom have the lowest paid prices, Kleio is one price per store, Lifetimely leads on LTV, and nouz is a daily P&L with dated costs.
TrueProfit alternatives: flat pricing and dated cost rules
For a lower bill, Bloom or SimplyCost; one price per store, Kleio; Amazon beside Shopify, BeProfit; LTV, Lifetimely; a daily P&L with dated costs, nouz.
BeProfit alternatives: Shopify depth instead of multichannel breadth
nouz for a deeper Shopify P&L with dated costs and several stores on one plan, TrueProfit for a phone app, Lifetimely for LTV, Bloom or SimplyCost for less.
Lifetimely alternatives: cohort LTV in contribution terms, inside the daily P&L
nouz for cohort LTV in contribution terms inside a daily P&L, Kleio for LTV at one price per store, Bloom for a lower bill and BeProfit for Amazon.
Packaging EPR: what it actually costs you per parcel
EPR is charged on the weight of packaging you place on a market, by material. Here is the arithmetic per parcel, and where the cost lands on a P&L.
What PPWR actually costs an ecommerce seller
PPWR started applying on 12 August 2026. Here is what changed for a Shopify merchant in money: where you register, and which line each fee lands on.
VerpackG, LUCID and what German packaging rules cost per order
Germany charges you in three places: LUCID, a dual system contract and the Datenmeldung. Only one of them scales with orders. Here is what it costs.
What Shopify's COGS report leaves out
Shopify's profit reports stop at net sales minus a static cost field. Here is what that field does to your history, and what sits below gross profit.
Which day does a refund belong to
Book a refund to the order date and last month never stops changing. Book it to the refund date and the past stays fixed. Why nouz does the second.
CM1, CM2 and CM3 explained: the three margins ecommerce operators steer on
CM1, CM2 and CM3 are contribution margins after product, fulfilment and marketing costs. What each level includes, the formulas, and a worked example.
What a return really costs, and why it is not the refund
The refund is the visible part and rarely the expensive one. A returned order costs you four things, and three of them no refund gives back.
What Shopify Analytics does not tell you about profit
Shopify measures the money coming in with real precision. Four of the costs that decide your profit have no field in it at all.
MER, POAS or ROAS: which number should you steer on
Platform ROAS is the most reported and least reliable number in ecommerce. Two blended alternatives are harder to game and easier to trust.
That is all 86 posts. The first went up on 4 Aug 2026.
See these numbers for your own store.
nouz installs from the Shopify App Store, where the listing is in review. It imports every order your store has ever taken and builds the same daily P&L these posts are written around. Cancel anytime.