Two exclusions do most of the work. Test orders are not trade and sit in every raw export waiting to inflate a count. Cancelled orders never shipped and never earned, and a single cancelled bulk order can move a month's average order value noticeably if it is left in.
The count matters more than merchants expect, because so many costs are charged per order rather than per euro. The parcel, the picking, the packaging and the fixed leg of the payment fee are the same on a small basket as on a large one, so a rising order count with a falling basket size raises costs faster than it raises revenue.
It is deliberately a different number from net orders, which deducts the orders that were fully refunded. Both belong on a statement: one describes what the warehouse did, the other what the store kept. Gross orders are also the count Base's order limit is measured in.
