Guide
Shopify sales reports, explained: gross, net and total sales
Check your month
From gross sales to net and total sales
Example numbers. Type in the columns from your Total sales over time report for one month. Shopify shows discounts and reversals as negatives, and a minus sign or brackets are fine.
Net sales $40,800
Total sales $45,800, which includes $5,000 of taxes, shipping, duties and fees that weren't sales.
- Discounts were 9.0% of gross sales.
- Sales reversals were 6.0% of gross sales.
- Net sales per order: $49.76.
- Beside Amazon, which counts ordered product sales before refunds, use $43,680: net sales with reversals added back, so it doesn't change with reversals.
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent. Formulas from Shopify's definitions.1
Part 1
Net sales is the number to read
Each column, in Shopify's own words. Net sales takes out discounts and reversals, and total sales adds back what wasn't a sale.
| Column | Shopify's definition, quoted1 |
|---|---|
| Gross sales | "Equates to product price x quantity (before taxes, shipping, discounts, and sales reversals) for a collection of sales. Pending, canceled, and unpaid orders are included. Test and deleted orders aren't included." |
| Discounts | "Equates to line item discount + order level discount share for a collection of sales." "All discounts are applied before taxes." |
| Sales reversals | "All order adjustments that result in negative monetary value. Sales reversals include the value of returned products, as well as order cancellations, edits, adjustments to shipping, taxes, fees, and discounts." (Shopify records each one on the day it was processed.) |
| Net sales | "Equates to gross sales - discounts - sales reversals." |
| Shipping | "Equates to shipping charges - shipping discounts - refunded shipping amounts." |
| Total sales | "Equates to gross sales - discounts - sales reversals + taxes + duties + shipping charges + fees." |
Part 2
Which sales report answers which question
Do this first
- Open Analytics, then Reports, and filter to the Sales category.
- Open Total sales over time and group it by month.
- Compare the date range against the same range last year.
Shopify lists 12 standard sales reports plus bundle and subscription reports.1 These 6 cover a monthly review.
| Report | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Total sales over time | Your monthly number. Group by month and compare a date range against the same range last year. |
| Net sales by channel | What each Shopify sales channel brought in after discounts and reversals. |
| Total sales by product | Which products drove the month, and which fell. |
| Sales by discount codes | What each code cost you, and whether a sale came from a promotion. |
| Total sales by billing location | Where your customers are. |
| Average order value over time | Whether a change came from more orders or bigger ones. |
Part 3
4 traps that make a month look wrong
Do this first
- Check sales reversals before you explain a dip.
- Read net sales, and leave gross sales for context.
- Take the order count from the admin, or count unique order IDs.
- Set Shopify's net sales, with reversals added back, beside Amazon's ordered product sales.
- Returns land in the month they're processed. Shopify records a sale on the day it was made and a reversal on the day it was processed,1 so a wave of January returns from December orders lowers January's net sales even if January's orders were fine.
- Gross sales counts pending, canceled and unpaid orders.1 A cancellation comes back out as a sales reversal, so gross sales runs high in a month with many cancellations.
- A CSV export shows more orders than the admin. Add a product column to Total sales over time and the export counts each product row as an order, so an order with 3 products becomes 3. An edit made after the day of the order also shows as a separate order.1
- Total sales isn't comparable with other channels. It carries taxes and shipping, and Amazon counts ordered product sales before refunds.2 The Amazon Business Reports guide covers that side, and the omnichannel dashboard template adds every channel up by month.
Shopify's numbers are only half the month
If you also sell on Amazon, Walmart or wholesale, a Shopify report can grow while the business shrinks, or the reverse. Send us your Shopify orders export and your other channels' reports, and we'll build the month across every channel, with each change split into traffic, conversion and order value and the first 3 actions ranked. The first month is free.