Online Seller Profit Calculator

How it works

Include the costs that sit between a sale and your profit

Enter the selling price and shipping charged for one representative order. Add the product cost, actual shipping cost, packaging, advertising spend, and an allowance for expected losses from returns. The return allowance is a money amount per order, allowing you to use your own experience instead of a generic return-rate assumption. Monthly fixed overhead is entered separately so it is not subtracted twice.

Collected sales tax is treated as money you pass through rather than revenue you retain. The model includes that tax in the processing-fee base while excluding it from the marketplace transaction-fee base. Check that this treatment matches the custom fee arrangement you are modeling. This is a declared calculation convention, not a universal rule for every marketplace or country.

Seller profit example with a 50 item and 5 shipping charge

Assume an item price of 50 and shipping charged of 5, giving revenue of 55 before collected tax. Product cost is 15, actual shipping is 6, packaging is 1, advertising spend is 3, and expected return loss is 1. Those costs total 26. With a 6.5% marketplace fee, 3% processing plus 0.25, and a 0.20 listing allocation, the rounded fees are 3.58, 1.90, and 0.20.

Total fees are 5.68 and contribution is 55 − 26 − 5.68 = 23.32 per order. At 100 orders and 200 monthly overhead, operating profit is 2,132. The result is before income tax and any owner compensation not entered as a cost. It also depends on the representative order remaining representative as sales volume changes.

Use the dated US Etsy example with its stated scope

The Etsy mode models a US bank-account case using USD listing and settlement, with one item per order and one listing-fee allocation. It uses the published transaction and processing rates and lets you choose whether the order has an Offsite Ads fee. The Offsite Ads fee amount, not the percentage, is capped at USD 100 per order. The preset was checked against Etsy’s official policies on October 13, 2026.

This is not a complete reproduction of every Etsy statement. Multiple-item orders, gift wrapping, different bank countries, currency conversion, fee taxes, setup charges, and other services can change actual charges. Enter applicable extra per-order fees or monthly overhead, or use custom rates for a different scenario. Selecting an Offsite Ads rate does not establish which rate or eligibility applies to your account.

Distinguish order contribution from monthly operating profit

Contribution per order shows what remains before monthly fixed overhead. A store can have positive contribution but a negative monthly operating profit if there are too few orders to cover that overhead. The orders-to-cover-overhead metric rounds up when contribution is positive. If contribution is zero or negative, increasing volume alone cannot reliably fund positive fixed costs in this model.

The displayed operating margin divides monthly operating profit by monthly sales excluding collected tax. It is not a markup percentage on product cost. Compare scenarios for selling price, shipping recovery, advertising, or order volume by saving named calculations. Keep account fees current and compare the detailed components with real statements so missing expenses are visible instead of treating the initial estimate as a final accounting result.

Custom online store fees: formula and assumptions

Per-order contribution = item price + shipping charged − product, fulfillment, advertising, return allowance, and fees. Monthly operating profit = contribution × orders − fixed overhead.

Marketplace and percentage advertising fees apply to item price plus shipping charged. Processing applies to that amount plus sales tax collected. Sales tax is a pass-through, not revenue. An expected return loss is entered as a money allowance, not an assumed universal return percentage.

Etsy US seller example: formula and assumptions

US example: transaction fee 6.5%; processing 3% + $0.25; one $0.20 listing allocation per single-item order; selected Offsite Ads percentage capped at $100 per order.

US bank-account example checked October 13, 2026. Assumes one item per order, USD listing and settlement, and no gift wrapping. The Offsite Ads fee uses item plus shipping price. It excludes setup, subscription, currency-conversion, fee taxes, and regulatory charges unless you enter them as other fees or overhead. Actual charges depend on your account and order.

Worked example

Reference example currency: USD. These fixed examples do not change with your calculator preferences.

Using the Custom online store fees example:

Item selling price per order ($)

50

Shipping charged to customer ($)

5

Product cost per order ($)

15

Actual shipping cost ($)

6

Packaging per order ($)

1

Advertising spend per order ($)

3

Expected loss from returns per order ($)

1

Sales tax collected and remitted per order ($)

0

Orders per month

100

Monthly fixed overhead ($)

200

Marketplace transaction fee (%)

6.5

Payment processing fee (%)

3

Fixed processing fee per order ($)

0.25

Listing fees allocated per order ($)

0.2

Additional percentage advertising fee (%)

0

Other fees per order ($)

0

Per-order contribution = item price + shipping charged − product, fulfillment, advertising, return allowance, and fees. Monthly operating profit = contribution × orders − fixed overhead.

Example result

• Collected sales tax is excluded from revenue but included in the processing-fee base. Profit is before income taxes and owner compensation unless entered as a cost.

These are illustrative inputs. Change the values to explore a different scenario.

What to keep in mind

Use one currency throughout. Currency selection changes labels, not exchange rates. Calculate, then save a named scenario in My workspace to keep it in this browser; export a workspace backup to move it to another device.

Formula references

• Etsy: fees and payments policy (opens in a new tab)
• Etsy Payments: country-specific processing fees (opens in a new tab)

References explain the underlying methods; they do not imply endorsement or individual professional review of Finflo.

Common questions