Glossary · Profit
Cost of goods sold (COGS)
What the products sold cost the store to buy or make. It does not fall when the price does, which is why discounts eat margin so fast.
- Cost of goods€2,103July 2026, example store
- Share of sales26.5%the largest cost
- Per order€30.93over 68 orders
01 / How it is worked out
The formula
Formula
Units sold × the cost of one unit, product by product
Example
The example store’s goods cost €2,103 in July 2026 — 26.5% of sales.
02 / Why it matters
What it changes in a decision
Cost of goods is the largest cost in most stores and the one most often guessed. A percentage typed once is an estimate; the cost entered per product in Shopify is a measurement.
Because it is fixed per unit, a 20% discount on a product with a 30% margin gives away two thirds of the profit on every unit sold.
03 / Go further
Where it is used
Discount break-even
How deep a sale can go, and how many more units it has to sell.
Open →Product profit
Which products earn and which only sell — margin by product, after their own costs.
Open →Next: ROAS (return on ad spend)
The sales a platform says its ads brought, divided by what the ads cost. It measures revenue, not profit.
Open →
See every one of these on your own store.
Profflow works them out from your orders, ads and costs, order by order — read-only, in about ten minutes.