What you need: 30 days of orders, your product costs, your carrier and payment fee rates, and the ad spend for any product you advertise. A spreadsheet helps. Start with your top 10 products by revenue.
The audit in seven steps
1. Get units and revenue per product
In WordPress, go to WooCommerce → Analytics → Products. Pick the last 30 days and download the report. You get items sold and net sales for each product. You can also export your orders, but the Products report is faster.
2. Add the product cost
For each product, add what one unit costs you to buy or make. Include inbound freight and duty if you pay them. Multiply by units sold. No cost on file? Our guide to cost of goods in WooCommerce shows where to store it.
3. Add the per-order costs that land on each product
Three costs come with every order: the shipping you pay, the payment fee and the packaging. Count shipping as what the carrier charges you, minus what the customer paid toward it.
An order often holds more than one item. Split each order cost across the items in it. If your average order holds 1.5 items, each item carries two thirds of the shipping. Fees vary by provider, so check our guide to WooCommerce payment fees.
4. Add returns and refunds
Net sales in Analytics already take refunds off the revenue. But a return costs more than the refund. You often paid shipping both ways, the payment fee isn’t always given back, and the item may not be fit to sell again. Note the return rate for each product.
5. Add ad spend for the products you advertise
If a campaign promotes one product, give that product the full spend. If it promotes several, split the spend by each product’s share of the sales. Products you don’t advertise get zero. Our guide to Meta ads profit covers where to find the spend.
6. Sort by profit, two ways
Take revenue minus every cost above. Then sort twice. Profit per unit shows which products are weak at any volume. Total profit shows which ones move your month. A product can look fine on one list and bad on the other.
7. Decide what to do
For each product that loses money, pick one fix: raise the price, cut the ads, bundle it, change the shipping, or drop it. The last section of this guide helps you choose.
A worked example: revenue rank isn’t profit rank
Here are five products from one month at a made-up home goods store. They’re sorted by revenue, the way most sales reports show them.
| Product | Revenue | Costs | Ads | Profit | Per unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large ceramic planter | $3,600 | $2,576 | $1,150 | −$126 | −$1.58 |
| Linen apron | $3,080 | $1,645 | $600 | $835 | $7.59 |
| Stoneware mug | $2,400 | $1,363 | $0 | $1,037 | $6.92 |
| Tea towel set, 25% off | $1,680 | $1,088 | $300 | $292 | $2.09 |
| Spoon rest | $1,200 | $1,167 | $0 | $33 | $0.17 |
| All five | $11,960 | $7,838 | $2,050 | $2,072 |
The planter brings in the most money and loses $126. Its shipping is heavy, it gets damaged on the way, and it carries the biggest ad budget. The mug ranks third by revenue and first by profit. The spoon rest sells the most units and keeps 17 cents on each.
Where the hidden losers are
- Low-price items. A $6 item pays the same carrier and the same fixed payment fee as a $60 one. On a small price, those costs can take most of the margin.
- Heavily advertised products. A product with a healthy margin can still lose money once its ads are counted. Check the ads per unit sold, not only the return the ad platform reports.
- Products with many returns. Each return costs a refund, shipping and often the item. A 10% return rate on a thin margin can wipe it out.
- Discounted items. Your costs stay the same when the price drops, so every dollar of discount comes off your profit. Take 25% off a product with a 30% margin and little is left.
Check one product
Enter one product’s numbers for a period, such as the last 30 days. Use prices without VAT. Then add it to the table to compare up to five products.