EMAIL COSTS
How many orders cover your email costs?
If each extra order leaves $24 after costs, three orders cover a $49 fee. These are sample numbers. Use the steps and sheet below to check your own costs.
In this guide
1. Find the number of orders you need
- Find what one extra order leaves after its costs.
- Divide the monthly message cost by that amount.
- Round up to the next whole order if needed.
This is called a break-even check. It asks how many sales would cover a cost. It does not say how many sales you will get.
For our sample, $48 minus $24 in order costs leaves $24. Divide the $49 fee by $24. The answer is just over two, so you need three whole orders.
If an order leaves $0 or less, more of those orders will not cover a fee. Check the price and costs first.
2. See what a few extra orders leave
| Extra orders | Sales | Order costs | Left after the $49 fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $48 | $24 | −$25 |
| 2 | $96 | $48 | −$1 |
| 3 | $144 | $72 | $23 |
| 5 | $240 | $120 | $71 |
At two orders, you are still $1 short. At three, there is $23 left. At five, there is $71 left.
These are made-up orders. The $49 fee is the only monthly cost in this sample. The $24 covers each order’s costs. This is not your whole store’s profit or a sales forecast.
3. Check what each order really leaves
Start with what the shopper paid for the items after deals and refunds. Leave out tax and shipping charges. Take off the item cost, packing and card fees. Then take off the shipping cost you paid, less what you charged for it.
Shopify’s “Gross profit by product” report uses saved item costs. It only includes items that had a cost saved when sold. Check for missing costs before using it. Add any other order costs the report leaves out.
In our sample, 10% off a $48 order cuts $4.80 from what is left. If costs stay at $24, that order leaves $19.20. Check the math again when you add a deal.
To see how many more orders a deal needs to leave the same profit, use the discount break-even calculator.
For a concrete discount decision, the abandoned-cart recovery guide walks through what a recovered order leaves after discounts and costs.
Source: Shopify: saved item costs, profit reports and discounts
4. Count the whole message bill
Use the same month for the fees and orders. Add the app fee and any extra email or text charges. Count any other costs of making and sending these messages. Put each cost in one place so you do not count it twice.
Say extra sends add $20 to the sample’s $49 fee. You now need to cover $69. With $24 left per order, three orders leave $3 after that bill. Four orders leave $27.
In our pricing calculator, pick a plan. Add your extra send costs and other fees under “Other monthly costs.” Or use the sheet below to keep your sums.
5. Count extra orders, not all orders
An extra order is one you would not have had without the message. A sale listed in an email report is not proof of that.
If you do not know how many orders were extra, say so. You can still find the number needed to cover costs. You cannot yet say the messages paid off. Read the sales report guide below for that next check.
Apply the same extra-order test to customer win-back emails and texts. A repeat purchase credited to a message is not automatically a purchase caused by that message.
Copy your cost sheet
Copy this sheet into your notes. Use one month and the same currency for each amount.
Your email and text cost check
Month: Currency:
ONE EXTRA ORDER Item sales after deals and refunds, before tax and shipping: $ Item cost: $ Packing and card fees: $ Net shipping cost (shipping paid minus shipping charged): $ Other order costs: $ Item sales minus all order costs = left per order: $
MESSAGE COSTS FOR THIS MONTH App fee: $ Extra email and text charges: $ Other costs to make and send the messages: $ Total message costs: $
ORDERS NEEDED Total message costs ÷ amount left per order = Round up to a whole order if needed: If each order leaves $0 or less, stop and check the price and costs.
CHECK A POSSIBLE RESULT Extra orders I want to check: Extra orders × amount left per order − message costs = $ Do I have proof those orders were extra? Yes / no / not sure What I still need to check:
Net shipping cost means shipping you pay minus shipping the shopper pays. Count it here only once. The sheet checks your inputs. It does not measure or predict extra sales.