Contribution Per Order Calculator
What an order actually contributes after goods, shipping, payment fees and acquisition — the number that decides whether growth helps.
Revenue per order tells you very little.
How the contribution per order calculator works
Revenue per order tells you very little. Contribution is what remains after every cost that scales with the order: cost of goods, shipping and packaging, payment processing, and the marketing spent to acquire the customer.
If contribution is negative, growth makes things worse. Every additional order deepens the loss, and no volume fixes it — a position that is entirely possible at a healthy-looking gross margin once acquisition and shipping are counted.
Payment fees are small individually and are routinely forgotten. At 1.75% plus 30 cents, they take a real bite from a low-value order — over 2% on a 40 basket.
Formula: contribution = revenue − COGS − shipping − payment fees − acquisition cost
Worked examples
| Inputs | Contribution per order | Note |
|---|---|---|
| A 78 order at 55% margin | £18.60 | about 18.20 |
| With free shipping | £13.74 | nearly 5 lower |
| Expensive acquisition | -£3.40 | negative |
FAQFrequently asked questions
What is contribution per order?
What remains after every cost that scales with the order — goods, shipping, payment fees and acquisition.
Why does it matter more than gross margin?
Because a healthy gross margin can still produce a negative contribution once shipping and acquisition are counted, and then growth makes things worse.
How much are payment fees really?
Typically 1.5 to 2.5% plus a fixed fee. On a 40 order the fixed part alone pushes the effective rate above 2.5%.
What is the most I should pay to acquire an order?
The contribution before acquisition cost — anything above that loses money on the first order, which may still be right if customers repeat.
Should shipping charged count as revenue?
It offsets your shipping cost, and payment fees are charged on it, which is how it is treated here.
Where these figures come from
- APICS / ASCM — inventory management terminology — the turnover, safety stock and reorder point definitions used here
- UK Competition and Markets Authority — the UK consumer protection regulator
Last checked: September 2026. These are standard retail and inventory-management definitions.