Short answer: Based on TrueProfit's analysis of 5,000+ ecommerce stores from January to August 2026, the typical store runs a gross margin between 55% and 65%, a contribution margin of 35 to 50% and a net margin between 10% and 15%. Larger brands with full books keep far less. Finaloop's study of hundreds of seven- and eight-figure brands puts the median net profit margin at 3% to 4% for 2024. NYU Stern's January 2026 sector tables put US general retail at 5.61%.
Those numbers measure different cost layers and different kinds of business, so this report separates gross, contribution, operating and net margin, gives the formula and a worked $100 order for each, and shows which benchmark to compare your store against for which decision.
Key figures at a glance
Every figure in this report names its source and date. Where a source publishes a target range or guidance rather than a measured average, the text says so.
The margin stack: what each layer measures
A store with a 60% gross margin does not keep 60 cents of each sales dollar. Advertising, shipping, payment processing, returns, support, payroll, software, warehousing, tax and financing take most of that gross profit. Use gross margin to judge product economics, contribution margin to judge order economics, and net margin to judge whether the company makes money.
| Metric | What it measures | Formula | Worked example on a $100 order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross profit margin | Revenue left after cost of goods sold | (Revenue minus COGS) divided by revenue | $100 revenue minus $40 COGS = $60 gross profit, a 60% gross margin |
| Contribution margin | Revenue left after the variable costs of winning and shipping the order | (Revenue minus COGS, acquisition, fulfilment and payment costs) divided by revenue | $60 gross profit minus $20 ads, $8 shipping and $3 payment fees = $29, a 29% contribution margin |
| Operating margin | Profit after operating overhead | Operating profit divided by revenue | $29 contribution profit minus $9 overhead = $20, a 20% operating margin |
| Net profit margin | Profit after every cost | Net profit divided by revenue | $20 operating profit minus $10 tax, interest and other costs = $10, a 10% net margin |
| Average order value (AOV) | Average revenue per order | Revenue divided by number of orders | $10,000 revenue across 100 orders = $100 AOV |
The table is an illustrative order, not a benchmark. Its gross, operating and net steps follow TrueProfit's own worked example, where a $100 sale with $40 of product cost leaves $60, a 60% gross margin, and $10 left after every cost is a 10% net margin.
The $3 payment fee in the table is a round figure close to Shopify Payments' US Basic online rate, which works out at $3.20 on a $100 order (see the fee table below).
The full chapter on profit per order works through an $80 order at a 45% contribution margin and shows why gross margin alone overstates what an order earns.
Gross profit margin
Gross profit margin is revenue minus the direct cost of the product, divided by revenue. COGS usually includes the purchase or manufacturing cost, packaging and inbound freight. It answers one narrow question: does the product leave enough money after it is sold? It says nothing about the cost of finding the customer or delivering the parcel.
Check the definition before comparing. Finaloop's gross margin subtracts full landed cost, merchant (payment) fees, and shipping and fulfilment costs, which makes it closer to what many stores call contribution before marketing. Shopify's own reports define gross margin as gross profit divided by net sales, using the cost per item you record.
Contribution margin
Contribution margin deducts the variable costs of generating and fulfilling an order: advertising, shipping, packaging, payment fees, and sometimes returns and customer service. Common Thread Collective's definition is net sales plus shipping revenue, minus COGS, ad spend, shipping and fulfilment, and merchant fees. It is the most useful measure for deciding whether to scale a campaign, a product or a promotion.
Operating and net margin
Operating margin deducts overhead from contribution profit: payroll, software, warehousing, finance and other costs that cannot be assigned to one order. Net margin then deducts tax, interest and non-operating items. It is the closest answer to "what does the business keep?"
How much each layer takes in practice
Finaloop publishes medians for every layer from the same set of brands, which shows where the money goes.
| Group | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross profit | 55% (After landed cost, payment fees, shipping and fulfilment) |
| Contribution profit | 25% (After variable marketing) |
| EBITDA | 5% |
| Net profit | 3% |
Hundreds of seven- and eight-figure brands with Finaloop financials, $3.16 billion in annual sales. Gross profit is the same-store cohort's latest year; the other layers are 2024 medians, as percentages of net sales.
Source: Finaloop, ecommerce financial benchmark study (March 2026)
Read the gaps, not just the bars. Because Finaloop's gross margin already includes shipping and payment fees, the roughly 30 points between gross and contribution profit is almost all marketing. Overhead then takes about another 20 points before EBITDA. For most growing brands, acquisition cost is the single biggest line between a healthy product margin and a thin net margin.
Profit margin benchmarks by business model
| Group | Value |
|---|---|
| DTC | 27% (66% gross. Pricing power and repeat orders that need no new ad spend) |
| Others | 23% (50% gross. Mixed category) |
| Dropshipping | 18% (67% gross. Paid traffic and third-party fulfilment take most of it) |
| Print on demand | 16% (62% gross. High per-unit production and fulfilment cost) |
5,000+ active Shopify stores with recorded revenue, one-week snapshot for 18 to 24 October 2026. Benchmarks, not targets.
TrueProfit's weekly benchmark for 18 to 24 October 2026 puts DTC at 66% gross and 27% net, and dropshipping at 67% gross and 18% net. The two models start in the same place. The gap opens below the gross line: dropshipping pays for nearly every order with advertising and has little control over delivery times, which feeds refunds and support work. DTC brands own the customer relationship, so a share of their orders arrives without an acquisition cost.
Profit margin benchmarks by industry
| Group | Value |
|---|---|
| Hardware | 39% (71% gross margin) |
| Vehicles and parts | 35% (63% gross margin) |
| Health and beauty | 34% (74% gross margin) |
| Home and garden | 33% (67% gross margin) |
| Apparel and accessories | 28% (65% gross margin) |
| Office supplies | 26% (75% gross margin) |
| Arts and entertainment | 24% (62% gross margin) |
| Toys and games | 23% (63% gross margin) |
| Food, beverages and tobacco | 23% (56% gross margin) |
| Sporting goods | 23% (67% gross margin) |
| Jewelry and accessories | 21% (58% gross margin) |
| Cameras and optics | 18% (64% gross margin) |
| Luggage and bags | 17% (61% gross margin) |
| Furniture | 16% (44% gross margin) |
| Baby and toddler | 15% (69% gross margin) |
| Animals and pet supplies | 14% (73% gross margin) |
| Electronics | 12% (63% gross margin) |
| Business and industrial | 5% (50% gross margin) |
| Religious and ceremonial | 0% (60% gross margin) |
5,000+ active Shopify stores, one-week snapshot for 18 to 24 October 2026, with each industry's average gross margin under its name. The table refreshes weekly.
How to read the industry table
It is a weekly snapshot, and small categories move by several points from one week to the next, so treat any two industries within about five points of each other as level. The gross and net columns together say more than either alone:
- High gross, high net (hardware, health and beauty, home and garden). Products leave plenty of room and the category does not burn it all on acquisition or freight.
- High gross, low net (pet supplies, baby and toddler). TrueProfit's table shows animals and pet supplies at 73% gross but 14% net, and baby and toddler at 69% gross but 15% net. Margin is lost after the product: crowded paid channels and low order values, covered in the acquisition section below.
- Low gross (furniture, business and industrial). Furniture's 44% gross margin leaves little room for freight and transit damage before overhead starts.
High-consideration categories such as jewelry need a different retention model because customers buy less often. That is why jewelry loyalty programs lean on spend-based status and relevant perks rather than pushing frequent low-value orders.
How margins moved through 2026
TrueProfit also publishes a monthly series for its sample, and it has barely moved all year. Its monthly averages stayed between 65% and 67% gross and between 25% and 27% net from March to September 2026.
Those averages sit above TrueProfit's own headline range for net margin because they cover only active stores with recorded revenue in each month. A flat average does not mean a flat line for any one store: ad costs, returns and shipping rates move by category and season. Finaloop's brands show the seasonality clearly: median net profit was 10% in November but 2% in July and September.
What audited accounts and sector data say
Store-level datasets like TrueProfit's skew toward smaller, lean operations, and its methodology counts operating expenses "where available". Audited company accounts and academic sector data tell a more sober story, and the gap is useful in itself: it shows how much margin disappears as a business adds headcount, warehousing and paid growth.
| Group | Value |
|---|---|
| Retail (building supply) | 7.84% |
| Retail (distributors) | 6.05% |
| Retail (general) | 5.61% |
| Retail (special lines) | 5.19% |
| Retail (automotive) | 3.36% |
| Retail (grocery and food) | 1.32% |
Trailing twelve-month data for US-listed firms as of January 2026. The table has no separate online retail row.
NYU Stern's January 2026 margin tables, maintained by Aswath Damodaran, put general retail at a 33.18% gross margin, a 6.80% pre-tax operating margin and a 5.61% net margin across 23 US firms, and specialty retail at 35.30% gross and 5.19% net across 94 firms. In the same tables, SG&A takes 20.88% of sales in general retail and 26.88% in specialty retail. That overhead layer is what separates a 35% gross margin from a 5% net one.
| Group | Value |
|---|---|
| Amazon | 10.8% (Includes AWS and advertising) |
| Etsy | 5.7% (Marketplace) |
| Revolve | 5% (Fashion retailer) |
| Chewy | 1.8% (Pet retailer, fiscal year to 1 February 2026) |
| Wayfair | -2.5% (Home retailer, net loss) |
Etsy, Revolve and Chewy report these margins; Amazon and Wayfair are calculated from reported net income and net sales. Each filing is linked in the text.
Source: Company Form 10-K filings for fiscal 2025 (net income divided by net sales or revenue)
| Company, fiscal 2025 | Net sales or revenue | Gross margin | Net margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $716.9 billion | Not comparable | 10.8% |
| Etsy | $2.88 billion | Not comparable | 5.7% |
| Revolve | $1.23 billion | 53.5% | 5.0% |
| Chewy | $12.6 billion | 29.8% | 1.8% |
| Wayfair | $12.5 billion | 30.2% | minus 2.5% |
Sources: fiscal 2025 Form 10-K filings for Amazon, Etsy, Revolve, Chewy and Wayfair.
Amazon's figure includes AWS and advertising, so it says little about selling goods online.
Chewy shows the whole stack in one company. Its 10-K reports a 29.8% gross margin, selling, general and administrative costs at 21.2% of net sales, advertising and marketing at 6.5%, a 1.8% net margin, and Autoship customer sales at 83.3% of net sales. So even with a level of repeat revenue most stores never reach, a scaled retailer keeps under two cents in the dollar. A 10% to 15% net margin is well above what most scaled ecommerce businesses achieve, and 25% to 30% is exceptional.
What is a good ecommerce profit margin?
The sources above do not contradict each other once you line them up by layer and by size of business. This is how we would read your numbers against them.
| Layer | Fragile | Workable | Good | Strong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin (product cost only) | Below 50% | 50% to 60% | 60% to 70% | Above 70% |
| Contribution margin (after ads, shipping, fees) | Below 15% | 15% to 20% | 20% to 35% | 35% to 50%, top-quartile brands about 56% |
| Net margin, store under about $1m a year | Below 5% | 5% to 15% | 15% to 25% | Above 25% |
| Net margin, seven- or eight-figure brand | Below 0% | 0% to 3% | 3% to 10% | Above 10% |
Sources: TrueProfit, Common Thread Collective and Finaloop, banded by Mage.
The gross tiers follow TrueProfit. Its benchmark calls 60% to 70% gross margin the sweet spot, above 70% excellent, 50-60% a range where growth gets harder and below 50% fragile, and treats a net margin between 15% and 25% as healthy. The contribution tiers follow Common Thread Collective and Finaloop. The split of net margin by business size is our reading: a small store run by its founder carries little payroll, while a brand with a team, a warehouse and audited accounts lands nearer Finaloop's median and the public companies above.
Good contribution margins
| Source and date | Definition | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Common Thread Collective, 2025 | Net sales plus shipping revenue, minus COGS, ad spend, shipping and fulfilment, merchant fees | Healthy 20% to 35% of net sales; strong 35% to 50%; below 15% a danger zone |
| Finaloop, March 2026 | Variable costs and marketing deducted | Median about 25% for seven- and eight-figure brands; top quartile about 56%, bottom about 3% |
Sources: Common Thread Collective and Finaloop.
Common Thread Collective's benchmarks, drawn from hundreds of ecommerce brands, call 20-35% of net sales healthy, 35-50% strong and below 15% a danger zone. These are target bands from its client base rather than a measured average. Finaloop's median of about 25% is an observed figure, with top performers at about 56% and the weakest at about 3%. Below 20%, a store is funding growth from fixed-cost headroom it probably does not have. Above 35%, there is room to buy growth.
| Group | Value |
|---|---|
| Supplements and wellness | 35 to 50% |
| Beauty and skincare | 30 to 45% |
| Apparel and fashion | 25 to 40% |
| Home goods and furniture | 20 to 35% |
| Food and beverage | 15 to 25% |
Target bands as a share of net sales, from hundreds of ecommerce brands. Not a measured population average.
Source: Common Thread Collective, contribution margin guideBands show a reported range
Markup versus margin
Margin is profit divided by selling price. Markup is profit divided by cost. TrueProfit notes that a markup of 150% to 230%, or a price of 2.5x to 3.3x cost, usually gives a 60% to 70% gross margin. Work the other way round in practice: decide the contribution margin you need after advertising, shipping and fees, then set the price that leaves it.
Average order value and what it does to margin
AOV benchmarks vary more than margin benchmarks because publishers measure different things: the median of store-level averages, or only orders attributed to paid ads. Quote the definition with the number.
| Source and date | What it measures | AOV |
|---|---|---|
| Shogun, January to September 2026 | Median of store-level AOV, 2,819 active Shopify stores with at least 375 orders | $313 median, $614 mean, middle half $159 to $692 |
| Triple Whale, full-year 2025 | Median AOV across paid advertising channels, 33,000+ brands | $74.12 |
| Polar Analytics, August 2026 | Median AOV by industry, 4,000+ Shopify brands | $64.90 (pets) to $135.60 (consumer electronics) |
Sources: Shogun, Triple Whale and Polar Analytics.
Shogun's 2026 benchmark reports a median AOV of $313 and a mean of $614 across 2,819 active Shopify stores, with the middle half between $159 and $692. The mean is pulled up by a tail of high-ticket stores, so the median is the better reference. Triple Whale's benchmark puts the median paid-channel AOV for 2025 at $74.12. That is much lower because paid-ad orders skew to first purchases and single items. For a Shopify store, the practical comparison is your category median in Polar's table, read beside your contribution margin.
The $100 order and the $130 order
A $100 order with $40 COGS, $20 of advertising, $8 of shipping and a 3% payment fee of $3 earns $29 of contribution profit, a 29% contribution margin.
Raise the basket to $130. COGS rises in proportion to $52, advertising and shipping stay at $20 and $8, and the 3% fee becomes $3.90. Contribution profit is $46.10, about 35.5%, up 6.5 points from the same customer and the same parcel. Per-order costs are why AOV matters to margin.
It reverses when the bigger basket needs a deep discount, pushes customers toward lower-margin products, makes the parcel heavier, or triggers a free-shipping subsidy larger than the added gross profit. Check the whole order before deciding that a bigger basket is a better one.
First orders, repeat orders and acquisition cost
The largest variable cost for most stores is acquisition, and it falls only on first orders. Polar publishes median customer acquisition cost and median AOV for each industry from the same 4,000+ Shopify brands, which lets us see how much of a first order acquisition consumes.
| Group | Value |
|---|---|
| Health and wellness | $72.66 |
| Home and garden | $54.08 |
| Food and beverage | $49.39 |
| Pets | $44.79 |
| Beauty and personal care | $44.29 |
| Consumer electronics | $43.38 |
| Toys and hobbies | $38.28 |
| Apparel and accessories | $34.03 |
| Sports and outdoor | $27.66 |
Medians across 4,000+ Shopify brands, last updated 25 August 2026.
| Industry (Polar) | Median AOV | Median CAC | CAC as share of AOV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports and outdoor | $138.48 | $27.66 | 20% |
| Consumer electronics | $135.60 | $43.38 | 32% |
| Toys and hobbies | $98.72 | $38.28 | 39% |
| Apparel and accessories | $82.50 | $34.03 | 41% |
| Home and garden | $121.00 | $54.08 | 45% |
| Food and beverage | $76.43 | $49.39 | 65% |
| Beauty and personal care | $66.00 | $44.29 | 67% |
| Pets | $64.90 | $44.79 | 69% |
| Health and wellness | $66.00 | $72.66 | 110% |
Source: AOV and CAC medians from Polar Analytics' industry snapshot, last updated 25 August 2026; the ratio is our calculation.
The ratio divides two medians, so it describes a typical store in each category, not any single store.
This explains the pet and baby rows in TrueProfit's table. Take a pet store at TrueProfit's 73% category gross margin and Polar's median $64.90 order. The first order makes about $47.38 of gross profit. Acquisition takes $44.79, leaving about $2.59 before shipping and payment fees, so the first order loses money. The same customer's second $64.90 order carries no acquisition cost: after $8 of shipping and about $2.25 in fees, it contributes roughly $37, a contribution margin near 57%.
Beauty works the same way. At TrueProfit's 74% health and beauty gross margin and Polar's $66 median order, a first order makes $48.84 of gross profit and pays $44.29 to acquire. In categories where CAC is above about 60% of AOV, profit comes from second and third orders, and the margin lever that matters most is how many customers come back and how soon. The retention rate benchmarks show what is realistic by category.
Acquisition is also getting dearer. ProfitWell's analysis found B2B and B2C acquisition costs both up roughly 60% over five years. That study dates from 2020 and covered subscription companies, so treat it as history rather than a 2026 trend.
The other costs that set your margin
Fulfilment and returns
NRF and Happy Returns estimate that retailers expect 15.8% of 2025 sales, worth $849.9 billion, to be returned, and 19.3% of online sales. The survey covered 358 ecommerce professionals at US merchants with more than $500 million in revenue. Every return costs outbound and return shipping, handling and often a markdown, so a category with high return rates needs a higher gross margin to land the same net margin.
Platform, payment and app fees
Shopify Payments charges a percentage of each online card transaction plus a fixed 30 cents, and the percentage falls on the higher plans.
| Shopify plan (US) | Online standard card rate | Fee on a $100 order | Fee on a $40 order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2.9% + 30¢ | $3.20 | $1.46 |
| Grow | 2.7% + 30¢ | $3.00 | $1.38 |
| Advanced | 2.5% + 30¢ | $2.80 | $1.30 |
| Plus | from 2.25% + 30¢ | $2.55 | $1.20 |
Source: Shopify pricing, US online standard card rates checked October 2026; the fee columns are our calculation. Premium, Amex and international cards cost more, and rates differ outside the US.
On a $100 order the gap between Basic and Plus is 65 cents, about 0.65 points of margin, which matters only at volume. The fixed 30 cents matters more on small baskets: on Basic, a $40 order pays 3.65% of revenue in fees against 3.2% on a $100 order, another reason low-AOV categories run thinner contribution margins. Assign app subscriptions to the orders or periods they affect rather than leaving them in overhead, or contribution margin will look better than it is.
Overhead
Payroll, software, warehousing, finance and support decide how much contribution profit survives. NYU Stern's SG&A share for general retail and Chewy's, both close to 21%, show the scale: once a business has a team and a warehouse, overhead takes around a fifth of sales.
How to measure your margins in Shopify
Benchmarks only help if you calculate your numbers the same way.
- Record cost per item for every product and variant. Shopify's profit reports need it, and reported gross margin already accounts for discounts and refunds.
- Use Shopify's AOV definition when comparing. Shopify calculates average order value as gross sales minus discounts, divided by orders.
- Build contribution margin outside Shopify. Export orders, then deduct ad spend by channel, shipping labels, payment fees and refunds for the same period.
- Split first orders from repeat orders. Assign acquisition cost to first orders only. The gap between the two contribution margins tells you what a returning customer is worth.
- Compare like with like. TrueProfit's net margin for a small store and Finaloop's for an eight-figure brand are both correct; use the one that matches your size and cost base.
The free profit margin calculator handles the gross and net arithmetic for a single product.
How to improve ecommerce profit margin without only raising prices
Fix the largest cost leak first
Start with contribution profit by SKU, channel and order type. Do not chase revenue from a product that loses money after fulfilment, advertising and refunds. Negotiate supplier costs, cut low-margin variants, tighten packaging and test shipping thresholds.
Earn more orders that do not need paying for again
A first order has to pay for the advertising that produced it. A repeat order does not, though it may carry a reward cost, so repeat orders run at a structurally higher contribution margin. At the far end, Wayfair reported that repeat customers placed 79.1% of total orders delivered in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Analyse second and later orders separately, including the fulfilment, payment and reward costs tied to them. Track time to second purchase beside repeat rate, and weigh any retention incentive against the acquisition cost it replaces. A reward that brings a customer back for a few dollars is cheap next to a CAC of $40 or more.
Use AOV levers carefully
Test bundles, cross-sells and shipping thresholds against contribution profit. A free-shipping offer needs a cap or minimum subtotal when delivery costs vary; see when free shipping destroys margin. Set spend thresholds from product economics, not an attractive round number. The conversion rate benchmarks cover the other half of revenue per visitor.
Where a loyalty program fits
A loyalty program earns its keep only if it adds contribution profit, not just attributed revenue. Every reward has a cost, and a discount code given to a customer who would have bought anyway is pure margin loss. Rewards redeemed on a later order, such as store credit, cost less than an equivalent discount because the value is spent in your store at your gross margin. Discounts versus points works through the cost of each.
Mage, a Shopify loyalty program, reports member AOV, returning customer rate, purchase frequency and retention revenue, so you can set reward cost against the incremental orders it produces. Its tiered bonus campaigns measure qualifying product spend after discounts and exclude tax and shipping, which keeps spend thresholds tied to merchandise margin.
Related benchmarks
- Ecommerce retention rate benchmarks: how many customers come back, by category.
- Ecommerce conversion rate benchmarks: what share of sessions turn into orders.
- Category reports for beauty and skincare, supplements and health and fashion and apparel.
The The Store Credit Playbook covers replacing discounts with store credit to protect margin and drive repeat orders.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average ecommerce profit margin in 2026?
TrueProfit's analysis of 5,000+ stores from January to August 2026 puts the typical store at a 55% to 65% gross margin, a 35% to 50% contribution margin and a 10% to 15% net margin. Larger brands keep less: Finaloop puts the median net margin for seven- and eight-figure brands at 3% to 4% for 2024, and NYU Stern puts US general retail at 5.61%.
What is a good profit margin for an ecommerce store?
A gross margin of 60% to 70% is good and above 70% is excellent. A contribution margin of 20% to 35% is healthy and 35% to 50% is strong. For net margin, 15% to 25% is healthy for a small store, while a scaled brand with a team and warehouse is doing well above 10%.
What is the difference between gross margin, contribution margin and net margin?
Gross margin is revenue left after the cost of goods. Contribution margin also deducts the variable costs of each order: advertising, shipping and payment fees. Net margin deducts everything, including overhead, interest and tax. On an illustrative $100 order they might be 60%, 29% and 10%.
Is a 30% net profit margin good for ecommerce?
Yes, it is exceptional rather than typical. TrueProfit treats anything above 25% as strong, and fiscal 2025 filings show Amazon at 10.8%, Etsy at 5.7%, Revolve at 5.0%, Chewy at 1.8% and Wayfair at a 2.5% loss.
What is the average profit margin for dropshipping compared with DTC?
In TrueProfit's weekly benchmark for 18 to 24 October 2026, dropshipping averaged 67% gross and 18% net, while DTC averaged 66% gross and 27% net. The two start level on gross margin; dropshipping loses more to paid traffic and has less control over fulfilment and refunds.
How does average order value affect profit margin?
Costs charged per order, such as shipping and much of acquisition, are spread over more revenue when AOV rises. A $100 order with $40 COGS, $20 advertising, $8 shipping and $3 fees earns a 29% contribution margin; a $130 order with the same ad and shipping cost earns about 35.5%. The gain reverses if the bigger basket needs deep discounts or heavier parcels.
What markup gives a 60% gross margin?
A 150% markup, or a price of 2.5 times cost, gives a 60% gross margin, and a markup of about 230%, or 3.3 times cost, gives about 70%. Set price from the contribution margin you need after advertising, shipping and fees rather than from a markup rule.
Sources and methodology
- 01What Are Ecommerce Profit Margins in 2026? Key BenchmarksTrueProfit, 20265,000+ ecommerce stores using TrueProfit, January to August 2026. Gross, contribution and net margin ranges; markup guidance.
- 02Profit Margin by Industries for Ecommerce in 2026TrueProfit, 2026-10-265,000+ active Shopify stores with recorded revenue above $0, transactional data including product, ad, payment, shipping, tax and other operating costs where available. Industry and business-model tables are a one-week snapshot (18 to 24 October 2026), refreshed weekly; monthly series March to September 2026. Benchmarks, not targets.
- 03Ecommerce financial benchmark studyFinaloop, 2026-03-01Hundreds of seven- and eight-figure brands with Finaloop financials, 2023 to 2025, $3.16 billion in annual sales; same-store comparisons; percentages of net sales. Gross margin deducts landed cost, merchant fees, shipping and fulfilment.
- 04Margins by sector (US)NYU Stern School of Business (Aswath Damodaran), 2026-01Trailing twelve-month data for US-listed firms as of January 2026: 23 general retail and 94 specialty retail firms, among other retail sectors. No separate online retail row.
- 05Amazon.com, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal 2025US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026-02Net income $77,670 million on net sales $716,924 million for the year to 31 December 2025; 10.8% net margin calculated. Includes AWS and advertising.
- 06Etsy, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal 2025Etsy investor relations, 2026-02Reported net income margin of 5.7% on revenue of $2.88 billion.
- 07Revolve Group, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal 2025US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026-03Net income $61.1 million on net sales $1,225.7 million (5.0% of net sales); gross margin 53.5%.
- 08Chewy, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal 2025US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026-03Fiscal year ended 1 February 2026: net sales $12,601.5 million, gross margin 29.8%, SG&A 21.2% and advertising 6.5% of net sales, net margin 1.8%, Autoship customer sales 83.3% of net sales.
- 09Wayfair Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal 2025US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026-02Net loss $313 million on net revenue $12,457 million (minus 2.5%, calculated); gross margin 30.2%.
- 10Wayfair fourth quarter and full year 2025 resultsWayfair investor relations, 2026-02-19Repeat customers placed 79.1% of total orders delivered in Q4 2025.
- 11The complete guide to ecommerce contribution marginCommon Thread Collective, 2025Target bands from hundreds of ecommerce brands and billions in GMV; contribution margin as a share of net sales, overall and by vertical. Targets, not a measured average.
- 12Ecommerce Average Order Value Benchmark ReportShogun, 20262,819 active Shopify stores with at least 375 orders, January to September 2026; stores above $5,000 AOV excluded. Median, mean and interquartile range.
- 13Ecommerce benchmarks 2025Triple Whale, 2026-0233,000+ brands; median AOV across paid advertising channels for 2025. Page blocks automated fetches; figure confirmed through search results quoting the page.
- 14Ecommerce benchmarksPolar Analytics, 2026-08-254,000+ Shopify brands across 16 industries, medians, updated weekly. Industry AOV and customer acquisition cost used; CAC-to-AOV ratio calculated by Mage.
- 152025 Retail Returns LandscapeNational Retail Federation and Happy Returns, 2025-10Summer 2025 survey of 358 ecommerce professionals at US merchants with over $500 million in revenue.
- 16How is CAC changing over time?Paddle (ProfitWell), 2020ProfitWell analysis of subscription companies; acquisition cost change over five years. Historical context only.
- 17Shopify analytics fieldsShopify Help Center, 2026Definitions of average order value and gross margin in Shopify reports.
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- 19Shopify pricing and Shopify Payments ratesShopify, 2026-10US online standard card rates by plan: Basic 2.9% + 30c, Grow 2.7% + 30c, Advanced 2.5% + 30c, Plus from 2.25% + 30c. The page localises by visitor country; US figures confirmed from the US version of the page via search results in October 2026.
We kept the trusted sources from the earlier version of this page and re-checked every figure against its live page in October 2026. Where a source had refreshed (TrueProfit's weekly industry and business-model tables, Shogun's AOV benchmark), the current figures replace the old ones and are dated. Sources from agencies, vendor blogs and a 2022 press release were removed under our trusted-source policy, along with figures that could no longer be confirmed. Margins are compared layer by layer and by size of business: store-level data from Shopify analytics products (TrueProfit, Shogun, Polar Analytics, Triple Whale), bookkeeping data from seven- and eight-figure brands (Finaloop), US listed-company sector data (NYU Stern) and fiscal 2025 Form 10-K filings. Public company net margins for Amazon and Wayfair are calculated from reported net income and net sales; Etsy, Revolve and Chewy report theirs. The CAC-to-AOV ratios divide Polar's medians and describe a typical store in each category, not any one store. Shopify Payments rates are the US online standard card rates on Shopify's pricing page; fees per order are our calculation. Limits: TrueProfit's industry table is a one-week snapshot and moves several points week to week; benchmark samples skew to stores that use each analytics product; definitions of gross and contribution margin differ between publishers and are stated with each figure.
Kris is the co-founder of Mage Loyalty. I spend most days talking to merchants, and making sure our customers get real results. If you run a Shopify store or Agency we should chat!
