How to work out packaging cost per order in Shopify
By the PACKTRACK team · Updated October 2026
Short answer: Shopify doesn't show a packaging cost per order. Its cost per item is the cost of the products you sell, and its profit reports list product costs, shipping costs, duties and import taxes, with no line for boxes or mailers. You can work out your packaging cost per order by hand, or use a packaging inventory app that shows it for every order.
What Shopify's cost and profit reports include
- Cost per item is "the cost to you of the product or variant". If you resell a product, Shopify says to enter what you paid the manufacturer, "excluding taxes, shipping, or other costs". If you make it yourself, you can enter a value based on your labor and material costs.
- Entering a cost per item is optional, and profit is reported only for products and variants that had a cost recorded when they were sold.
- The cost of goods sold field in Shopify's analytics must be set up in product settings. Missing costs show as $0.
- For profit margin by order, Shopify lists "product costs, shipping costs, duties, and import taxes paid by your store". There's no line for packaging.
- Cost per item is static: Shopify says the data in your profit reports "is only relevant to a specific point in time".
Where packaging cost goes missing
Your boxes, mailers and packing supplies aren't products you sell, so unless you set them up as products with a cost, they're not in your cost of goods sold or your profit reports. If you add them to orders as free products with Shopify Flow (the workaround in our packaging materials guide), Shopify's documentation doesn't say whether their cost shows in profit reports.
Store owners ask about this on the Shopify Community and Reddit: should packaging go into cost per item, and how do you count "hidden" costs like shipping supplies?
How to work out packaging cost per order, step by step
- List what goes into an order. The box or mailer, plus anything else you pack with it: tissue paper, tape, inserts, labels.
- Find the unit cost of each item. Divide what you paid by how many you got. Use the price on your supplier's invoice.
- Add up the unit costs for the order. That total is that order's packaging cost.
- Work out your average. Add up the packaging cost of every order in a month, then divide by the number of orders.
Example, with made-up prices: you paid $80 for 100 boxes, so each box costs $0.80. You paid $12 for 200 sheets of tissue paper, so each sheet costs $0.06. An order packed in one box with two sheets costs $0.80 + $0.12 = $0.92 to pack.
Step 4 needs to know which packaging each order used. If you don't count your boxes, start there: see How to track packaging materials in Shopify.
Should you add packaging to Shopify's cost per item?
You can, and some store owners do. Others keep packaging separate. If you add it, know the trade-offs:
- The figure is the same for every order of that product, whichever box you actually used.
- An order with three items counts packaging three times, even when they ship in one box.
- Cost per item is static, so if your box price changes, past reports keep the old cost.
Shopify's own advice for costs that change is to run your financial reports in another system, such as an ERP or accounting system, or to calculate costs, profits and losses manually.
Packaging in your profit per order
Profit per order = what the customer paid − product costs − shipping costs − packaging cost − any other costs you pay on that order.
Shopify's profit reports cover the product and shipping lines when your costs are set up. The packaging line is the one you add yourself.
The PACKTRACK way
PACKTRACK is a packaging inventory app for Shopify.
- Packaging is assigned to every paid order, by your rules or by Peter, the built-in AI assistant, using your product dimensions.
- Stock is reserved when packaging is assigned and deducted when you fulfill.
- Log purchase orders for a true average cost.
- See what every order costs to pack: packaging cost per order, average cost and trends over time.
- $12 a month, with a 15-day free trial.
Working it out by hand vs PACKTRACK
| By hand | PACKTRACK | |
|---|---|---|
| Which packaging each order used | You note it for each order | Assigned to each paid order |
| Unit cost | From your supplier invoices | Average cost from the purchase orders you log |
| Cost per order | You add it up | Shown for every order |
| Average and trends | You build them in a spreadsheet | Average cost and trends over time |
Questions store owners ask
Does Shopify include packaging in cost of goods sold?
Not on its own. Shopify's cost of goods sold uses the cost per item of the products you sell, set up in product settings, and missing costs show as $0. Packaging you don't sell as a product has no cost per item.
Why does my Shopify profit report show $0 cost?
Shopify's cost of goods sold must be set up in product settings, and missing costs show as $0. Profit is reported only for products and variants that had a cost recorded when they were sold.
What's the quickest way to see packaging cost per order?
Add up the unit cost of each box, mailer and supply that went into the order. Or use a packaging inventory app like PACKTRACK, which shows packaging cost for every order.
All packaging inventory questionsHow to track packaging materials in ShopifyShopify package settings: what they do
Sources
Shopify Help Center, checked October 2026: