Contribution Margin Calculator
An interactive contribution margin calculator built for Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento stores — enter price, COGS, shipping, processing fees, and CAC to see per-order margin and CM% instantly.
Contribution Margin Calculator
A tool that calculates per-order contribution margin and CM% from price, COGS, shipping, payment fees, and attributed CAC.
A contribution margin calculator strips an order down to the variable economics that actually scale with volume: what the customer paid, what the product cost to source and ship, what the payment processor skimmed, and what acquisition cost to win the sale. The output is the cash left over per order to pay for fixed costs and profit.
For operators on Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento, this is the single most important number behind every paid-media decision. If contribution margin is €12 per order, your blended CAC ceiling is €12 — anything above and you're buying revenue at a loss.
Per-order contribution margin
Order value (AOV)
$
Average order value before discounts.
Product cost (COGS)
$
Landed cost per order including duties.
Shipping & fulfilment
$
Pick, pack, and ship cost net of customer-paid shipping.
Payment processing fee
%
Shopify Payments, Stripe, PayPal blended rate.
Attributed CAC
$
Paid acquisition cost allocated per new-customer order.
Contribution margin per order
$16.38
Contribution margin %
25.2%
CAC here is the per-order allocation for new customers. For a blended figure across new + returning, weight by the new-customer share of orders.
The widget above is the page. Plug in your own numbers from Shopify Analytics, your 3PL invoice, and your Meta/Google ad spend — the math runs live. The sections below explain what's actually happening under the hood and how to read the result against your category.
The formula behind the calculator
CM = Price − COGS − Shipping − (Price × Processing%) − CAC
Price
Order value
What the customer actually paid (AOV, net of discounts).
COGS
Cost of goods sold
Landed product cost including duties and inbound freight.
Shipping
Outbound fulfilment
3PL pick-pack-ship, packaging, and last-mile, net of any shipping the customer paid.
Processing%
Payment processing rate
Blended Shopify Payments / Stripe / PayPal fee as a percentage of order value.
CAC
Attributed customer acquisition cost
Paid-media spend allocated to this order — typically applied to new-customer orders only.
Beauty SKU sold direct on Shopify at €40 AOV.
Price: €40.00
COGS: €9.00
Shipping: €5.50
Processing (2.4%): €0.96
CAC: €14.00
→ €10.54 per order (26.4% CM)
Above the 25% healthy threshold for beauty, but a single CAC point of €4 would push it under 20%. The brand's margin is mostly defended by COGS, not acquisition efficiency.
Two things to notice. First, payment processing scales with price — a high-AOV order pays more in fees in absolute terms, even at the same rate. Second, CAC is a flat per-order subtraction in this model: it doesn't scale with order value, which is why upsells and bundles improve CM% faster than they improve CM in euros.
What this calculator deliberately excludes: fixed overhead (rent, salaries, software), returns reserve, and discount-driven AOV erosion. Those belong in a full P&L. Contribution margin is the variable-cost view — the number that decides whether you can afford to spend more on Meta tomorrow.
Healthy contribution margin by vertical
Typical contribution margin ranges for DTC stores by category (post-CAC, post-shipping)
| Category | Median CM% | Healthy range | Typical AOV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apparel & accessories | 24% | 20–32% | €55–€90 |
| Beauty & skincare | 28% | 22–38% | €35–€60 |
| Supplements & wellness | 32% | 25–45% | €40–€75 |
| Home & decor | 18% | 12–25% | €80–€180 |
| Consumer electronics accessories | 15% | 10–22% | €45–€95 |
| Food & beverage (shelf-stable) | 12% | 8–20% | €35–€55 |
| Pet products | 22% | 16–30% | €40–€70 |
Read your output against the row that matches your category, not against a blended e-commerce average. A 22% CM is excellent for home decor and dangerously thin for supplements. The ranges assume blended CAC (new + returning weighted) and exclude returns — if your category runs hot on returns (apparel often 15–25%), shave 3–5 points off.
Using the result to set a CAC ceiling
Run the calculator with CAC set to zero. That gives you gross contribution per order — the absolute ceiling on what you can spend to acquire a customer and still break even on the first order. Most operators set their target first-order CAC at 60–80% of that ceiling, leaving margin for fixed costs and a small profit per order.
From here, the next move is to translate CM into a media-spend target. If you know your CM per order and your conversion rate, you can derive the ROAS you need to hit on Meta and Google. That's exactly what the Target ROAS Calculator does — it takes the CM% from this page as its primary input.
The CAC attribution trap
If you allocate paid-media spend across ALL orders (new + returning), CM% looks artificially healthy because returning customers carry zero acquisition cost. For honest unit economics, allocate CAC only to new-customer orders, then separately track repeat-order CM (which excludes CAC entirely). Mixing them hides the truth: that you might be unprofitable on acquisition and only break even because of repeat purchase.
Frequently asked questions
Gross margin is price minus COGS only — it ignores shipping, payment fees, and acquisition cost. Contribution margin subtracts all variable costs per order, so it's the cash actually left to cover overhead and profit. For DTC decisions, CM is the relevant number.
Not directly in the per-order math, but adjust your CM% down by your return rate × restocking loss. If 20% of orders return and you recover 70% of the unit, effective CM is roughly 86% of the calculated figure. Apparel operators should bake this in mentally.
Take last 30 days of paid-media spend (Meta + Google + TikTok), divide by new customers acquired in the same window. If you're on Shopify, the Customers report segments new vs returning. Avoid platform-reported CAC from inside Meta — it overstates attribution.
Yes — enter the bundle's selling price as AOV and the combined COGS as the cost input. Bundles typically improve CM% by spreading fixed shipping and CAC across more product revenue, which is why operators push them in checkout.
Subtract the customer-paid shipping from your true fulfilment cost and enter the net. So if 3PL charges €8 and the customer paid €4 at checkout, enter €4 in the shipping field.
Once you know CM% from this calculator, your break-even ROAS is roughly 1 / CM%. A 25% CM means you need at least 4x ROAS on a first-order-only basis. The Target ROAS Calculator chains directly off this output to give you a media-spend target.
Both. Blended CM tells you whether the business works; per-SKU CM tells you which products to push in ads and bundles. The widest spread between best and worst SKU CM is usually where the biggest catalogue-level wins hide.
Because reported profit usually counts repeat orders too. On a first-order basis with full CAC loaded, negative CM is common — the business model relies on LTV from repeat purchase to recover the acquisition loss. That's fine IF your repeat rate supports it; dangerous if it doesn't.
For the initial order, yes — treat CAC as a first-order subtraction. For subsequent shipments, run the calculator with CAC = 0 to see repeat-order CM. The blended LTV view is a separate calculation (LTV ÷ CAC payback).
Monthly at minimum, weekly during peak. The two inputs that move fastest are CAC (ad auction dynamics) and shipping (carrier rate changes, fuel surcharges). COGS and processing rates are usually stable quarter-to-quarter.
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