How to calculate profit per order on Meesho, Flipkart and Amazon

Many new sellers price a product by adding a small mark-up to what they paid for it. That ignores most of what a real order costs. This guide shows a simple, repeatable way to work out your actual profit per order, whether you sell on Meesho, Flipkart, Amazon or all three.

The profit formula

For one order, your profit is what the customer paid minus everything it cost you to deliver that sale:

Step by step

1. Start with the selling price the customer actually pays, not the MRP.
2. Add up your product cost. Include purchase or manufacturing cost, packaging and outbound shipping if you pay for it.
3. Subtract marketplace charges. These can include commission or referral fee, fixed or closing fees, collection fees and shipping fees. Take the current figures from your own seller panel, because they differ by category and change over time.
4. Account for GST. Remove the GST contained in the selling price, and remember that marketplace fees usually carry GST too.
5. Spread the cost of returns. Multiply your return rate by what each return costs you (return shipping plus any damaged stock you cannot resell).
6. Add RTO. Undelivered orders cost you shipping with no sale, so include your RTO rate.
7. Subtract ad spend as a percentage of the selling price if you advertise.

A worked example

Say you sell a product for ₹299 that costs you ₹180. Your GST rate is 5%, your return rate is 15% with ₹80 return shipping and 5% of returns damaged, and 5% of orders are RTO. You run no ads and, for this example, there is no commission.

These figures are illustrative, not real marketplace rates. You can reproduce them, and try your own numbers, in the free profit calculator.

Margin, ROI and break-even: what they mean

• Profit margin is profit divided by the selling price. It tells you how much of each sale you keep.
• ROI is profit divided by what the product cost you. It tells you how hard your money is working.
• Break-even price is the lowest price at which you neither gain nor lose after your costs. Treat it as a floor.

Common mistakes that make profit look better than it is

• Using the MRP instead of the real selling price.
• Ignoring returns and RTO, which can quietly turn a profit into a loss.
• Forgetting packaging and shipping in the product cost.
• Leaving out GST, or forgetting that marketplace fees carry GST.
• Not counting ad spend as a cost of each sale.
• Using one price for every marketplace even though each one charges differently.

Use a calculator for your marketplace

Each marketplace has its own cost structure, so check your numbers on the one you sell on: the Meesho profit calculator, the Flipkart profit calculator or the Amazon India profit calculator. Each one explains which charges to look for and shows a worked example.

If profit per order looks lower than you expected, read why sales can grow while profit falls to find where the money is going.