Purpose
Calculates true net profit and margin at both order-level and product-level granularity. Unlike basic revenue reports, this skill deducts all cost components — COGS (from inventoryItem.unitCost), shipping costs, transaction/payment processing fees, applied discounts, refund amounts, and duties/taxes — to surface actual margin percentages. Read-only — no mutations.
Prerequisites
- Authenticated Shopify CLI session:
shopify store auth --store <domain> --scopes read_orders,read_products,read_inventory - API scopes:
read_orders,read_products,read_inventory - For accurate results, products should have
inventoryItem.unitCostpopulated
Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| store | string | yes | — | Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com) |
| days_back | integer | no | 30 | Lookback window for orders |
| group_by | string | no | order | Grouping: order, product, or variant |
| min_orders | integer | no | 1 | Minimum orders for a product to appear (product/variant mode) |
| include_refunded | boolean | no | true | Include fully refunded orders in calculation |
| format | string | no | human | Output format: human or json |
Safety
ℹ️ Read-only skill — no mutations are executed. Safe to run at any time.
Workflow Steps
-
OPERATION:
orders— query Inputs:query: "created_at:>='<NOW - days_back days>'",first: 250, selectid,name,createdAt,totalPriceSet,subtotalPriceSet,totalShippingPriceSet,totalTaxSet,totalDiscountsSet,currentTotalPriceSet,displayFinancialStatus,refunds { totalRefundedSet },lineItems { variant { id, inventoryItem { id, unitCost { amount, currencyCode } } }, quantity, originalTotalSet, discountedTotalSet }, pagination cursor Expected output: All orders in window with full cost breakdown -
OPERATION:
inventoryItems— query Inputs: Batch ofinventoryItemIdsfrom line item variants for any missing unitCost data Expected output: Unit cost for each inventory item -
For each order, calculate:
- Revenue =
currentTotalPriceSet.shopMoney.amount - COGS = Σ(lineItem.quantity × variant.inventoryItem.unitCost)
- Shipping Cost =
totalShippingPriceSet.shopMoney.amount(merchant-paid portion estimate) - Discounts =
totalDiscountsSet.shopMoney.amount - Transaction Fee = estimated at 2.9% + $0.30 of total (configurable)
- Refunds = Σ(refunds.totalRefundedSet.shopMoney.amount)
- Net Profit = Revenue - COGS - Shipping - Transaction Fee - Refunds
- Margin % = (Net Profit / Revenue) × 100
- Revenue =
-
If
group_by: productorvariant, aggregate profits by product/variant across all orders -
OPERATION:
productVariants— query (enrichment) Inputs: Variant IDs from profitable/unprofitable items for product title context Expected output: Product titles, SKUs for display
GraphQL Operations
graphql# orders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01 query OrdersWithCosts($query: String!, $after: String) { orders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) { edges { node { id name createdAt displayFinancialStatus totalPriceSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } subtotalPriceSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } totalShippingPriceSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } totalTaxSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } totalDiscountsSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } currentTotalPriceSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } refunds { totalRefundedSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } } lineItems(first: 50) { edges { node { quantity originalTotalSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } discountedTotalSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } } variant { id sku inventoryItem { id unitCost { amount currencyCode } } product { id title } } } } } } } pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor } } }
graphql# inventoryItems:query — validated against api_version 2025-01 query InventoryItemCosts($ids: [ID!]!) { nodes(ids: $ids) { ... on InventoryItem { id unitCost { amount currencyCode } } } }
graphql# productVariants:query — validated against api_version 2025-01 query VariantDetails($ids: [ID!]!) { nodes(ids: $ids) { ... on ProductVariant { id sku title product { id title vendor } } } }
Session Tracking
Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.
On start, emit:
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ SKILL: Profit & Margin Calculator ║ ║ Store: <store domain> ║ ║ Started: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC> ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
After each step, emit:
[N/TOTAL] <QUERY|MUTATION> <OperationName> → Params: <brief summary of key inputs> → Result: <count or outcome>
On completion, emit:
For format: human (default):
══════════════════════════════════════════════ PROFIT & MARGIN REPORT (<days_back> days) Orders analyzed: <n> Total Revenue: $<amount> Total COGS: $<amount> Total Shipping: $<amount> Total Tx Fees: $<amount> Total Refunds: $<amount> ───────────────────────────── Net Profit: $<amount> Overall Margin: <pct>% Top profitable products: "<product>" Margin: <pct>% Profit: $<n> Bottom margin products: "<product>" Margin: <pct>% Profit: $<n> Output: profit_report_<date>.csv ══════════════════════════════════════════════
For format: json, emit:
json{ "skill": "profit-margin-calculator", "store": "<domain>", "period_days": 30, "orders_analyzed": 0, "total_revenue": 0, "total_cogs": 0, "total_shipping": 0, "total_tx_fees": 0, "total_refunds": 0, "net_profit": 0, "overall_margin_pct": 0, "currency": "USD", "output_file": "profit_report_<date>.csv" }
Output Format
CSV file profit_report_<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv with columns:
order_id, order_name, date, revenue, cogs, shipping, discounts, tx_fees, refunds, net_profit, margin_pct
For product grouping: product_id, product_title, vendor, units_sold, revenue, cogs, net_profit, margin_pct
Error Handling
| Error | Cause | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
THROTTLED | API rate limit exceeded | Wait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times |
| Missing unitCost | Product COGS not set | Flag as "unknown COGS" — include in report but exclude from margin calc |
| Refunded orders | Fully refunded | Include with $0 net revenue if include_refunded: true |
Best Practices
- Populate
inventoryItem.unitCoston all products for accurate COGS. Without it, margins cannot be calculated. - Adjust transaction fee estimate based on your payment processor (default 2.9% + $0.30 matches Shopify Payments US).
- Use
group_by: productto identify which products are margin-positive vs. margin-negative. - Cross-reference with
stock-velocity-reportto find fast-selling but low-margin items that may need repricing. - Use results with
bulk-price-adjustmentto increase prices on margin-negative products.


