On this page
Fixed costs against orders a month
Fixed costs per month
- Build, 5,000 euro over 36 months
- 139 euro
- Platform, Shopify Basic
- 24 euro
- Apps
- 40 euro
- Ads
- 500 euro
- Together
- 703 euro
Example amounts excl. VAT, not our price.
Orders a month to break evenOrder of 75 euro, minus 2 euro payment and packaging
- 20 percent margin55
- 30 percent margin35
- 40 percent margin26
- 50 percent margin20
The sum in three numbers
Fixed costs are what you pay every month even without a sale: the platform, apps, maintenance, the build spread over a few years, and the ads that bring visitors. What you keep per order is your price excluding VAT times your gross margin, minus what each order costs in payment fees and packaging. Divide the first by the second, round up, and you know how many orders a month you need to break even.
The example in the chart is a home accessories shop: an average order of 75 euro excluding VAT, a 40 percent gross margin and 2 euro of payment and packaging per order. That leaves 28 euro, so 703 euro of fixed costs takes 26 orders. Count your own hours too if you would otherwise spend them on the business: a store that breaks even but takes ten hours a week costs you money. Work out the margin per product with the margin calculator; what a store costs once and per month is in ecommerce website cost.
How many visitors those orders take
Orders come from visitors. If 2 percent of visitors buy, 26 orders take about 1,300 visitors a month. At 1.4 percent, the median of 433 measured Shopify stores, it is 1,858. If they come from ads, their price is already inside the 500 euro of the example: at 0.40 euro a click that buys 1,250 visitors, at 0.60 euro only 833. If your ads cannot bring the visitors for that amount, the sum does not work, however good the product. Run it for your own market with the Google Ads budget calculator, and see what each euro of ads has to return with the ROAS calculator. Why visitors sometimes come and still do not buy is in why is my online store not selling.
Five things that move your break-even
| Factor | What it does | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Free shipping | The cost per order rises by the price of the parcel | A free-shipping threshold above your average order |
| Returns | In fashion especially, each return eats your margin | Size charts, honest photos, clear terms |
| Payment fees | Cards cost a percentage, some local methods a fixed fee | Pick the plan that fits your volume |
| Order value | A bundle or a related product lifts every order | Show what goes with it on the product page |
| Returning customers | A second order needs no ad | Email after the purchase, a reason to come back |
Selling outside the EU or importing small parcels? The new EU customs duty on small parcels changes the cost per order. What the platform itself costs per month is in is Shopify free and Shopify or WooCommerce. Selling to businesses in Belgium means e-invoices through Peppol, with other EU countries following: see is Peppol mandatory in Belgium.
Test small first
If you are unsure, start with ten products on a hosted platform and a small ad budget; after a few months you know whether people buy. How to set that up yourself is in can I build my own online store. Set a limit in advance: if you are not at half of your break-even after six months, change the product, the price or the channel before investing more. That keeps a test a test, not a cost that quietly runs on. If it works, build on a stronger base; how long that takes is in how long does it take to build an online store.