For Shopify sellers. Where an order's money goes, the pound line under every parcel, what your free-shipping line costs, the compare-at you never charge, and the most an ad sale can cost. On your own numbers, and on your own Products export.
TrailerA two-minute trailer of the whole course will play here.
Follow one order's money to the cent, zone by zone.
Find the parcels a fraction of an ounce past a pound, and what trimming them saves.
Price your free-shipping line before you decide it pays.
Read your compare-at policy the way a regulator and a customer would.
Set the break-even ROAS for Meta and Google from what an order keeps.
Read your whole catalogue from one export, in your browser.
Where an order's money goes. On Shopify the steps are yours: the price, the parcel, the free-shipping line.
The pound line. A parcel a fraction of an ounce past a pound pays the 2 lb rate, on every order.
The free-shipping line. Free shipping over a number is a step you drew.
The compare-at you never charge. A price struck through beside your price is a claim about the past.
The most an ad sale can cost. What an order keeps before ads is the most one ad-driven sale can cost.
Every variant, from your own export. Drop Shopify's Products export and read every variant just past a pound line, and every one priced under its own compare-at.
Lesson 1 of 6
Where an order's money goes
On Shopify the steps are yours: the price, the parcel, the free-shipping line. Start by following one order's money to the cent.
VideoThis lesson, taught on screen on its own charts, will play here.
An order's money goes five places: Shopify Payments, the shipping label, the packing, the landed cost, and what is kept before ads. The first two are published cards. The rest are yours.
Shopify Payments takes a share of the whole charge, shipping included, plus a fixed amount: 2.9% and $0.30 on the Basic plan, less on the larger plans (Shopify's pricing). Take payment through another gateway and Shopify adds 2% on Basic, on top of that gateway's own fee.
The label is USPS's card, by weight and by zone: how far the parcel travels. Lesson 2 is the card.
Packing: the box, the fill and the minutes. Landed cost: the unit, delivered to your shelf.
kept before ads = price − Shopify Payments − the label − packing − landed cost
An invented listing · Not a client · Not a resultOne order of the invented pour-over set, free shipping, one unit, on the Basic plan. Labels from USPS Ground Advantage's commercial card, effective July 12, 2026.
The invented pour-over set:$42.00, a packed parcel of 16.6 ounces, landed at $11.80, packed for $1.40. Shopify Payments keeps $1.52. The label runs from $7.99 to the nearest zone to $12.87 to the farthest, so the order keeps $14.41 to $19.29 before ads.
An invented listing · not a client · not a result. Shopify Payments' 2.9% + 30¢ is the published rate; your own Payouts export shows what you really paid.
Why the range
The same 2 lb parcel costs about three-fifths more to the farthest zone than to the nearest. Until you know your own mix of zones, which your label history shows, the honest figure is the range, and the bad end is the one to plan on.
Check yourself
A $30 order on Shopify Payments' Basic plan: what does Shopify keep?
The answer
$30 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $1.17.
Why is the label a range until you know your zones?
The answer
USPS prices by distance: the same parcel costs more to the farthest zone than the nearest. Your label history gives your own mix.
Do this now
Put your best seller's price, packed weight, landed cost and packing into Your order.
Read what it keeps before ads, nearest zone and farthest.
Lesson 2 of 6
The pound line
A parcel a fraction of an ounce past a pound pays the 2 lb rate, on every order. It is the largest step on most Shopify stores, and the easiest to see.
VideoThis lesson, taught on screen on its own charts, will play here.
USPS Ground Advantage prices a parcel under a pound at one flat rate. From a pound up it rounds every part pound up to the next: 16.1 ounces bills as 2 lb. So the first ounce past a pound costs the whole step, on every order.
USPS's published rates · An invented parcelUSPS Ground Advantage commercial rates, the farthest zone solid and the nearest dashed. Hover or touch the chart to read any weight.
The invented pour-over set ships at 16.6 ounces, 0.6 past the line. Under a pound it would pay $0.96 to $4.47 less a parcel, by zone. On 640 orders a month that is $614 to $2,861 a month.
What to weigh
The carrier bills the packed parcel: the product, the box, the fill and the insert. Weigh one packed parcel, then check that the weight your store sends at checkout matches it. Within about three ounces of a line, a lighter box, less fill or a thinner insert usually gets you under. Further than that is a redesign, not a trim.
Every pound has the same line
The step repeats at 2 lb, 3 lb and every pound after, smaller in the nearest zones and larger in the far ones. A two-unit order is its own parcel: weigh the common baskets too.
Check yourself
A packed parcel weighs 16.4 ounces. What does USPS bill it as?
The answer
2 lb: every part pound rounds up, so anything over 16 ounces bills at the next whole pound.
A parcel is 4 ounces past the line. Trim or redesign?
The answer
Redesign: a trim usually wins back up to about three ounces. Four is a different box or a lighter product.
Do this now
Weigh three packed parcels of your best sellers.
Any within three ounces past a pound: price the trim in Pound line, and get a quote for the lighter box.
Lesson 3 of 6
The free-shipping line
Free shipping over a number is a step you drew. Price what it costs a month before you decide it pays.
VideoThis lesson, taught on screen on its own charts, will play here.
"Free shipping over $50" means that under the line the customer pays for the label, and over it you do, on every order. The line is a step you drew, and it has a price.
what the line costs a month = orders over the line × the average label
The invented store ships free over $50. Of its 640 orders a month, 55% are over the line: 352 labels it pays for, at $7.99 to $12.87 each. The line costs $2,812 to $4,530 a month.
An invented store · not a client · not a result. Its share of orders over the line is invented; yours is in Shopify's sales reports by order value.
When the line pays
Only when the orders and the bigger baskets it brings keep at least that much more each month. The line is a price: test it the way The Price Curve tests one. Move it, write down what you expect, and measure four weeks of orders against the four before.
Where it leaks most
An order that only just clears the line, on a heavy parcel to a far zone, can keep less than the same order under the line kept with shipping paid. Those are the orders to price first.
Check yourself
1,000 orders a month, 40% over the free-shipping line, an average label of $9. What does the line cost?
The answer
400 × $9 = $3,600 a month.
When does the line pay for itself?
The answer
When the orders and the larger baskets it brings keep at least what it costs. Test it like a price, and measure.
Do this now
Read your share of orders over the line from Shopify's sales reports.
Put it in Free shipping and write down the monthly cost beside the line.
Lesson 4 of 6
The compare-at you never charge
A price struck through beside your price is a claim about the past. If the whole catalogue is on sale, the sale is your price.
VideoThis lesson, taught on screen on its own charts, will play here.
A compare-at price shows beside your price, struck through: "was $56.00". It is a claim that you used to sell at that price.
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission's guide on former prices says a "was" price should be one "at which the product was openly and actively offered for sale, for a reasonably substantial period of time, in the recent, regular course of [business], honestly and in good faith" (16 CFR 233.1). It is not fictitious just because nobody bought at it. It is fictitious when it was never really offered. This course is not legal advice; read the rule, and ask counsel if your catalogue leans on it.
The invented pour-over set sells at $42.00 against a compare-at of $56.00: $14.00, 25%, shown off on every order. 62% of the invented store's variants sit under their own compare-at.
An invented store · not a client · not a result.
When the sale is your price
When half or more of a catalogue sits under its own compare-at, the markdown is not a promotion: it is the price. Hubricon's engine draws the line there, and so does the Catalogue sheet.
What to do
Either offer the compare-at for real, for a real period, or take it off.
Then ask the better question: can the price itself move up? A 5% step takes $42.00 to $44.10. The Price Curve says how to test it and how far its own sales say it can go.
Check yourself
Nobody has ever paid your compare-at price. Is it fictitious?
The answer
Not for that reason alone. The FTC's guide asks whether it was openly and actively offered, for a real period, in good faith.
70% of your variants sit under their own compare-at. What does that say?
The answer
The sale is your price: half or more of the catalogue marked down is a policy, not a promotion.
Do this now
Count the variants under their own compare-at: the Catalogue sheet does it.
For each one, decide: offer it for real, or take it off. Then test the price.
Lesson 5 of 6
The most an ad sale can cost
What an order keeps before ads is the most one ad-driven sale can cost. Divide the price by it and you have the break-even ROAS for Meta and Google.
VideoThis lesson, taught on screen on its own charts, will play here.
An ad that buys a sale is worth it only while the sale keeps more than the ad cost. What an order keeps before ads, from lesson 1, is that ceiling.
the most one ad sale can cost = kept before ads
break-even ROAS = price ÷ kept before ads
The invented pour-over set keeps $14.41 to $19.29 before ads, so one ad sale can cost at most that, and the break-even ROAS is 2.18 to the nearest zone and 2.91 to the farthest. Trimmed under the pound line, it falls to 2.06 to 2.22: every ad gets cheaper to afford.
An invented listing · not a client · not a result.
Reading Meta and Google against it
Both report ROAS per campaign: revenue the platform credits to the ad, divided by its cost. A campaign under the break-even loses money on every sale it buys, before your fixed costs. One over it only looks good: the platform's credit includes sales that would have happened anyway, which is why a ROAS needs a margin of safety, not just a pass.
Repeat customers
A first order that loses a little can still pay if the customer comes back. Price that with your own repeat rate, not a hope: Hubricon's engine reads it from your orders.
Check yourself
A $60 order keeps $20 before ads. What is its break-even ROAS?
The answer
$60 ÷ $20 = 3.0. A campaign below 3.0 loses money on every sale it buys.
Why does trimming a parcel under the pound line lower the break-even ROAS?
The answer
A cheaper label raises what the order keeps, and the break-even ROAS is the price divided by what it keeps.
Do this now
Write your break-even ROAS on a card beside your ad manager.
Pause or cut any campaign under it for a week, and measure what you kept.
Lesson 6 of 6
Every variant, from your own export
Drop Shopify's Products export and read every variant just past a pound line, and every one priced under its own compare-at. Nothing leaves your browser.
VideoThis lesson, taught on screen on its own charts, will play here.
Everything above, on every variant at once. Shopify Admin, Products, Export, a CSV. The two columns that matter here are Variant Grams, the weight Shopify holds for each variant, and Variant Compare At Price.
Your catalogue
Read in this browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Shopify Admin, Products, Export. Choose all products, plain CSV or CSV for Excel, and drop it here.
Then, in order
Parcels just past a line, the most orders first: a trim costs a box or a fill change once, and saves on every order after.
The compare-at policy: offer it for real or take it off, and test the price instead.
The free-shipping line and the ad ceiling, on your own numbers in the spreadsheet.
The same reading runs on the call, on your screen, and the spreadsheet's Catalogue sheet takes the same four columns.
Check yourself
Which export holds each variant's weight and compare-at?
The answer
Shopify Admin, Products, Export: Variant Grams and Variant Compare At Price.
Variant Grams holds the product alone. What do you add before trusting a pound line?
The answer
The box, the fill and any insert: the carrier bills the packed parcel.
Do this now
Export your products and drop the file above.
Take the top three parcels and the compare-at policy to a decision this week.
Keep it current
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