Discount Code Profitability

Discount Code Profitability shows the gross profit on the orders that used each discount.

How It’s Calculated

The report is a table with one row per discount. Rows are listed with the most gross profit first, up to 500 discounts. Orders with no discount aren’t in it.

The columns are:

• Discount Code: the code the customer entered, or the title of an automatic discount, in capital letters.
• Type: how the discount was applied. A row that mixes types lists each one.
• Orders: the number of orders that used the discount.
• Units Sold: the units on those orders.
• Net Sales: the items on those orders, less the order’s discounts. It leaves out returns, shipping and tax.
• COGS: the cost of the goods on those orders, worked out as quantity × unit cost.
• Gross Profit: Net Sales less COGS.
• Gross Margin: Gross Profit as a share of Net Sales.

Each row counts whole orders, not just the part of the order the discount covers. An order that used 2 discounts counts in full in both rows, so a totals row under the table can add up to more than your real sales. Show totals row in the Report settings menu turns it on or off for every report.

Discount Types

The Type filter chooses which discounts are counted. It starts with Promo, Automatic and Shipping selected.

• Promo: a code your customer entered.
• Automatic: an automatic discount or a script.
• Manual/Service: a manual discount added by editing an order, typically for a replacement, a claim or a warranty give-away. It’s off by default, so these give-aways don’t read as marketing spend. Manual & Service Adjustments reports on them.
• Shipping: a discount on shipping.

Orders from before By the Numbers recorded discount types have only their discount codes, and every code counts as Promo. Automatic discounts don’t appear for those orders.

Unit Costs

COGS uses each product variant’s Cost per item from Shopify. It uses the cost set today, not the cost when the order was placed.

A unit whose variant has no cost counts as zero cost, so Gross Profit and Gross Margin are too high where costs are missing. This report has no Cost Coverage column. Unit Cost Coverage shows what’s missing.

What Counts

• Orders count on the day they were processed, in your store’s time zone.
• Canceled orders, and orders whose payment was voided or expired, are left out.
• Sales Channel, Segment and Filters narrow the report. There’s no comparison period.

What Good Looks Like

A discount pays for itself when the orders that use it still leave a healthy margin. Compare each discount’s Gross Margin with your store’s overall margin in Profit & Margin.

• A code with high orders and a low margin is giving away more than it earns.
• A code with a margin close to your average is bringing in orders without costing you much.

What to Do About It

• End or tighten the costly ones. Raise the minimum order, narrow the products it covers or set an end date.
• Keep what works. Reuse the codes whose orders keep a good margin.
• See the sales side. Sales by Discount Code shows orders, discounts given and total sales for each code.

Get AI Insight at the top of the report asks Copilot for a short read of it.

Where to Find It

• Discount Code Profitability: open Reports and look under Profitability.
• Profit & Margin: gross profit and margin over time.
• Profit by Product: the same breakdown by product.