Cancellation Reasons
Cancellation Reasons shows how many of your orders were canceled, why, and what the canceled orders were worth.
How It’s Calculated
The cards at the top show Canceled Value, Canceled Orders, Cancellation Rate and Stockout Loss for the date range. With a comparison on, each card also shows the change from the comparison period. The chart stacks the canceled value for each reason in each period.
The table has one row for each period and reason, including reasons with no cancellations, which show 0. The columns are:
- Period and Reason: the reasons are Customer Changed Mind, Out of Stock, Payment Declined, Suspected Fraud, Staff Error and Other. Not Recorded is for an order canceled with no reason on it.
- Canceled Orders: the number of canceled orders.
- Units: the items on those orders.
- Canceled Value: Gross Sales minus Discounts, plus Shipping and Tax, for those orders. If your prices include tax, it’s already in Gross Sales and isn’t added again.
The cards mean:
- Canceled Value and Canceled Orders: the totals for every reason.
- Cancellation Rate: canceled orders divided by every order placed in the date range, whether or not it was canceled.
- Stockout Loss: the Canceled Value of the Out of Stock reason.
The length of the date range sets how long a period is:
- 3 days or less: one row per hour
- Up to 93 days: one row per day
- Longer: one row per month
What Counts
- Orders count in the period they were placed, not the period they were canceled. A recent period keeps rising until its orders have had time to be canceled.
- Every canceled order counts, including ones whose payment was voided or expired. Canceling an order often voids its payment.
- Canceled orders are in this report only. The other sales reports leave them out.
- The reason is the one Shopify has on the order.
- Days follow your store’s time zone, and every amount is in your store’s currency.
- Sales Channel, Segment and Filters narrow the report down.
What Good Looks Like
A low Cancellation Rate is better, and it should stay steady. What’s normal depends on what you sell and how you take payment. Compare your store with itself over time, and set Compare to 1 year ago to cancel out the season.
Look at the mix of reasons. Out of Stock and Payment Declined are reasons you can often work on. Suspected Fraud is money you were right to turn away.
What to Do About It
- Out of Stock rising: check Inventory Demand for products at risk of running out. Update your stock sooner, or stop selling an item that’s out.
- Payment Declined rising: check your payment gateways in Payment Method Mix, and offer another way to pay.
- Customer Changed Mind rising: look at the delivery times and shipping costs shown at checkout.
- Staff Error: check how your team creates and edits orders.
- Many Not Recorded: these orders were canceled with no reason. Choose a reason when you cancel an order in Shopify.
Where to Find It
- Cancellation Reasons: open Reports and look under Operations.
- Payment Method Mix: how customers pay and how often payments are declined.
- Total Sales: your sales, without canceled orders.