The Cost Analysis section provides a comprehensive overview of shipping costs and achieved margins. Visualizing this data allows you to easily identify unprofitable or highly profitable segments of your logistics chain and optimize your pricing strategy.
Filters and Time Periods
For precise analysis, you can use the filters at the top of the page:
Time period - select the time period to track (last 30/90 days)
By date - display data based on order date, pickup date, or delivery date
Carrier - filter by a specific carrier
Country - filter by the destination country
Order source - filter by the source from which orders were imported
Additional filters - further filtering options (delivery type, weight, etc.)
Key Metrics
At the top of the dashboard, you'll find four key metrics that provide a quick overview of the financial efficiency of your logistics:
1. Total Revenue
The total amount you billed customers for shipping. This indicator is crucial for evaluating overall shipping revenue and tracking its development over time.
2. Total Costs
The total amount carriers charged you for shipping. This indicator helps you monitor your overall delivery expenses and identify inefficient areas.
3. Total Margin
The difference between revenue and shipping costs. This key metric shows whether your logistics strategy is profitable and to what extent.
4. Margin %
The percentage representation of the achieved margin. This ratio indicator is important for comparing the efficiency of different carriers or countries regardless of absolute values.
Information about Collected Data
Following the main metrics, the second block of indicators provides information about data coverage and quality:
1. Analyzed Shipments
The number of shipments for which we have complete data (customer-billed price and carrier costs). This indicator is crucial for evaluating the relevance of analytical data.
2. Missing Customer Charges
The number of shipments where we know the carrier costs but do not have the customer-billed price. A high value may indicate a problem in importing data from your e-shop.
3. Invoiced Without Shipment
The number of items on carrier invoices that could not be matched with any shipment in the system. This indicator may signal the billing of non-existent shipments or integration problems.
4. Shipment Coverage
The percentage representation of shipments with complete data compared to all shipments. This indicator is crucial for evaluating the representativeness of the analysis.
Tip: Clicking on "Invoiced Without Shipment" will take you to a list of unmatched items, which you can further review. More information can be found in the article Table of incorrectly billed shipments.
Trends in Costs and Margins Over Time
The following two graphs display the development of costs and margins over time:
1. Cost Trend
Displays the development of shipping costs over time. This graph helps you identify seasonal fluctuations or long-term trends in shipping costs and react quickly to unexpected changes.
2. Margin Trend
Displays the development of profitability over time. This graph is crucial for monitoring the effectiveness of your pricing strategy and identifying loss periods in time.
Analysis by Carrier
The next section contains graphs that analyze costs and margins by individual carriers:
1. Costs by Carrier
Displays total costs broken down by individual carriers. This graph allows you to compare the cost-effectiveness of different carriers and identify the most expensive or most advantageous ones.
2. Margin by Carrier
Displays the total margin achieved for each carrier. This indicator is crucial for strategic decisions about allocating shipments among carriers.
Analysis by Delivery Type
The following graphs provide information about costs and margins by delivery type:
1. Costs by Destination Type
Compares the costs of delivery to an address versus a drop-off point. This graph helps you optimize your strategy for different delivery types and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of each option.
2. Margin by Destination Type
Compares the margins achieved for delivery to an address versus a drop-off point. This indicator is important for setting the correct prices for different delivery types.
Analysis by Destination Country
The next section contains graphs that analyze costs and margins by delivery countries:
1. Costs by Country
Displays total costs broken down by destination countries. This graph is essential for evaluating the cost structure of international shipping and optimizing pricing.
2. Margin by Country
Displays the total margin achieved in each country. This graph allows you to easily identify profitable and unprofitable destinations in your portfolio.
Analysis by Shipment Weight
The last section contains graphs that analyze costs and margins by shipment weight categories:
1. Costs by Weight Range
Displays total costs broken down by weight categories (0-1 kg, 1-2 kg, etc.). This graph helps you understand how weight affects your shipping costs and the average price per kilogram.
2. Margin by Weight Range
Displays the total margin achieved in each weight category. This graph allows you to optimize pricing for different weight categories and identify problematic ranges.
Practical Use of Cost Analysis
You can use cost analysis in various areas of your business:
Identifying Loss Segments
If certain countries, carriers, or weight categories show negative margins, you should consider adjusting your pricing strategy for these segments. The data will help you identify exactly where losses are occurring.
Optimizing Carriers
By comparing costs and margins for individual carriers, you can identify which carriers are most advantageous for you and consider shifting a larger portion of shipments to these carriers. This optimization can significantly improve your overall margin.
Strategies for Different Delivery Types
Analysis by delivery type can help you optimize your strategy – for example, if delivery to a drop-off point is significantly more profitable than delivery to an address, you can motivate customers to use drop-off points through price incentives.
Checking Carrier Billing
Using the analysis, and especially the list of unmatched invoice items, you can effectively check the accuracy of carrier billing and identify any discrepancies.
Note: For proper cost analysis functionality, your order integration must provide information about the shipping prices billed to customers. If this information is missing, margins will not be calculated. More information can be found in the article Cost analysis settings.
Recommended Practices
For effective use of cost analysis, we recommend:
Regularly (e.g., monthly) review cost analysis and identify any negative trends
Compare margins between different carriers and consider shifting volume to more advantageous carriers
Adjust shipping prices for customers based on identified costs for individual countries, weights, and delivery types
Monitor unmatched costs and address any billing issues with carriers
Ensure your order integration provides information about shipping prices billed to customers
Use filters for a more detailed analysis of problematic segments
Click on values in the graphs to navigate to detailed shipment lists for deeper analysis
By regularly using cost analysis, you gain better control over logistics costs and can significantly improve the profitability of your e-shop.