Sales metrics explained
What gross sales, discounts, returns, net sales, net sales plus shipping, taxes, shipping, orders, units and AOV count, and where each figure comes from.
4 min readUpdated 7 October 2026
Fabrik Analytics counts sales the way Shopify's own sales report does, order by order, on your store's own day. This article explains each sales figure, what goes into it and where you will see it. Every figure also has its definition built in: select a tile's name (it has a dotted underline) or the small help mark beside it to open the formula, what it includes and what it leaves out.
Before you start
- Sales figures need a connected Shopify store. They come from your Shopify orders, not from the ad platforms or the pixel.
- Anyone who can open the brand's Orders, Dashboard or Trading pages can see these figures. Some pages, such as the P&L, depend on your role and your plan.
- If your brand uses Shopify data filters (Settings, Integrations, the Shopify card, Data filters), every figure below counts only the orders those filters keep.
The sales figures
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Gross sales | Product price times quantity, before discounts, returns, shipping and taxes, on the day the order was placed. Where your prices include tax, the tax actually charged (and any duties in the price) is taken out, as Shopify does. |
| Discounts | Discounts on products, before tax, on orders placed in the period. Shipping discounts are not here: shipping charges are already after them. |
| Returns | The value of goods returned, after their discount and before tax, on the day the refund was made. |
| Net sales | Gross sales less discounts less returns. No shipping, taxes or duties. |
| Shipping charges | Shipping charged to customers, after shipping discounts and before tax. Refunded shipping comes off on the day of the refund. |
| Net sales + shipping | Net sales plus shipping charges. No taxes or duties. Some screens call this Net sales and shipping. |
| Taxes | Every tax charged, on products, shipping and duties. Tax refunded comes off on the day of the refund. |
| Duties | Import duties charged, before their own tax, with any additional import fees. |
| Total sales | Net sales plus shipping charges plus taxes plus duties. This is what Shopify calls total sales. |
| Orders | Orders placed in the period, on the store's own day. Test orders, orders that bought only gift cards, and refunds are not orders. |
| Units sold | Units on orders placed in the period. |
| Units per order | Units sold divided by orders. |
| AOV | Average order value: gross sales divided by orders. |
| Returning orders | Orders less new customers: the orders placed by customers who had ordered before. |
A worked example
Fellwick sells 100 orders in a week with goods worth 10,000 at full price. Customers used codes worth 1,000, and during the same week 500 of goods from older orders were refunded. Shipping charged was 400.
- Gross sales: 10,000
- Net sales: 10,000 less 1,000 less 500 = 8,500
- Net sales + shipping: 8,500 plus 400 = 8,900
- AOV: 10,000 divided by 100 = 100
Where you will see them
- Orders (the Overview and the Order list) owns the sales figures.
- Dashboard shows the headline figure chosen in Settings, Financial, under Dashboard headline figure.
- Trading compares the period with the one before and with last year.
- Trading, P&L starts from gross sales and works down to net sales plus shipping. There it is labelled Net Product Sales and Net Sales + Shipping, and Total sales appears as Gross Collected in a memo section.
- Targets, reports and Intelligence use the same figures.
What you will see when figures update
New orders arrive from Shopify as they are placed, and a regular check fills in anything missed. A day's figures are rebuilt whenever an order or refund on that day changes, so a figure for a recent day can move slightly as refunds and edits arrive.
Troubleshooting
- Net sales is lower than I expected this week. Check returns: refunds made this week come off this week's figures, even for older orders.
- The figure differs from Shopify. See the article on why net sales can differ from Shopify. The usual reasons are data filters, gift cards, the reporting currency and the time of day you compare.
- AOV looks high. AOV uses gross sales, before discounts. If you discount heavily, the amount customers actually paid per order is lower.
If a figure still looks wrong, email support@fabrik.ae with the brand, the page, the dates and the figure you expected.