eCommerce with Zen Cart!
Zen Cart Profitability Management
Determining whether an order is profitable can be tough! There are shipping fees, cost of goods sold, supplier discounts, all kinds of factors that go into determining whether and how profitable a particular order might be.The Sales Report plugin is a great start but it may need additional details for you to truly understand your profitability.
Relevance: Zen Cart™ 1.5.x
Cost: Based on your requirements.
Note: This customization is offered to support clients only. (Why?)
See it Live: Examples below.
Tracking Shipping Costs
This image shows the shipping cost charged to the customer on the left, as compared to the estimated and actual amount paid to the shipper on the right. This could make sense if you are charging regular retail rates from UPS but getting a preferred rate from them (thereby building in profitability in your shipping charges).
If you do this kind of tracking, you would enter the specific shipping costs on the Order Details page:
Tracking Cost of Goods Sold
Comparing Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) to your retail price is a key element of profitability tracking - but it's not part of a base Zen Cart build. I can add it for you - and any other details you might need, like MAP - based on your specifications.
Then I'd adjust the Sales Report to show COGS vs price charged to the customer. Notice how the last row has COGS in red, indicating an order sold at a loss.
