Why am I not profiting from my online store sales?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Profit loss is being traced to a mismatch between checkout shipping charges and the actual shipping cost paid to the dropshipping supplier.

  • The store owner reports orders around $33-$37 where expected profit looked much higher, but after fulfilling through Shopify and Dropshipman/AliExpress, shipping costs were far above what the customer paid, leaving only about $3 profit.
  • The store is using Shopify’s built-in shipping rates while products are fulfilled via dropshipping.

Key clarification:

  • Shopify checkout shipping rates and supplier/fulfillment shipping charges are separate calculations.
  • Shopify’s live rates can be discounted compared with the rates charged by a dropshipping service, so the customer may be undercharged for shipping.

Suggested action:

  • Manually set shipping rates at checkout so they better match what Dropshipman actually charges.
  • If Shopify’s native setup is not flexible enough, use a third-party shipping-rate app or solution.

Status: the issue appears identified, but no final fix was confirmed yet.

Summarized with AI on March 6. AI used: gpt-5.4.
4

Thank you for the additional info.

If you’re calculating live rates with Shopify, they are significantly discounted from regular retail rates. It is likely that the shipping rates being provided by your dropshipping service are much higher because of this, which is why you’re seeing a difference. You will need to manually configure your shipping rates at checkout to match the rates you’re being charged by dropshipman. If Shopify doesn’t provide enough flexibility to match the rates, you may need to consider using a third-party solution to configure your checkout rates more accurately.

The rates calculated at checkout and the rates calculated when you actually ship the order are not the same - meaning the rate the customer pays at checkout doesn’t get passed on to the shipper. They’re two separate calculations, but they do need to match or be configured to be as close to each other as possible, otherwise, either you or your customer will be over-charged.

Best regards,

Ron