Excel templates · Online shops
Shipping & Returns Cost Template (Excel) — Free
Carrier, packaging, return labels, inspection and the goods you cannot sell again, all on their own rows — ending in the single number most shops have never calculated: total logistics cost per order.
The download
Free download
Download: Returns & shipping costs
- Outbound cost split into carrier and packaging
- Return rate rising through the season, not flat
- Inspection and restocking as real handling cost
- The share of returns you cannot resell
No email, no sign-up. Formulas already wired up.
The sheet itself
- Outbound cost split into carrier and packaging
- Return rate rising through the season, not flat
- Inspection and restocking as real handling cost
- The share of returns you cannot resell
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Returns & shipping costs | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Fill in the blue cells — every other cell is a formula and works itself out. foreqast.app | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | ||
| 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | 880 | 820 | 970 | 920 | 990 | 1,070 | 1,010 | 900 | 1,030 | 1,220 | 1,640 | 1,390 | ||
| 6 | 8.0 % | 8.0 % | 9.0 % | 9.0 % | 10.0 % | 10.0 % | 11.0 % | 9.0 % | 9.0 % | 10.0 % | 14.0 % | 16.0 % | ||
| 7 | 70 | 66 | 87 | 83 | 99 | 107 | 111 | 81 | 93 | 122 | 230 | 222 | ||
| 8 | ||||||||||||||
| 9 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | ||
| 10 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | €0.80 | ||
| 11 | €4,576 | €4,264 | €5,044 | €4,784 | €5,148 | €5,564 | €5,252 | €4,680 | €5,356 | €6,344 | €8,528 | €7,228 | ||
| 12 | ||||||||||||||
| 13 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | €4.40 | ||
| 14 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | €3.60 | ||
| 15 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | €59.00 | ||
| 16 | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | 12.0 % | ||
| 17 | €560 | €528 | €696 | €664 | €792 | €856 | €888 | €648 | €744 | €976 | €1,840 | €1,776 | ||
| 18 | €496 | €467 | €616 | €588 | €701 | €758 | €786 | €573 | €658 | €864 | €1,628 | €1,572 | ||
| 19 | ||||||||||||||
| 20 | €5,632 | €5,259 | €6,356 | €6,036 | €6,641 | €7,178 | €6,926 | €5,901 | €6,758 | €8,184 | €11,996 | €10,576 | ||
| 21 | €6.40 | €6.41 | €6.55 | €6.56 | €6.71 | €6.71 | €6.86 | €6.56 | €6.56 | €6.71 | €7.31 | €7.61 | ||
The blue cells are yours to fill in. Every other cell is a formula and works itself out.
How to use it
- 1
Take the carrier cost from an invoice, not a price list
Surcharges — fuel, oversize, remote area, peak season — are between 10% and 25% on top of the base rate, and none of them are on the price list.
- 2
Raise the return rate for the peak months
November and December convert worse and return far more. The template goes from 8% to 16%; use your own two worst months.
- 3
Cost the handling, not just the label
Someone opens the parcel, checks it, repacks it and puts it back on a shelf. At ten minutes a return that is real money, and it is the row shops leave empty.
- 4
Compare cost per order against your margin
The last row is what every order costs you in logistics. Held against your contribution margin per order, it says whether free returns are a marketing spend or a leak.
A worked example
December, when the returns arrive in January
- Orders
- 1,390
- Returned orders
- 222
- Outbound cost
- €7,228
- Return handling + write-offs
- €3,348
- Logistics cost per order
- €7.61
€7.61 per order, against an average basket of €59. That is nearly 13% of revenue on logistics alone, before the goods themselves. In February, at an 8% return rate, the same figure is €6.28 — the peak months are 20% more expensive to serve, in exactly the months everyone assumes are the profitable ones.
The mistakes that break it
Treating a return as lost revenue only
You lose the sale and pay twice for shipping, plus handling and often part of the goods. A return costs several times more than a sale that never happened.
Assuming everything goes back on the shelf
Between 5% and 20% cannot be sold at full price again. Setting that row to zero is the single largest hidden cost in most shop models.
Averaging the return rate over the year
One annual figure hides the two months where the rate doubles — which are also the two months with the most orders.
Where the template stops
Returns arrive after the month that caused them
December's returns are January's cost and January's refunds. A per-month sheet books both in the same column and flatters December.
It cannot tell you which products cause it
The return rate is an average across the catalogue. Two or three SKUs usually account for most of it — and they need a per-product view.
Contribution margin templateIt is only as current as your last evening with it
Every number in here is typed in. The month you skip is the month the sheet quietly stops describing your business — and it never says so.
What comes after the spreadsheet
Monitor marginA margin you recalculate by hand is a margin you find out about late. Foreqast keeps it live as costs and prices move.Calculators