Meesho, Amazon and Flipkart: How to Calculate Your Real Profit per Order

Many new online sellers see a sale price and a product cost and think the difference is profit. It isn't. Here is the full calculation.

Every cost per order

• GST on your sale (if registered): price − price ÷ (1 + rate)
• Commission (% of price) and fixed / closing fee
• Shipping you pay
• Payment fee (on your own website)
• Packaging
• Your product cost

Don't forget returns

Returned orders cost you shipping both ways, packaging, and sometimes the product itself. Spread that over all orders:

Return cost per order = return rate × (return shipping + forward shipping + packaging + share of products lost × product cost)

Real profit per order = (1 − return rate) × profit per delivered order − return cost per order

Example

Price ₹499 (5% GST), cost ₹180, packing ₹15, shipping ₹70, 15% returns, return shipping ₹80, 10% of returns damaged: profit per delivered order ≈ ₹210, return cost ≈ ₹27, real profit ≈ ₹151 per order.

TCS and TDS

Marketplaces hold back 0.5% TCS under GST and 0.1% TDS under section 194-O. You can claim them back in your returns, so they are a cash-flow item, not a cost.

Use your own fees in the Online Seller Profit Calculator and read Start Selling Online for the full process.

Fees change by category and over time; always use the current rates in your seller dashboard.