ProfitShield guide
How do I find the Shopify orders that lose money?
Short answer
Put a cost on every product variant, then work out each order as sale price minus product cost, shipping, payment fees, discounts and packaging. Orders below zero lose money. Shopify reports show gross profit by product; an app such as ProfitShield does the per-order sum for you and flags orders that fall below a profit floor you set.
Written by JMS Dev Lab, the maker of ProfitShield, so weigh our view accordingly. Facts checked on 3 November 2026.
What counts as a loss
An order loses money when what you keep is less than what it cost you. The usual leaks are small orders with free shipping, stacked discount codes, heavy or international parcels, and low-margin products that sell well.
- Product cost (COGS) for every item in the order.
- Shipping you paid the carrier, not what the customer was charged.
- Payment fees on the order total.
- Discounts and free-shipping offers.
- Packaging and any other per-order cost.
Do it by hand with Shopify
Fill in Cost per item on each product variant. Shopify analytics can then show gross profit by product. For per-order profit you export orders as CSV, add your shipping and fee costs, and subtract. This works at low volume and gets slow quickly.
Do it automatically with ProfitShield
ProfitShield works out each order's net profit from product cost, shipping, payment fees, discounts and packaging, and shows profit per order and per product. You set a profit floor. In Flag mode (the default) orders below the floor are marked for review. On paid plans, Block mode stops them at checkout, before you ship.
Product costs are read from your Shopify variants, entered in the app, or imported by CSV. Email alerts and digests tell you about unprofitable orders.
Cost
ProfitShield has a Free plan (up to 50 orders a month, dashboard and Flag mode), Protect at $19 a month (up to 1,000 orders, adds Block at checkout), Pro at $49 a month and Business at $149 a month. Paid plans have a 14-day free trial. There are no per-order fees. Checked 3 November 2026.
When another tool fits better
If you mainly want profit reporting that includes advertising spend across channels, the analytics apps compared on our profit apps page list ad-platform integrations. ProfitShield focuses on order-level profit and enforcing a floor.
Questions
Does ProfitShield replace accounting software?
No. It measures order profit and enforces the floor you set. It is not accounting, bookkeeping or tax software.
What if some products have no cost entered?
Profit can only be as accurate as the costs you provide. Fill in costs on your variants or import them by CSV so that every product is covered.
Is there a free way to start?
Yes. The Free plan covers up to 50 orders a month with the dashboard and Flag mode. Block at checkout needs a paid plan.
More: profit apps compared · find orders that lose money · minimum margin at checkout