Free tools
Estimate real Cash on Delivery profit after product cost, shipping, RTO, returns, ads, fees, and operations — then compare COD with prepaid. Runs in your browser; no account required.
Presets are example assumptions, not industry benchmarks.
Total Cash on Delivery orders placed in the reporting period, before cancellations.
Average selling price (AOV) charged to the customer before or after tax based on tax mode.
Cost of goods sold for one order (landed product cost excluding shipping).
Courier cost to ship an order to the customer.
Courier cost to return an undelivered (RTO) shipment to your warehouse.
Amount you pay the courier or payment partner to collect COD cash on delivered orders.
Advertising or acquisition cost allocated to each placed order.
Share of shipped COD orders that fail delivery and return to origin (RTO).
Share of delivered orders that customers return after accepting delivery. Not the same as RTO.
Packaging materials cost per shipped order.
Share of placed orders cancelled before shipment.
Funnel: Cancelled orders = placed × cancellation rate. Shipped = placed − cancelled. RTO = shipped × RTO rate. Delivered = shipped − RTO. Returns = delivered × customer return rate. Retained = delivered − returns.
Revenue: Realized product, shipping, and customer COD-fee revenue are recognized on delivered orders (customers pay when delivery succeeds).
Costs: COGS on retained orders, write-offs on damaged/unrecovered returns, forward shipping on shipped volume, reverse shipping on RTO, return shipping on customer returns, packaging, COD handling on delivered orders, ads on placed orders, and operational costs.
RTO vs returns: RTO is a failed delivery before acceptance. Customer returns happen after successful delivery. The model keeps these separate.
Profit: Estimated net profit = realized revenue − total modeled costs. Margins and break-evens are derived from the same inputs.
This calculator provides estimates based on the values you enter. Actual profit may vary because of taxes, logistics agreements, inventory recovery, fraud, customer behavior, payment terms and operational factors. This tool does not provide financial, accounting, legal, tax or logistics advice.
Profit
₹4,58,215.00
Margin
40.2%
RTO loss
₹72,200.00
Status
Profitable
Use these notes with your own ledger and courier invoices. Presets and examples are not industry benchmarks.
A COD profit calculator helps ecommerce teams estimate whether Cash on Delivery orders create profit after product cost, shipping both ways, RTO, returns, ads, fees, and operations. It turns scattered unit costs into a clear profit or loss view for a reporting period.
Start with placed COD orders, remove cancellations, split shipped orders into delivered and RTO, then apply post-delivery returns. Add revenue only where cash is actually collected, then subtract every cost that still occurs on failed or returned paths.
RTO cost is the money spent on orders that never complete delivery: forward freight, reverse freight, packaging, confirmation effort, allocated ads, and any inventory that cannot be resold. It is one of the largest hidden drains on COD-heavy catalogs.
Higher RTO reduces delivered volume while many costs remain. Marketing spend and outbound shipping are often already committed, so margin collapses faster than revenue. Use the sensitivity table to see how small RTO changes move profit.
Divide total attributed RTO cost by RTO order count. The calculator attributes shipping, packaging, write-offs, and allocated acquisition/ops costs to failed deliveries based on your inputs.
Prepaid usually lowers failed-delivery risk but adds gateway fees and different refund behavior. Compare per-order profit with your own gateway percentage, prepaid discount, and assumed prepaid RTO before deciding incentive strategy.
Courier COD collection fees apply on delivered orders. They are a cost you pay, separate from any COD fee charged to customers. Mixing the two without labeling them can double-count or hide leakage.
A fee can offset incremental COD cost versus prepaid, but it may also reduce conversion. Treat the suggested fee as a financial estimate and validate against checkout completion data.
It is the RTO threshold where modeled profit crosses zero under current costs and prices. Brands use it as an operations target alongside confirmation and pincode controls.
Forward shipping moves the parcel to the customer. Reverse shipping returns undelivered or returned stock. COD economics usually require both when RTO is material.
RTO never becomes a successful delivery. Returns happen after delivery and may involve refunds, exchanges, and restocking. Keeping them separate prevents misleading “delivery success” math.
Acquisition cost is spent when the order is placed. If many COD orders cancel or RTO, you still paid to acquire them. Lowering RTO and improving prepaid mix protects paid traffic efficiency.
Practical levers include order confirmation, address quality, pincode rules, COD fees or prepaid incentives, better packaging, and faster reverse logistics. Pair finance visibility from this calculator with operations playbooks.
Restricting or conditioning COD by pincode can reduce high-risk lanes. Tools such as COD Risk Guard help implement checkout rules; this calculator helps quantify whether those controls are financially worthwhile.
Confirming COD orders before dispatch can cut fake or unsure orders. Include confirmation cost per order so the model shows whether the ops expense is covered by fewer RTOs.
Discounts or gifts for prepaid can raise prepaid share but reduce AOV. Use the prepaid comparison and conversion slider to test whether gateway fees plus discounts still beat COD unit economics.
Treating RTO like customer returns, ignoring reverse shipping, forgetting ad spend on failed orders, double-counting COD fees, and using unsupported “industry average” RTO figures are common errors. Enter your own ledger and courier invoices instead.
FAQ
Straight answers about COD profit, RTO loss, fees, privacy, and how this browser calculator works.
A COD profit calculator estimates profit or loss on Cash on Delivery orders after product cost, shipping, RTO, returns, ads, fees, and operational costs. The Web6 tool runs entirely in your browser.
The model subtracts total modeled costs from realized revenue on delivered orders. Funnel steps include cancellations, shipments, RTO, deliveries, and post-delivery returns.
Include COGS, forward and reverse shipping, packaging, COD handling, advertising, discounts, confirmations, support, fraud, marketplace fees, and other operating costs you can allocate per order.
RTO (Return to Origin) is a shipment that fails delivery and returns to the seller before the customer accepts the order. It is different from a customer return after delivery.
RTO loss combines forward shipping, reverse shipping, packaging, allocated ads and ops, and unrecovered product cost on failed deliveries, based on the rates and costs you enter.
Yes. The model charges forward shipping on shipped orders and reverse shipping on RTO orders, because both legs typically occur when delivery fails.
Divide estimated net profit by delivered COD orders. The result summary also shows profit per placed order and per retained order.
It is the approximate RTO percentage at which modeled profit reaches zero while other inputs stay constant. Above that rate the scenario turns loss-making in this model.
The tool estimates a break-even and suggested fee from incremental COD cost versus prepaid assumptions. It is a financial estimate, not pricing advice, and fees can affect conversion.
If customers pay the fee on delivered orders, fee revenue can offset COD handling and RTO-related costs. Conversion impact is not modeled as a demand curve in version 1.
Yes. Checkout fees can reduce completion rates. Review fee recommendations with conversion data before changing checkout policy.
Often COD has higher failed-delivery and collection costs, while prepaid has gateway fees and different refund patterns. Use the COD vs prepaid comparison with your own numbers.
Enter prepaid gateway fees, refund and chargeback assumptions, and a prepaid RTO rate. The tool shows profit per COD order, profit per prepaid order, and a conversion what-if slider.
Returns apply only to delivered orders. They add return shipping, refund processing, and possible inventory write-offs, separate from RTO.
Ad cost is allocated to placed orders. Failed deliveries still consume acquisition spend, which is why RTO and cancellations drag margin.
Yes. Packaging is typically spent when the order ships, so RTO still consumes packaging even though revenue is not collected.
Optional tax modes support inclusive or exclusive price presentation and GST-like rates. This is not tax advice and does not create GST compliance filings.
Inputs stay in your browser. Drafts use sessionStorage. Saved scenarios use localStorage only when you choose to save. Nothing is sent to Web6 servers for calculation storage.
Yes. Save, rename, duplicate, export, and delete scenarios locally. You can compare up to four saved scenarios.
Yes. Export PDF, CSV, JSON, copy a text summary, or print. PDF generation happens in the browser.
Yes. It is designed for Shopify and other ecommerce merchants. It does not connect to Shopify Admin in version 1 — enter your averages manually.
Yes. The formulas are platform-agnostic. Enter order counts and unit costs from your WooCommerce reports.
No. Results are estimates from your inputs. They are not financial, accounting, legal, tax, or logistics advice.
It assumes your rates and unit costs apply uniformly across the period, revenue is collected on delivered COD orders, and RTO differs from post-delivery returns. Presets are examples only.
What-if rows show an annualized estimate based on your reporting period. These are scenario estimates, not guaranteed outcomes.
Yes. The sensitivity table and what-if scenarios show profit when RTO falls by 2%, 5%, or 10 percentage points.
Yes. Enter the courier COD handling charge you pay and optional customer-paid COD fees separately so costs and revenue are not double-counted.
Accuracy depends on your inputs. Decimal arithmetic is used for money math, but real P&L still varies with contracts, recovery, fraud, and tax treatment.
RTO is a failed delivery before acceptance. A customer return happens after successful delivery. Costs and inventory recovery differ, so the model keeps them separate.
Web6 builds Shopify stores and apps. Merchants can review COD Risk Guard for checkout COD rules, CartPulse for live cart visibility, WhatsApp recovery tools, and Shopify development services for custom workflows. This calculator does not connect those products automatically.
Deep dive on failed-delivery costs, recovery, and RTO reduction scenarios.
Checkout COD fees and pincode rules for Shopify.
Operations playbook for COD-heavy stores.
Understand live cart and shopper activity.
Manual customer follow-up workflows.
Store builds and ecommerce engineering.
Custom COD and workflow apps when rules go beyond installables.
Broader storefront and commerce builds.
Wholesale and B2B commerce builds.
More free browser tools from Web6.
Talk through COD operations and Shopify delivery.
Related apps and services are separate products. This calculator does not imply automatic integrations unless you configure them yourself.