What Is Shopify Total Sales and How Is It Calculated?

As a Shopify store owner, you might have asked yourself at least once, "How much have we sold this month?"

 It sounds simple, but total sales can be surprisingly tricky to manage, especially when you start digging into what’s included, what’s not, and how it all connects to your actual revenue. And here, the total sales report works effectively.

In this blog, you will know everything about Shopify's total sales, how it’s calculated, and how it can help you get detailed and clearer with your numbers.

Understanding Total Sales in Shopify

Shopify gives you multiple ways to find your total sales. You can view it in your Analytics Dashboard, under “Total Sales,” or go into pre-built reports that break sales down by product, variant, vendor, location, sales channel (POS or online), and more. 

Shopify provides 21 native reports combined with total sales data, but what you see depends on your Shopify plan. For merchants looking for custom time ranges, added filters, or deeper breakdowns (like currency conversions, staff performance, or sales by region), Shopify’s native reporting can be a little confusing.

Looking to dive deeper into the various types of Shopify sales reports? Visit our Shopify Sales Report blog for a complete overview.

You can track total sales daily, weekly, monthly, or any custom timeframe in the Shopify dashboard. Also, it filters the report by tags, vendors, product type, or even campaigns, and exports shareable reports to Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets. 

Why Shopify Total Sales Is Important

Let’s make one thing crystal clear-  Shopify's total sales are not the total profit. It’s the gross amount of money your store has generated, with a few additions.

Here’s Shopify’s basic formula:
Total Sales = Net Sales + Shipping + Taxes + Duties + Additional Fees + Tips

And Net Sales? That’s calculated like this:
Net Sales = Gross Sales - Discounts - Returns

And, Gross sales are just the product price multiplied by the quantity ordered. So if you sold 10 t-shirts at $20 each, that’s $200 gross. If you offered a 10% discount and had 1 return, Shopify subtracts those from gross to arrive at net.

Reporting apps help you break down each of these terms with precision so that you can have an idea of how much of your total sales came from shipping or tips. 

How Is Total Sales Calculated?

Here’s an example: 

Total Sales = (Product Price × Quantity) - Discounts - Refunds + Shipping + Taxes + Fees + Tips+ Additional Fee + Duties

Let’s say you sell 5 items at $100 each, offer a $50 discount, get 1 return, and charge $10 for shipping, $8 for taxes, and $5 in tips. Your total sales would be:

(5 × 100) = 500

50 (discount)
100 (1 item refund)
10 (shipping)
8 (taxes)
5 (tips)
0 (Additional Fee + Duties)
$373 total sales

But here you still need to subtract transaction fees, payment gateway charges, and other Shopify deductions as well. Because $373 is not your actual money.  

Your payouts are lower than your total sales, that’s because of hidden fees like transaction costs, Shopify platform fees, currency conversion losses, and so on.

Difference between Shopify Total Sales and Net Sales

Here’s where a lot of merchants get confused. Total sales and net sales are not interchangeable.

• Net sales give you a clearer idea of product revenue after discounts and refunds.
• Total sales is the bigger picture-  it includes everything your customer paid, from shipping to taxes to tips.

If you’re tracking revenue, net sales might be more accurate. But if you’re reporting to investors, budgeting advertising, or preparing tax estimates, total sales give the broader context.

Report Pundit makes it easy to see both sides by side. You can customize your report layout, compare performance month-over-month, and even automate delivery of these insights to stakeholders.

Do Shopify Total Sales Include Shipping?

Yes, Shopify’s total sales include shipping fees charged to the customer. So if a customer pays $50 for a product and $5 for shipping, your total sales will show $55.

It’s added to your revenue, but doesn’t add up for what you paid for shipping the order.  If you paid $7 to your courier, your net profit drops. Shopify’s reports don’t calculate this difference.

This is where app shipping-inclusive reports help. They let you separate what customers paid vs. what you paid (shipping label), so you know exactly how shipping impacts your margins.

With reporting apps, you get visibility into this “missing money” gap. You can compare your total sales to actual payouts, factor in costs, and even calculate profit per order. This kind of clarity allows you to make better business decisions about pricing, marketing, and operations.

Conclusion

Shopify’s Total Sales metric offers a big-picture view of your store’s earnings — but knowing what’s behind the number is key. By understanding how it’s calculated and what it includes, you can make better business decisions, avoid confusion, and get a clearer sense of your store’s financial health.