CI's approach to metrics
Commerce Intelligence uses a unit economics waterfall - a clean, top-to-bottom model that starts with what the customer paid and removes everything the merchant doesn't keep:
Every line is real money moving in one direction. There is no step where the number goes back up. There is no theoretical "you could have earned this" figure.
Core metrics
Orders
Definition: Number of non-cancelled orders placed
Formula: Count of orders where status is not "cancelled"
Available on: Markets
Shopify equivalent: Orders (but Shopify includes cancelled, pending, and unpaid orders by default)
How to reconcile: CI Orders = Shopify Orders minus cancelled orders minus POS/pickup orders and Swap Gift Card orders (SGC-orders created by Swap Returns)
Note: Only orders with a shipping address at order creation are included. POS orders and pickup-in-store orders are excluded because they have no delivery destination.
Sales (Markets analytics)
Definition: Post-discount order subtotal. What customers paid for products, including taxes, shipping, and returns. If an order is edited after placement, this value updates to reflect the current state.
Formula: Sub of order value after discount application, excluding cancelled orders
Shopify equivalent: No direct equivalent. Closest is Shopify Gross Sales minus Discounts. Both CI and Shopify reflect order edits, but Shopify also adjusts for returns while CI tracks returns separately.
How to reconcile: CI Sales should closely match Shopify Gross Sales - Shopify Discounts for non-cancelled orders. Differences arise primarily from how returns are handled (CI tracks them separately).
Sales (Products alanytics)
Definition: Post-discount order subtotal. What customers paid for products, before taxes, shipping, and returns. If an order is edited after placement, this value updates to reflect the current state.
Formula: Sum of (product price x quantity) after discount application, excluding cancelled orders
Shopify equivalent: No direct equivalent. Closest is Shopify Gross Sales minus Discounts. Both CI and Shopify reflect order edits, but Shopify also adjusts for returns while CI tracks returns separately.
How to reconcile: CI Sales should closely match Shopify Gross Sales - Shopify Discounts for non-cancelled orders. Differences arise primarily from how returns are handled (CI tracks them separately).
AOV
Definition: Average order value - average revenue per order
Formula: Sales / Orders
Available on: Markets
Shopify equivalent: Shopify AOV = (Gross Sales - Discounts) / Orders
How to reconcile: Should closely match for non-cancelled orders. Both CI and Shopify reflect order edits.
AVG Sale Price
Definition: Average selling price per unit
Formula: Sales / Units Ordered
Available on: Products
Shopify equivalent: No standard equivalent (derivable from Shopify data)
Units Ordered
Definition: Total quantity of product units in the order. This value updates if items are added to or removed from the order.
Available on: Markets, Products
Shopify equivalent: Quantity Ordered. Both reflect order edits, but Shopify also adjusts for returns while CI tracks returns separately.
How to reconcile: Both CI and Shopify reflect order edits. Differences arise from returns - CI tracks these separately rather than deducting from the quantity.
Global Units Ordered
Definition: Units ordered through Swap Global. A subset of Units Ordered.
Available on: Products
Shopify equivalent: No equivalent (Shopify does not distinguish by fulfilment channel in standard reports)
Global Sales
Definition: Revenue from orders fulfilled through Swap Global. A subset of Sales.
Available on: Products
Shopify equivalent: No equivalent
Global Order Count
Definition: Number of Swap Global orders. On the Markets page this is the total count per market. On the Products page this is the number of Swap Global orders containing a given product or variant.
Available on: Markets, Products
Shopify equivalent: No equivalent
Unique Orders
Definition: Number of distinct orders containing a given product or variant
Available on: Products
Shopify equivalent: No standard equivalent (derivable from Shopify data)
Shipping Revenue
Definition: Shipping amount charged to the customer. Updates if the order is edited and shipping changes.
Available on: Markets
Shopify equivalent: Shopify Shipping (net of discounts and refunds)
How to reconcile: Both reflect order edits. Differences may arise from shipping refunds, which Shopify deducts but CI does not.
Note: Shipping Revenue is what the customer was charged for shipping, not the merchant's actual shipping cost. The true cost to the merchant may be lower (carrier negotiated rates) or higher (subsidized or free shipping). CI currently assumes Shipping Revenue equals shipping cost for the purposes of the Net Revenue calculation. Actual shipping cost data is not yet available in the system.
Taxes & Duties
Definition: Taxes and import duties charged on the order. Updates if the order is edited and tax or duty amounts change.
Available on: Markets, Products (for Products - only in case of Swap Global orders)
Shopify equivalent: Shopify Taxes & Duties (net of refunds)
How to reconcile: Both reflect order edits. Differences may arise from tax refunds, which Shopify deducts but CI does not.
Units Returned
Definition: Number of product units returned through Swap
Available on: Markets, Products
Shopify equivalent: Returned Item Quantity (but Shopify includes returns from all processors)
How to reconcile: CI only includes Swap-processed returns. Shopify includes all returns.
Note: Only counts returns processed through Swap.
Return Rate
Definition: The percentage of ordered units that were returned
Formula: Units Returned / Units Ordered
Available on: Markets, Products
Shopify equivalent: Not a standard Shopify metric (derivable from Shopify data)
Note: Only counts returns processed through Swap
Refunded Value
Definition: Total monetary value of goods returned through Swap
Available on: Markets
Shopify equivalent: Returns / Sales Reversals (covers all returns regardless of return processor)
How to reconcile: CI only includes Swap-processed returns. Shopify includes all returns. They match when all returns go through Swap.
ℹ️ If you process returns manually or through other tools, those will not appear in CI.
Net Revenue
Definition: What the merchant actually kept from the order after all deductions
Formula: Sales - Shipping Revenue - Taxes & Duties - Refunded Value - Other fees reflected in Shopify
Available on: Markets
Shopify equivalent: No direct equivalent. Shopify's "Net Sales" is a different calculation (Gross Sales - Discounts - Returns, before tax/shipping).
ℹ️ CI Net Revenue is a unit economics metric designed for profitability analysis. Shopify Net Sales is a merchandising metric. They answer different questions and should not be compared directly.
⚠️ The Shipping Revenue deducted here is what the customer was charged, not the merchant's actual shipping cost. If you subsidize shipping (charge less than it costs), your true net revenue is lower than shown. If you mark up shipping, it is higher. CI does not yet have actual shipping cost data, so customer-facing Shipping Revenue is used as a proxy. This means the net shipping contribution (positive or negative) is not captured in this calculation yet.
Discount Penetration
Definition: Percentage of orders that had a discount applied
Available on: Products
Shopify equivalent: No standard equivalent
Total Fees
Definition: Total Swap fees charged for the market
Available on: Markets
Shopify equivalent: No equivalent
Key principles to remember
CI preserves original order values
CI records order values at the time of placement and does not update them if the order is later edited. If items are added, removed, or prices change after the order is placed, CI still shows the original values. The only exception is cancellation - cancelled orders are removed from all metrics entirely.
This is the most common reason you'll see different numbers in CI vs Shopify:
CI: Shows the original order values as they were when placed. Returns are tracked separately as a Refunded Value metric and deducted in the Net Revenue calculation, but the underlying Sales, Shipping Revenue, and Taxes & Duties figures remain unchanged.
Shopify: Updates order values after edits and returns, so figures reflect the current net state of the order.
Returns are attributed to order date
A January order returned in February appears in January's data in CI (but February's in Shopify). CI's approach shows you the complete economics of orders placed in each period.
Only Swap-processed returns are included
If you use multiple return processors, CI will only show returns handled by Swap. This means CI's return figures may be lower than Shopify's.
Cancelled orders are excluded
CI does not count cancelled orders in any metric. This avoids inflating order counts and revenue with transactions that never completed.
POS and pickup-in-store orders are excluded
CI only includes orders that have a shipping address at the time of order creation. Orders without a delivery destination - such as Point of Sale (POS) transactions and pickup-in-store orders - are excluded from all metrics. Without a shipping address, these orders cannot be grouped by country, market, or region, and would otherwise appear as "undefined" entries. If you process in-store or pickup orders, CI's totals will be lower than Shopify's.
Quick reference
Metric | Available on | What it measures |
Orders | Markets | Non-cancelled order count |
Sales | Markets, Products | Post-discount revenue |
AOV | Markets | Average revenue per order |
AVG Sale Price | Products | Average selling price per unit |
Units Ordered | Markets, Products | Quantity of units ordered |
Global Units Ordered | Products | Units ordered in Swap Global orders |
Global Sales | Products | Revenue from Swap Global orders |
Global Order Count | Markets, Products | Swap Global order count |
Unique Orders | Products | Distinct orders per product |
Shipping Revenue | Markets | Shipping charged to customer |
Taxes & Duties | Markets, Products | Taxes and duties charged |
Units Returned | Markets, Products | Units returned through Swap |
Return Rate | Markets, Products | Units returned / units ordered |
Refunded Value | Markets | Monetary value of Swap returns |
Net Revenue | Markets | Sales minus all deductions |
Discount Penetration | Products | Percentage of discounted orders |
Total Fees | Markets | Swap fees charged |