Subscription commerce metrics

For a physical-product subscription, track four things separately: continuing subscriptions, shipments due, payments collected and contribution after supply and remedy costs. A contract can stay active while a box is skipped, and an order can appear in a sales report before payment is captured.

Choose the counting unit

One customer may hold several subscription contracts; one contract may generate several orders. Record the unit and date beside each measure.

Keep separate counts for customers, contracts, orders due, parcels dispatched and payments collected. Define how pauses and skips affect each count.

Shopify Subscriptions includes paused contracts and skipped orders in its active-subscription metric. That is a contract count under Shopify’s definition, not a count of boxes due to ship.

Select comparable dashboard windows

Shopify Subscriptions compares performance with the previous 7, 30 or 90 days; the default comparison is the previous 7 days. Match the comparison window to the decision and check that both periods represent a useful basis for comparison; a dashboard default is not a universal standard.

Its performance view reports subscription revenue and counts of new, active and cancelled subscription contracts for the selected timeframe. These measures describe contracts and recurring subscription revenue, not parcels dispatched or payments captured; reconcile them with the relevant order and payment records before interpreting a change.

Shopify Subscription Performance Dashboard: Key Measures

Keep retention and repeat buying distinct

Subscriber retention asks whether a starting group still has an eligible subscription at a later date. Repeat purchase asks whether customers made another qualifying purchase within a stated window. A subscriber may skip a box; a former subscriber may later buy once.

State whether automatic renewal orders count as repeat purchases, and distinguish orders placed from payments completed when that difference matters to the decision.

Keep the comparison basis consistent for any retention or repeat-purchase result, and record the definition used alongside the measure.

Define churn before comparing rates

Before comparing churn rates, confirm what each rate counts and over what period. Cancelling one of two contracts can count as a lost contract without counting as a lost customer.

A failed charge attempt is not automatically churn; its final outcome depends on recovery and the plan’s settings. Different dashboards may use different denominators, so check the stated definition before comparing rates.

Reconcile orders, payments and deliveries

An order value is not proof of a collected payment. Shopify’s gross-sales measure includes pending and unpaid orders, while its finance reports present payments data separately.

Keep an unsuccessful renewal in an exception count until its outcome is known. Record refunds against the affected payment and cycle.

For a prepaid plan, show the advance payment and the remaining delivery commitments separately. A shipment-level management view can allocate the paid amount across promised deliveries under a stated method. Keep the original payment record for reconciliation; that allocation does not determine accounting revenue recognition.

Read sales measures by their definition

Shopify defines an order in sales reports by the date it was placed. Gross sales are product price multiplied by quantity before taxes, shipping, discounts and sales reversals; pending, cancelled and unpaid orders are included, while test and deleted orders are excluded. Use this definition when reconciling reported sales with completed payments or fulfilled shipments.

Average order value is gross sales, excluding adjustments, less discounts, excluding adjustments, divided by the number of orders. Because the calculation is order-based and draws on gross sales, it is not a measure of cash collected or contribution per supplied subscription cycle.

Calculate contribution for the chosen cycle

Contribution for a cycle is the revenue attributable to that cycle less the direct costs assigned to it, on a consistent tax basis. State whether the result is per shipment, cohort or reporting period. Positive contribution does not establish overall business profit.

A product gross-profit report can supply part of the cost picture, but Shopify’s gross-profit breakdown separates net sales with cost recorded from net sales without cost recorded. Reconcile order, payment, fulfilment and remedy records before changing a plan based on the result.

At each close, compare the opening subscription group with its later status, orders due with parcels supplied, and expected charges with collected payments. Label any change in plan terms or counting rules before comparing periods.

Check report coverage and cost records

Shopify’s Finance Summary brings together sales, payments, gift cards, tips and gross-profit data for the selected timeframe, with related reports for individual measures. Its gross-profit breakdown separates net sales with cost recorded from net sales without cost recorded. Check that split before treating reported profit as representative of all sales.

Customer reports can omit some activity from the past 12 hours, while the New vs returning customer report is described as up to date, give or take a few seconds. When a recent customer count does not match another report, check its coverage and definition before interpreting the difference as a change in customer behaviour.