Unit economics is the end-to-end calculation of what a single order or a single customer leaves the business. Product cost, commission, shipping, payment deductions, the return allowance and customer acquisition cost all land in the same table. A decision to scale is only made if that table is positive; built without splitting by channel, it produces misleading results.
Loss-making unit economics do not fix themselves at scale, they only grow the loss; this is the most expensive lesson in e-commerce. The items usually hidden in the table are return costs, real shipping weighted by desi (Turkey's volumetric shipping weight unit) rather than an average, and payment deductions. The same product can be profitable on your own site and lossmaking on a marketplace. In categories with high repeat purchase, breaking even on the first order is acceptable; but that is only defensible if there is a measured repeat customer rate behind it.
Unit economics = Net sales − Product cost − Commission − Shipping − Payment deductions − Return allowance − Customer acquisition cost
If 18 TL is left on a 420 TL basket after every item is deducted, 3,000 orders a month produce 54,000 TL of contribution.
Loss-making unit economics do not fix themselves at scale, they only grow the loss; this is the most expensive lesson in e-commerce. The items usually hidden in the table are return costs, real shipping weighted by desi (Turkey's volumetric shipping weight unit) rather than an average, and payment deductions. The same …
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