SKU-Level Profitability Dashboard for Multi-Marketplace Sellers

What the dashboard must answer

Marketplace panels show sales and sometimes a payout figure. They rarely tell you whether a given style, size or colour made money once everything is deducted. A useful dashboard answers four questions:

• Which SKUs earn a healthy margin on each marketplace, and which lose money?
• How much of the gap between sales and settlement is explained by agreed fees, and how much is unexplained?
• Which SKUs have return rates that wipe out their margin?
• Where should you change price, discount, ad spend or ranging first?

If your dashboard cannot answer the second question, it is a sales report with a margin column, not a profitability view.

Data you need before you build anything

Collect these inputs for every marketplace, for the same period:

1. Order and sales report: order ID, SKU, quantity, selling price, seller-funded discounts.
2. Settlement report: what was paid, what was deducted, and the reason for each deduction.
3. Returns report: return type (customer return, courier return), date, quantity, condition if available.
4. Fee terms: your seller agreement and current rate card, covering commission, fixed fees, shipping or weight slabs and any return charges.
5. Product cost: landed cost per SKU, plus packaging.
6. Ad spend: by campaign, mapped to SKU where the marketplace allows it.

Do not assume any fee rate from memory or from another seller. Rates and slabs differ by category, brand and agreement, and they change. Always confirm against your own agreement and the latest rate card.

Structure the margin waterfall per SKU

Build one consistent waterfall and apply it to every marketplace so numbers are comparable:

• Gross sales, less seller-funded discounts
• Less returns (value of units returned)
• Less commission and fixed fees
• Less shipping, weight-based and return-related charges
• Less ads and promotions you paid for
• Less product cost of units actually kept by customers, plus write-offs for unsellable returns
• Equals contribution margin per SKU

Decide upfront whether figures are GST-inclusive or exclusive, and how tax collected at source appears in your books. Treat it consistently and confirm the treatment with your tax adviser. A margin that mixes the two is misleading.

Where multi-marketplace dashboards go wrong

• Inconsistent SKU codes. The same product has different IDs on each marketplace. Build a master mapping table and treat unmapped SKUs as an exception list, not noise.
• Timing mismatches. Orders in one month settle or return in another. Match by order ID, not by report month alone.
• Returns without a cost. Showing a return rate but not the reverse shipping, fee and stock-loss impact hides the real damage.
• Arbitrary ad allocation. Pick a rule (direct to the advertised SKU, or pro rata by sales) and document it.
• Averaged fees. Using one blended fee percentage hides overcharges. Compare actual deductions with what your terms say should apply.

Using the dashboard for fee audits

Once the waterfall works, compare each deducted fee with what your agreement implies for that order. Flag cases such as a commission that does not match the agreed slab, a weight or shipping charge inconsistent with the SKU's declared specification, or a return that was charged but never matched to an order. Keep these as cases with order ID, amount, evidence and status, so recoveries can be raised with the marketplace and followed to closure.

This is the point where a spreadsheet starts to strain, especially across several marketplaces and monthly settlement files.

Spreadsheet or purpose-built tool?

A spreadsheet works for a handful of SKUs and one marketplace. It becomes fragile when you have hundreds of SKUs, several settlement formats and returns arriving weeks later. Evaluate any tool on whether it reconciles sales to settlements, checks fees against your terms, tracks returns and recovery cases, and lets you export SKU-level results.

MarketplaceMetrics by Fundle does this reconciliation and fee checking for Indian brands. Myntra Excel reports are reviewed today, and other marketplaces can be discussed for scope. Pricing is a tailored quote based on your marketplaces and volumes, so share your setup before comparing options.