~ 7 min
8/31/2026
How to Assess the Efficiency of a Seller’s Business on a Marketplace: Key Metrics and Their Analysis
The efficiency of a seller's business on a marketplace is not about growing gross revenue at any cost, but about steadily increasing profit without explosive cost growth or "stuck" remaining stock. To understand how well a business is performing, you need to look at sales, profit, margin, marketplace fees, advertising, turnover, and remaining stock — and always analyze these metrics together, not in isolation.
Which metrics should a seller analyze?
Evaluating a seller's business is based on analyzing several groups of metrics simultaneously:
sales and gross revenue;
profit and margin;
marketplace fees;
advertising metrics;
product turnover;
remaining stock and supplies;
conversion rate and sales funnel.
Each metric on its own only provides part of the picture. For example, revenue growth may look positive, but if advertising and logistics costs have surged at the same time, net profit can easily decline. Therefore, any conclusions should only be drawn after reviewing a set of linked metrics: gross revenue + costs + profit + remaining stock.
Gross revenue
Gross revenue shows how much money product sales brought in over a selected period, but on its own it does not indicate how profitable the business is.
The seller should track:
total gross revenue across the entire business;
gross revenue for each marketplace separately;
gross revenue by SKU, category, and brand;
changes in gross revenue compared to the previous period.
The key question is not just how much money came in, but why the figure changed. For example, gross revenue grew by 20%, but if the ad budget was doubled to achieve this, the economic effect may be questionable: profit at the product or category level may have barely changed or even declined.
Gross profit
Gross profit shows how much money remains from sales after paying the cost price and marketplace fees, and reflects the real income from operations better than gross revenue.
Formula:
Gross profit = Gross revenue – Marketplace fees – Cost price
For Wildberries, "marketplace fees" may also include promotion costs that the marketplace deducts from the account.
Two products can sell for the same amount but generate different gross profit due to different commissions, logistics fees, or cost prices. Therefore, when comparing SKUs, you cannot rely only on gross revenue — you need to look at gross profit specifically.
Net profit
Net profit shows how much money the business earned after accounting for all major expenses, not just the costs of the product and the marketplace.
Formula:
Net profit = Gross profit – Taxes – External expenses
External expenses include:
employee salaries;
contractor services (fulfillment, marketing, etc.);
warehouse and office rent;
paid analytics services and software;
other administrative and fixed expenses.
If gross revenue is growing while net profit is declining, this is a signal to find where exactly costs have increased: taxes, payroll, advertising, rent, or other operating expenses.
Margin
Margin shows what percentage of gross revenue constitutes gross profit, i.e., what share of turnover the business actually earns.
Formula:
Margin = Gross profit / Gross revenue × 100%
Example: Gross revenue — 1,000,000 ₽, gross profit — 250,000 ₽. Margin: 250,000 / 1,000,000 × 100% = 25%.
Margin is convenient for comparing different products and categories:
a product with high gross revenue but a margin of 5–7% may be far less profitable;
another product with moderate gross revenue but a margin of 25–30% may generate a larger amount of profit per ruble invested.
Therefore, when selecting assortment and planning advertising, margin is one of the key benchmarks.
Share of marketplace fees
The share of marketplace fees shows what portion of gross revenue is "consumed" by commissions, logistics, storage, payment processing, advertising, and other deductions.
Calculation:
Share of fees = Fees / Gross revenue × 100%
If this share grows over time, the business may be losing profit even with stable or growing sales.
It is useful to break down fees by item:
sales commission;
delivery to the customer and returns;
warehouse storage;
payment processing and other service fees;
advertising and promo tools.
This makes it easier to understand what worsened the economics:
logistics tariffs increased;
the share of paid promotion grew;
products sit in the warehouse too long and accumulate storage fees.
ACoS (share of advertising costs)
ACoS shows what portion of gross revenue the seller spends on advertising and how "heavy" each ruble of sales is in terms of promotion.
Formula:
ACoS = Advertising costs / Gross revenue × 100%
Example: Ad budget — 100,000 ₽, gross revenue — 1,000,000 ₽. ACoS = 100,000 / 1,000,000 × 100% = 10%.
But evaluating campaigns only by ACoS is incorrect. The key is the combination of:
product margin;
gross and net profit by SKU;
ACoS.
For a high-margin product, a higher percentage of advertising costs is acceptable: advertising can pay off even with a noticeable ACoS. For low-margin items, even a modest ACoS can make sales unprofitable.
Product turnover
Turnover shows how quickly your stock sells and how efficiently the money invested in products is used.
Low turnover means:
money gets "stuck" in products for a long time;
storage costs increase;
the risk of cash flow gaps grows (sales are happening, but there is not enough cash on hand due to frozen remaining stock).
Too high turnover can also be a problem:
products constantly run out;
periods of stockouts occur;
the business loses potential sales and worsens behavioral metrics.
The seller's task is to choose a stock level where:
there is enough product for stable sales;
there is no excess that "eats" money and generates unnecessary storage costs.
Remaining stock and days out of stock
Product availability in the warehouse directly affects sales and search rankings.
If a popular SKU is regularly bought out "to zero," the seller:
misses out on orders and gross revenue;
risks losing positions in search and recommendations;
has to wait for supply and "restart" the product listing from scratch.
Therefore, when analyzing sales dynamics, you must always look at:
current remaining stock;
remaining stock history;
the number of days when the product was out of stock.
If sales have dropped, the first thing to check is whether the product was available for purchase during the analyzed period. Often, a decline in gross revenue is not related to price or advertising, but simply to the product being out of stock.
Conversion rate to order and sales funnel
Final gross revenue depends not only on traffic, but also on what share of shoppers reaches the point of placing an order.
Simplified funnel:
Impressions → Product listing views → Add to cart → Orders
The funnel should be analyzed stage by stage:
there are impressions but few views — the problem is CTR: price, photos, title, cover image, rating;
there are views but few add-to-carts — weak description, unconvincing photos, uncompetitive price;
many add-to-carts but few orders — possible issues with delivery, missing sizes/variants, promos, reviews, or competing offers.
If impressions are declining, you need to look at promotion (advertising, bids, participation in promotions), product positions, and remaining stock.
AOV
AOV shows how much one order brings in on average and helps understand how the purchase structure is changing.
Formula:
AOV = Gross revenue / Number of orders
AOV growth can be influenced by:
price increases;
a shift in demand toward more expensive products;
an increase in the number of units per order (upsells, bundles, related products).
At the same time, changes in AOV should always be evaluated together with the number of orders and conversion rate. A price increase can produce a nice AOV growth, but at the same time:
reduce the number of orders;
worsen the conversion rate;
reduce final profit if customers switch to competitors.
How to analyze metrics in combination
Reliable conclusions about the state of a business can only be made through a comprehensive analysis of metrics. A single metric almost always misleads.
Typical situations:
1. Gross revenue is growing, profit is falling. Need to check:
advertising costs and ACoS;
commissions and logistics;
cost price and purchase prices;
discounts, promo codes, participation in promotions.
A common scenario is turnover growth driven by price cuts and aggressive advertising, which "eats" the margin.
2. Sales have dropped, margin has increased. Possible reasons:
ineffective advertising was turned off;
low-margin SKUs were discontinued;
prices were raised and the number of orders decreased, but profit per order increased.
3. Profit is high, but remaining stock is growing. This indicates a risk of cash flow gaps:
part of the profit is "stuck" in products;
money does not return to the current account in time;
if demand drops, working capital problems may arise.
4. Advertising generates more orders, but ACoS is growing. Need to check:
whether the additional orders pay off given the margin;
whether advertising is eating up all the profit on specific SKUs;
whether it would be better to limit traffic and keep only the most effective campaigns.
Therefore, the set of key metrics should be viewed as an interconnected system: a change in one figure almost always pulls others along with it.
How to evaluate the effectiveness of individual products (SKUs)
Evaluating each SKU allows you to understand which products actually earn money and which only create turnover.
For an individual product, you should regularly review:
gross revenue;
number of orders;
gross profit;
margin;
advertising costs by SKU;
ACoS;
remaining stock;
turnover;
sales dynamics by period.
After such an analysis, the assortment can be divided:
locomotive products — generate gross revenue and profit;
products with high gross revenue but low or negative profit;
slow-moving items that freeze money.
Special attention should be paid to SKUs with large turnover and low or negative profit. They can:
distort the overall picture of success;
erode profit through a high share of advertising, discounts, and logistics;
create the illusion of "business growth" while actual earnings are failing.
How to analyze business efficiency in Torgstat
When working with dozens or hundreds of SKUs across multiple marketplaces, manual data collection becomes time-consuming and inaccurate.
The Torgstat service allows you to:
collect data from Wildberries, Ozon, and Yandex Market in one interface;
track gross revenue and number of sales;
analyze gross and net profit;
calculate margin by product and category;
view the structure and dynamics of marketplace fees;
analyze advertising effectiveness and ACoS;
monitor remaining stock and turnover;
compare products, categories, and stores with each other;
view changes in metrics across different periods (weeks, months, quarters).
With this kind of analytics, it is easier to spot in time:
when turnover is growing but profit is falling;
which specific products are dragging the financial result down;
where costs for commissions, storage, or advertising are increasing.
How often to conduct analysis
The frequency of analysis depends on the scale of operations and the speed of changes (prices, ad campaigns, supplies), but the basic approach is as follows.
Operational control:
key sales and advertising metrics (gross revenue, orders, advertising costs, ACoS, remaining stock) — daily or several times a week.
Deeper financial analysis:
weekly — for operational monitoring of dynamics;
monthly — for assessing business sustainability and planning;
quarterly — for strategic decisions on assortment, pricing, logistics, and investments.
It makes sense to compare comparable periods:
the current month with the previous month;
the last 4 weeks with the previous 4 weeks;
the current quarter with the previous quarter or with the same quarter of the previous year.
Frequently asked questions
Which metric best shows the efficiency of a seller's business?
None. Efficiency is assessed by a set of linked metrics: net profit, margin, sales, costs (including advertising and commissions), and product turnover.
Why can't a business be evaluated by gross revenue alone?
Because gross revenue does not account for cost price, marketplace commissions, logistics, storage, advertising, taxes, and other costs. High turnover can be accompanied by low or negative profit.
Which metrics should be looked at first for analyzing a marketplace business?
The basic set: gross revenue, gross profit, net profit, margin, advertising costs and ACoS, turnover, and remaining stock.
How to understand which products are unprofitable to sell?
You need to compare a product's gross revenue with its profit and costs: cost price, commissions, logistics, and advertising. Unprofitable items are SKUs with low or negative profit, a high share of advertising costs, and slow turnover.
How to understand that advertising costs are too high?
Compare ACoS with the product's margin and profit. If advertising generates orders, but after accounting for it, the profit on the SKU approaches zero or goes negative, advertising costs are too high.
Why can profit fall while sales grow?
The reasons are usually in rising costs: an increased ad budget, price cuts, higher cost prices, logistics, marketplace commissions, or a shift in sales toward low-margin products.
Do I need to analyze each marketplace separately? Yes. The same product on Wildberries, Ozon, and Yandex Market can have different economics: different commissions, logistics, advertising tools, and demand structures lead to different levels of margin and profit.