Financial Flash Report

Revenue: $501,068 settled through Shopify payouts in August, a $113,144 weekly run-rate and 13.1% clear of the $100K/wk goal. Margin: discounting normalised to 23.8% of gross from 30.1% in July, lifting product margin to 44.8% and contribution margin to 24.1% — above the 23% goal for the first time since June.

The caveat: ShipBob holds no shipment dated after Aug 25 — the export was filtered through Sep 2 and returned nothing beyond that date. So 1,931 of the 5,574 payout orders have no fulfillment cost attached. Filling that gap at the observed $6.78 average adds roughly $13,100 and pulls contribution margin to 21.5%, short of goal. Worth checking why fulfillment records stop on Aug 25 — daily volume runs 200–280 shipments and then goes to zero for the rest of the month, including working days.

Acquisition: CAC is $30.81 against $17.32 in the same month last year, and orders are down 39.1% year on year. AOV at $71.54 (up 41.0%) is carrying the revenue line, not volume.

ShipBob has no shipment dated after Aug 25, 2026. The export was filtered on ship date through Sep 2 and returned 5,320 shipments, none later than Aug 25 — so this is a gap in ShipBob's own records, not in the export. Of the 5,574 payout orders, 3,643 (65.4%) have a ShipBob shipment and 1,931 (34.6%) do not, almost all placed Aug 21–29.

At the observed average of $6.78 per fulfilled order, the missing cost is roughly $13,100. That would take fulfillment to $37,808 (7.5% of gross), product margin to $211,569 (42.2%) and contribution margin to $107,863 (21.5%). These orders were paid for by customers and will be fulfilled, so the cost belongs in August — the adjusted figures are the better read.

Operational flag. ShipBob shipped 200–280 orders a day through Aug 25 and then recorded nothing for the remaining working days of the month. That points to the Shopify-to-ShipBob order sync breaking, or fulfillment being paused, rather than a normal backlog. Worth raising with Jared before month-end close.

Gross sales of $442,160 across 5,242 orders put revenue at a $99,843/wk run-rate, effectively level with the $100K goal. Discounting dropped sharply to 19.6% of gross from 26.0% in July, lifting product margin to 46.7% and contribution margin back over target at 23.2%.

The caveat is large. ShipBob holds no shipment dated after Aug 25, so only 2,833 of 5,242 orders (54.0%) carry a fulfillment cost. Filling the gap at the observed $6.75 average adds about $16,262 and pulls contribution margin to $86,450 · 19.6%, well under goal. Read August as a range, not a result.

Acquisition got more expensive. CAC rose to $30.81 from $26.78 and ROAS fell to 3.2× from 3.7×, while AOV climbed to $71.54. Revenue is holding on basket size rather than efficiency.

Gross sales reached $546,276 across 5,942 orders, a 34.6% jump on June and a $123,353/wk run-rate, 23.4% clear of the $100K/wk goal. Contribution margin went the other way: $117,973 · 21.6%, 1.4 points under the 23% target and down from 25.3% in June.

The cause is July 31. A single promo day booked 738 orders and $90,059 of gross at a 44.0% discount — 16.5% of the month's revenue at a 9.5% contribution margin. Strip that day out and the other 30 days run at a 22.5% discount and 24.0% contribution margin, in line with June and above goal.

Product cost also rose to 22.9% of gross from 20.9%, and ad spend hit $100,859 — up 25.9% on June for a 20.2% gain in orders.

5,788 of the 5,942 orders (97.4%) matched a ShipBob shipment — the best coverage of the three months. The 154 that did not are mostly Redo exchange orders and a handful of Jul 31 orders that shipped past the export cutoff.

At the observed $7.02 average the missing cost is about $1,081, taking fulfillment to 7.6% of gross and contribution margin to $116,892 (21.4%).

4,713 of the 4,943 orders (95.3%) matched a ShipBob shipment, matching against all three ShipBob exports combined. Most of the 230 that did not are Redo exchange orders, which carry almost no revenue but are still picked and shipped; the rest are late-June orders with no shipment on record.

At the observed $6.86 average the missing cost is about $1,578. That would take fulfillment to $33,920 (8.4% of gross), product margin to $181,004 (44.6%) and contribution margin to $100,898 (24.9%). The gap is small enough that it does not change the read on the month.

Worth a look: Redo exchange orders are consistently missing from ShipBob under their own order numbers, in every month built so far. If those shipments are recorded against the original order the cost is already captured; if not, exchanges are running as an untracked fulfillment cost.