Ask a seller their shipping cost and they'll quote their ₹65 rate — then their bank account disagrees. Freight is the biggest line but only about 60% of the total; the real number is cost per delivered order, and it's decided by six numbers almost nobody tracks together.
The six lines
1) Base freight + volumetric reality. 2) Surcharges — fuel, remote area, COD fee. 3) RTO cost — forward+reverse on the orders that never delivered, spread over the ones that did. 4) Packaging — ₹8–25 per parcel of box, tape, fill. 5) Platform fees — aggregator markup, app subscription. 6) Labour — the packing bench's hours.
Cost per delivered, not per shipped
At 20% RTO, every delivered order carries 1.25 shipments of cost — ₹65 freight is really ₹81 before surcharges. Sellers who measure 'per shipped' chronically underprice; the honest denominator is delivered.
The monthly one-sheet
Orders shipped, delivered, RTO'd; total freight, total surcharges, total packaging spend; divide by delivered count. That single number — true cost per delivered order — is what your free-shipping threshold, COD policy and pricing all depend on.
How to move it
The levers in order: cut RTO (biggest, usually), right-size packaging, per-order carrier quotes, surcharge negotiation at volume. Knowing the number is the unlock — you can't optimise what you don't sum.
Pure Parcel automates exactly this — the pipeline from order to AWB without the manual steps.
See how →The playbook
Pull last month's totals
Freight + surcharges + fees + packaging + labour.
Divide by delivered orders
Not shipped — delivered. That's your real cost.
Find the biggest line
It's probably RTO or packaging — attack it first.
Re-run monthly
The sheet is the instrument panel — check it like one.
