How to export Shopify shipping charges

Before you start

• Staff access to Orders in the Shopify admin
• A date range you want to look at, with both ends closed
• Your own record of what each label cost
• A spreadsheet app that can look values up across sheets

Steps

1. Export the orders for the period

   In your Shopify admin, go to Orders, select Export, choose Orders by date, then select Export orders.

   You should see a message that the CSV is emailed to you and the store owner, because any export by date goes by email.

2. Find the charge the buyer paid

   In the orders CSV, find Shipping alongside Subtotal, Taxes and Total.

   You should see one shipping amount per order, on the first row of that order.

3. Reduce the sheet to one row per order

   Sort by Name and keep only the first row of each order, because the additional line item rows leave the money columns empty.

   You should see distinct order references, each with one shipping amount.

4. Export the payment side as well

   Back on the Orders page, select Export, keep the same date range, then select Export transaction histories.

   You should see a second file with Order, Name, Kind, Gateway, Created At, Status, Amount and Currency.

5. Join the two files on the order reference

   In your spreadsheet app, look the transaction rows up against the order rows using Name.

   You should see each order showing its shipping charge and the payments recorded against it.

6. Add your postage column

   In the joined sheet, add one column for what the label cost and fill it from your own label records.

   You should see three numbers per order: what the buyer paid to ship, what was collected, and what postage cost.

If it goes wrong

The shipping amount is blank on most rows

Money lives on the order row, and Shopify writes additional line items on separate rows. Summing the Shipping column without collapsing to one row per order is safe, but reading it per row is not, and copying it down fills a batch with amounts nobody charged.

The two files do not add up

They are different grains. The orders export is one order per line, the transaction histories export is one movement per line, so refunds and partial captures appear as extra rows. Join on Name and expect more transaction rows than orders.

The export never appeared in your downloads

Shopify's rule is explicit: "If you select to export more than 51 orders or to export orders by date, then the CSV file is emailed to you and the store owner." Any reconciliation run is by date, so it always arrives by email.

A discount hid the shipping charge

Free shipping promotions write a zero into Shipping while postage still cost you something. Read Discount Amount next to it so a zero reads as a decision rather than as missing data.

What happens next

You now hold 2 files on 2 grains joined by 1 column, covering a period you chose. Do the comparison per order rather than per month: a single oversized parcel moves a month's average more than a hundred ordinary ones, and it is the order level view that tells you which listing to reprice or repack.