When analyzing revenue in Strique, one of the key metrics you’ll encounter is Net Sales. It plays a central role in understanding how much your business is actually earning from customer transactions, after accounting for common deductions like discounts and returns.
In this article, we’ll break down what Net Sales means, how it’s calculated, and how it differs from Gross Sales and Total Sales.
What Does Net Sales Mean?
Net Sales represents the revenue generated from sales after subtracting any discounts and returns. It gives a clearer picture of your actual income from product sales, excluding non-revenue components like taxes and shipping.
In Strique, Net Sales is calculated as:
Net Sales = Gross Sales – Discounts – Returns
Unlike Gross Sales, which shows the full value of customer orders, Net Sales filters out the price reductions and order reversals to give you a more realistic figure for what your business earned on product transactions alone.
What’s Included and Excluded
To clarify, here’s what is included and excluded from net sales:
Included:
The selling price of all completed product orders
Subtracted:
Discounts (such as promotional codes or automatic offers)
Refunds or returned items
Excluded:
Shipping charges
Taxes (like Sales Tax or VAT)
Platform or processing fees
This makes Net Sales the most useful metric when assessing product performance and calculating marketing efficiency.
An Example
Suppose you sold:
10 items at $50 each = $500 Gross Sales
A 10% discount was applied across the cart = $50 discount
2 items were returned = $100 in returns
Your Net Sales would be:
$500 – $50 – $100 = $350
This is the actual revenue your business kept from product sales, before considering additional income or expenses like shipping or tax.
Net Sales in Strique
Strique pulls Net Sales data directly from your ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, Amazon Seller Central, and GA4, and presents it in:
Product Performance Reports
Campaign dashboards
Manager’s Overview
Custom reports with AI-powered summaries
Net Sales is also used as the revenue basis for calculating metrics like ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and ROI in most Strique reports. This ensures you’re comparing actual earned revenue against what you’ve spent on advertising, not inflated totals.
How It Differs from Gross and Total Sales
Gross Sales is the full order value before any deductions
Net Sales subtracts discounts and returns
Total Sales adds shipping, taxes, and fees back to Net Sales
Each metric has a specific use case, but Net Sales is often the most accurate when evaluating profitability per product, channel, or campaign.
Why Net Sales Matters
Net Sales shows the revenue your business actually keeps from product transactions, making it one of the most useful numbers for day-to-day performance tracking. It's essential for:
Campaign attribution and ROAS accuracy
Identifying high-return products or categories
Understanding the real financial impact of promotions and returns
Comparing store performance across time periods or regions
By focusing on Net Sales, you get a more grounded view of your business—filtered from the noise of temporary discounts or post-purchase changes.
If you're comparing revenue across dashboards in Strique and wondering why numbers vary between widgets, it's likely due to the difference between Gross, Net, and Total Sales views. Each gives you a different layer of insight, and Net Sales is where those insights become actionable.