Profit Analytics

Knowing Your True Retail Margins

Paulo Fidalgo

If you run a retail shop—whether it's a clothing boutique, a gift store, or a specialty food shop—you probably have a rough sense of which products sell well. But do you actually know which ones make you money?

That might sound like the same question, but it's not. A product can fly off the shelves and still leave you worse off after you factor in markdowns, returns, shipping costs, and the cash that sat tied up in inventory for months.

The spreadsheet trap

Most independent retailers I've talked to track sales in their point-of-sale system and margins in a spreadsheet. The problem is that the spreadsheet becomes a monster. You add a column for this, a formula for that, and before long you're spending Sunday afternoons debugging Excel instead of planning your next season.

Even when the numbers work, they rarely tell the full story. Your top-selling brand might look great until you realise a third of those sales came after a 40% markdown. Meanwhile, a slower-moving line sits quietly generating steady full-price purchases that actually grow your bank account.

What Profix does differently

Profix is our answer to this problem. It's a simple profit analytics tool built for retail operators who want clarity without complexity.

Here's how it works:

  1. Import your data – Upload a CSV of sales, returns, and costs, or enter them manually if you prefer. No complicated integrations required.

  2. See true profit per product – We calculate margins after discounts, returns, and all those hidden costs your POS ignores.

  3. Compare brands and categories – Scorecards show you which lines earn their shelf space and which ones just look busy.

  4. Check inventory health – View stock levels, sell-through rates, and days-on-hand for every SKU. Know what to reorder and what to mark down before it's too late.

A practical example

Let's say you run a boutique that carries three denim brands. Brand A has the highest sales volume. Brand B has the highest initial markup. Brand C sells the fewest units.

Your spreadsheet might point you toward Brand A—volume is king, right? But Profix could show you that Brand A averages 35% of sales at markdown, Brand B has a 20% return rate, and Brand C sells through at full price with barely any returns.

Suddenly, the "underperformer" is your most profitable line per unit sold. That's the kind of insight that shapes buying decisions, renegotiates supplier terms, and stops you from over-ordering items that erode your margins.

Who it's for

Profix is designed for small retail teams who:

  • Run one or a handful of locations
  • Buy seasonal inventory and want to learn from past performance
  • Don't have (or want) a full-time analyst on staff
  • Need a monthly snapshot they can share with partners or accountants

If you're running a chain of fifty stores with a dedicated BI team, you probably have enterprise software already. This isn't that. Profix is for the rest of us—the owner-operators who need better visibility without a six-month implementation project.

Getting started

We're currently offering early access to Profix while we refine the product with real users. If you'd like to see whether it fits your needs, request early access and we'll schedule a walkthrough.

No commitment, no pressure—just a conversation about how you track profitability today and where the gaps are.