How much of your GMV
do you keep?
GMV is the number on the deck. Net revenue is the number in the bank. This shows you the distance between them.
Your numbers
Total order value before anything is deducted.
Average discount across all orders.
Delivered orders sent back by the customer.
Orders that come back undelivered.
Payment and marketplace charges.
Net revenue
——
Estimates from the figures you entered. Treat them as a directional model of your own economics, not an audited result.
What GMV is, and what it is not
Gross merchandise value is the total value of orders placed, before any deduction. It is the headline number in most pitch decks and almost never the number a brand actually banks.
GMV counts an order the moment it is placed. It does not care whether the customer paid, whether the parcel arrived, or whether it came straight back. That makes it useful for measuring scale and dangerous for measuring health.
Where GMV leaks on the way to revenue
- Discounts and coupons. Usually the largest single deduction, and the most visible.
- Customer returns. The order arrived and came back. You keep the freight cost, lose the revenue, and usually recover the stock.
- Returns to origin. The order never arrived. Worse than a return, because you paid freight in both directions and there was never a payment to refund.
- Gateway and platform fees. Small per order, meaningful at volume.
Why the gap matters more than the headline
Two brands can report identical GMV and bank very different amounts. The one with a 30% RTO rate and heavy couponing might keep 55% of its GMV; the one with verified addresses, a high prepaid share and disciplined discounting might keep 78%. That difference is the whole business.
Of the four leaks, RTO is the one that is purely operational — it is not a pricing decision or a customer choice, just orders that should never have shipped in that form. Work out yours with the RTO cost calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between GMV and revenue?
GMV is the total value of all orders placed. Revenue is what you actually recognise after discounts, returns, undelivered orders and fees. For an Indian D2C brand with meaningful cash-on-delivery volume, net revenue is commonly 60% to 80% of GMV.
Is GMV a vanity metric?
Not useless, but easy to misuse. It is a fair measure of scale and marketplace traction. It becomes a vanity metric the moment it is quoted without the delivery rate, the discount rate and the return rate alongside it, because those three determine how much of it is real.
Does GMV include cancelled orders?
Definitions vary, which is exactly why the metric is slippery. Most brands include orders at the point of placement, meaning cancellations and undelivered COD orders are still counted. Always ask whether a quoted GMV figure is placed, shipped or delivered.
How do I improve my GMV to net revenue ratio?
Attack the leaks in order of size. Discounting is a pricing decision. Customer returns are usually a sizing, quality or expectation problem. RTO is operational and often the fastest to fix, because address verification and risk scoring cut it without any effect on demand.
What net revenue percentage should I aim for?
It depends heavily on category and COD share, but brands with a high prepaid share and controlled discounting commonly keep 75% or more of GMV. If you are below 60%, the gap is usually either aggressive couponing or a return and RTO problem rather than fees.
Other calculators
Fix the leak,
not the spreadsheet.
Zelly Checkout scores every order before you pack it, so the numbers above start moving on their own.