In SQL, shipping cost as a percentage of revenue for the whole period is ROUND(100.0 * SUM(shipping_cost) / SUM(revenue), 2) over the monthly table. On the sample data it returns 11.87.
Shipping cost % = Shipping cost ÷ Revenue × 100
What you need
Shipping cost as a percentage of revenue is the share of each rupee of sales spent on delivery: total shipping cost divided by revenue, times 100. You need these columns, here from the sample file monthly.csv:
- revenue: revenue (net of discounts)
- shipping_cost: shipping cost
CREATE TABLE monthly (
month TEXT, -- 'YYYY-MM'
revenue INTEGER,
shipping_cost INTEGER
);Step by step
- Load monthly.csv into a table called monthly. The table only needs the month column and the columns below.
- Run the first query to get one row per month.
- Run the whole-period query. It adds up each column first and divides once; averaging the monthly results gives a different, usually wrong, answer.
The queries
SELECT
month,
ROUND(100.0 * shipping_cost / NULLIF(revenue, 0), 2) AS shipping_cost_pct
FROM monthly
ORDER BY month;SELECT ROUND(100.0 * SUM(shipping_cost) / NULLIF(SUM(revenue), 0), 2) AS shipping_cost_pct
FROM monthly;What you should get
Run against the sample data, the code above returns these values (in percent):
| Month | revenue | shipping_cost | shipping_cost_pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 4,12,000 | 49,100 | 11.92% |
| 2026-02 | 4,38,500 | 52,400 | 11.95% |
| 2026-03 | 4,71,200 | 56,800 | 12.05% |
| 2026-04 | 4,55,800 | 54,000 | 11.85% |
| 2026-05 | 5,02,300 | 59,200 | 11.79% |
| 2026-06 | 5,48,900 | 64,200 | 11.70% |
| Whole period | 28,28,700 | 3,35,700 | 11.87% |
₹3,35,700 ÷ ₹28,28,700 × 100 = 11.87%
Notes for SQL
- Integer columns divide as integers in PostgreSQL, SQLite and SQL Server, so 3 / 4 gives 0. Multiplying by 1.0 (or 100.0) first makes the division decimal.
- NULLIF(x, 0) turns a zero denominator into NULL, so the query returns NULL for that row instead of failing with a division-by-zero error.
- Tested on SQLite and DuckDB. SUM, NULLIF and ROUND work the same in PostgreSQL, MySQL and BigQuery; SQL Server uses TOP instead of LIMIT where a query has one.
Where shipping cost as a percentage of revenue misleads
- Use the same revenue definition you use for gross margin.
- A drop can come from cheaper courier rates or from bigger orders. Check shipping cost per order to tell them apart.
- Exclude shipping you charged customers from the cost, but not from the revenue.
The full explanation, with a calculator, is on the Shipping cost as a percentage of revenue page.
Same metric, other tools
Related metrics in SQL
Learn more about SQL
- Python and SQL for data analysis, side by side — 3 min read
- How to find out what changed in your sales data — 2 min read
About the data on this page
The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.
To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.
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