Set your store-wide COGS, shipping and pick-pack fallbacks

Store-wide cost defaults are the safety net MarginOS falls back on when a SKU has no cost evidence of its own. You set three of them — an average COGS percentage, an average per-unit shipping cost, and an average per-unit pick and pack fee — and MarginOS uses each one only where nothing better exists. They are training wheels: the moment a SKU gets real costs, that evidence replaces the default automatically.

What are store-wide cost defaults?

A store-wide cost default is a single catalog-wide figure MarginOS applies to any SKU that has no measured cost of its own, so that product still produces a profit number instead of a blank. They live in Cost Structure, under Business Profile in your settings.

They exist because most stores start with incomplete cost data, and a SKU with no cost is worse than a SKU with an approximate one — a missing cost would otherwise leave you unable to see the product at all. But a default is an assumption, and MarginOS treats it as one: anything computed from a default is labelled as estimated and its Data Trust grade reflects it. Defaults are the lowest rung of the Defensible Profit Model, never a substitute for real evidence.

Before you start

• A connected Shopify store with products synced, so MarginOS knows which SKUs it is grading coverage against.
• A rough sense of your economics — the store-wide COGS percentage you would quote from memory is precise enough to start.
• Optional but useful: a recent 3PL invoice, so your shipping and pick-pack figures reflect what you actually pay per unit.

How to set your store-wide defaults

1. Open Business Config and go to the Business Profile tab.
2. Select the Cost Structure section.
3. Enter Average COGS (%) if you know your product cost only as a share of revenue — the figure you would give if asked “roughly what percentage of a sale is product cost?”
4. Enter Average shipping cost ($) as a per-unit figure — your typical label cost across the catalog, not a monthly total.
5. Enter Average pick + pack cost ($), also per-unit — the handling fee your 3PL charges to get one unit out the door.
6. Save, then read the Catalog Cost Coverage panel on the right. It shows how much of your catalog is running on real evidence versus your fallback.

Every field is optional. Leaving one empty is a legitimate choice — MarginOS would rather show you a gap than apply a number you are not confident in. A field shows Not set until you fill it.

The three fields

Note that shipping and pick + pack are not used independently — MarginOS adds them together into one fallback fulfillment cost per unit. Setting only one of the two still works; it simply makes the fallback smaller than your real cost.

Reading the Catalog Cost Coverage panel

Beside the fields, Catalog Cost Coverage shows how each SKU’s base COGS is currently resolved. It is the honest scoreboard for how much of your profit picture rests on evidence rather than assumption.

The goal is to move SKUs from gold and red into green over time. Green is where pricing and scaling decisions are safe; gold is workable but approximate; red is where your margin is actively incomplete.

How defaults interact with real costs

A default never competes with evidence. MarginOS applies a store-wide figure only where a SKU has nothing better, and the moment real cost data arrives for that SKU — an override you enter, a supplier or 3PL document, a cost carried on the product itself — the evidence takes over automatically. You do not clear the default or re-run anything.

The reverse is also true and worth knowing: clearing a default removes the assumption for future refreshes. If you decide you would rather see gaps than estimates, emptying the field is how you do it. Products that were relying on that default will stop producing an estimated cost and start showing as missing instead — which is the more honest state, and often the more useful one when you are trying to work out where your data is thin.

Because anything built on a default is an approximation, MarginOS labels it. Products resolved this way carry a lower Data Trust grade, and the estimate is called out rather than blended silently into your margins. That is the whole point of the setting: it keeps a product visible without pretending the number is measured.

Example

You know roughly that product cost runs about 13% of a sale, your labels average $6 a unit, and your 3PL charges $2 a unit to pick and pack. You enter 13, 6.00 and 2.00.

Catalog Cost Coverage then shows most of your catalog in green — those SKUs already carry costs from Shopify — with a band of gold for the products that do not. Those gold SKUs now produce a profit figure built on your 13% assumption and an $8 per-unit fulfillment fallback, each labelled as estimated rather than measured.

A month later you upload supplier costs for the gold SKUs. Without touching this screen, those products move to green, their margins switch from assumption to evidence, and their Data Trust grades rise. Your 13% figure stays where it is, quietly covering only whatever is still uncovered.

FAQ

Do I have to set store-wide defaults?

No. Every field is optional, and leaving one empty is a legitimate choice. Without a default, SKUs lacking cost evidence show as missing rather than estimated — a gap you can see instead of an approximation you might forget about.

Will a default overwrite the real costs I already have?

No. A default is applied only where a SKU has no cost evidence of its own. Real evidence always wins, and it takes over automatically as soon as it arrives.

What happens if I clear a default I set earlier?

The assumption is removed for future refreshes. Products that had been relying on it stop producing an estimated cost and show as missing instead. Nothing that was based on real evidence is affected.

Why is Average COGS a percentage rather than a dollar amount?

Because a store-wide product cost only makes sense relative to price. Your catalog spans items at different price points, so a single dollar figure would be wrong for nearly all of them, while a percentage scales with each sale.

Why are shipping and pick + pack separate fields if they are added together?

They come from different places in your operation — carrier labels versus 3PL handling fees — so most operators know them separately. MarginOS adds them into a single per-unit fulfillment fallback, and setting only one still works.

Do defaults affect SKUs that did not sell?

No. Products with no sales in the window are shown separately in Catalog Cost Coverage and do not affect that window’s profit. The store-wide percentage applies only to SKUs that actually sold and had no cost evidence.

How do I know how much of my catalog is running on assumptions?

Read the Catalog Cost Coverage panel next to the fields. Gold is the share running on your store-wide percentage, and red is the share with no cost data at all. Both are the worklist for getting real costs in.

Related

• The Defensible Profit Model: how MarginOS grades cost accuracy
• Data Trust levels: how MarginOS grades margin reliability
• Why a cost landed in Unmapped Costs
• How MarginOS calculates Gross Profit (CM1)
• Settings