47 places your D2C margin is leaking -- and how to know which ones apply to you.
Most teams can name one or two margin leaks. The others remain invisible until each cost layer is checked and supported with evidence.
Profit Visibility Score (/47) · 7 cost layers · Each item with its one-line margin consequence
Built by MLDeep Systems -- deep data, deeply engineered
Where D2C margin hides -- section by section
Below are all 7 section headers and the first 8 items from the full checklist. Each item ends with the one-line reason it costs you money.
COGS Integrity (7 checks)
- Do you have a true per-SKU COGS -- not one blended average across the catalog? A blended average makes every per-product margin a fiction; your “good” SKUs subsidize losers you can’t see.
- Does your COGS use landed cost (product + inbound freight + duties) -- not just the supplier invoice? Freight and duties can add 8-15%; ignore them and every margin you report is overstated.
- Is COGS present on at least 90% of active SKUs (no blanks, no zeros standing in for “unknown”)? A missing cost reads as 100% margin; partial COGS silently inflates the whole P&L.
- Do bundles and kits allocate cost across every component SKU -- not dump it on one and let the rest look free? Mis-allocated bundle cost makes some SKUs look hugely profitable and hides the ones losing money.
- Does COGS update when supplier prices change (not frozen at last year’s number)? A hero SKU can slide from healthy to thin margin as landed cost creeps up while the recorded cost stays still.
- Are manufacturing / assembly / co-packing and per-unit packaging costs included in COGS? These are real per-order costs; leaving them out overstates product margin on every unit.
- Can you pull gross margin per SKU for last month in under 5 minutes, with confidence in the number? If it takes a multi-day spreadsheet, you’re making pricing and reorder calls on stale guesses.
Discount & Promo Leakage (6 checks)
- Do you know which specific SKUs go below cost at your standard discount depth (e.g., 20% off)? Sitewide discounts hit your best and worst SKUs equally -- some orders lose money the moment the code applies.
+ 5 more checks in this section -- get the full list below ↓
Returns & Refunds (6 checks)
6 checks -- full list below ↓
Shipping & Fulfillment (6 checks)
6 checks -- full list below ↓
Channel Profitability (7 checks)
7 checks -- full list below ↓
Subscription & Bundle Accounting (7 checks)
7 checks -- full list below ↓
Reconciliation & Trust (8 checks)
8 checks -- full list below ↓
One number that tells you how much of your margin you can actually see
Each item in the checklist is a yes/no. A “No” (or “not sure”) is a leak. Count your Yes answers to get your score out of 47. The fewer confident Yes answers you can give, the more profit is hiding from you -- in layers you can’t see, can’t quantify, and can’t fix.
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Need the underlying numbers reconciled? Explore Revenue Leak Map →
Your margin is wrong because of inputs, not outputs
Profit apps and dashboards give you a number from whatever you feed them. This checklist goes one layer upstream -- it asks whether the inputs are trustworthy in the first place. COGS with blanks, bundles with mis-allocated cost, subscription discounts not modeled, return rates blended instead of per-SKU: fix the inputs and the number the app shows you becomes real. Leave them broken and every dashboard is confident fiction.
Built for Shopify and multi-channel D2C teams
Growing fast, but can’t answer: “are we actually profitable?”
You scale ad spend and discount to move volume. This checklist tells you which decisions are based on numbers you can trust -- and which ones are guesses.
Closing the month but not sure which parts to stand behind
The 3-number truth framework (trusted / partially trusted / too weak to act on) gives you a way to present P&L with the right caveats instead of false precision.
Responsible for margin but working with blended, stale data
This checklist maps the exact data gaps -- missing COGS, unreconciled shipping, blended channel margin -- that make your numbers directional instead of actionable.
Your score routes you to the right next step
The full checklist result screen gives you a score and a plain-English read of what it means. From there, three paths:
Score 38-47
You already see most cost layers. Margin Command is the relevant path when the priority is keeping recurring decisions current.
Score 20-37
Revenue Leak Map is the relevant next step when several layers need reconciliation before the team acts.
Score 0-19
Start with Revenue Leak Map and define one decision boundary instead of trying to repair every weak input at once.
Questions about the checklist
Each item is a yes/no. A “No” (or “not sure”) is a leak. Count your Yes answers to get your Profit Visibility Score out of 47. The fewer confident Yes answers you have, the more margin is hiding from you.
Apps give you a number from clean inputs. They break on bundles, partial COGS, blended Amazon/DTC, and subscription churn. This checklist asks whether the inputs going into those apps are actually trustworthy -- and most brands discover they are not.
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The checklist is written for Shopify D2C brands because that’s where the data fragmentation is worst -- Shopify plus ad platforms plus accounting plus 3PLs rarely talk cleanly. The same 7 cost-layer framework applies to any multi-channel DTC operation.
It is designed for US Shopify and multi-channel D2C teams that need to check the inputs behind margin decisions. Revenue Leak Map remains D2C-specific at this stage.