Quantity
What it means
Quantity is the total number of units ordered across every line on every order in the period. An order holding three of one item and one of another adds four. There's no price in it at all, so it reads the same whether you sold at full price or at half.
Amazon carries a column with the same name and a different count, taken from settlement data rather than from orders placed on your site. The two are separate counts of separate businesses. Adding them together produces a number neither platform would recognise.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
Total units ordered is the sum of the quantity on every order line — per product when you're in a product table, across the whole catalogue when you're not. The basis is the order: units ordered in the date range, not units shipped in it.
Worked example. March: 800 orders holding 1,760 units, with Gross SalesGross SalesRevenue before discounts; compare with Product Revenue for markdown cost. of €72,800. Units per order is 1,760 ÷ 800 = 2.2, and your average selling price is 72,800 ÷ 1,760 = €41.36.
That second division is the one worth keeping. In April, Gross Sales reach €78,000 and it reads as a better month — until 2,050 units puts the average price at €38.05. You sold 16% more stock for 7% more money.
It answers the question
How much stock actually moved? Revenue answers in euros, which price changes distort; this answers in units, which they can't.
Why it matters
Quantity is a sales figure a price change can't flatter. Put prices up 10% and revenue climbs while units may be quietly falling.
Units are also what you have to buy, hold and ship. Purchase orders, warehouse space, packaging and carrier volume all scale with them, so a month where Quantity grows faster than revenue costs more to fulfil than the revenue line suggests.
What good looks like
There's no universal target — a €9 candle shop and a €900 furniture shop can't share a unit number. Judge it against your own trend, the same period last year, and comparable products by sorting the column on Products. The comparison that always means something is Quantity against revenue: units growing faster than euros means your average selling price is sliding.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Bundle what people already buy together | Build a two or three item pack at a small saving on the separate prices | Units per order up, Quantity up | 2–4 weeks | The saving is a real markdown and lands in Discounts, so the extra units arrive at a thinner margin each. |
| Fast Add a quantity break on consumables | Offer a better unit price at three or six units on anything people use up | Units per order up on refill lines | 2–4 weeks | You pull demand forward — a customer stocked for six months doesn't reorder next month, so repeat orders sag before they recover. |
| Slow Reorder on unit velocity, not revenue | Set reorder points from units sold per week on your fastest lines | The units you were losing to stockouts come back | 1 quarter | Deeper stock cover ties up cash and raises end-of-season markdown risk on anything seasonal. |
| Slow Merchandise the cross-sell properly | Put genuinely complementary products on the product page and in the cart, not random bestsellers | Quantity up without any extra traffic | 1–2 quarters | More small items per order raise picking, packing and packaging cost, so shipping cost as a share of sales climbs with the units. |
Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.
Read it with
Quantity says how much stock moved. Next to Gross Sales, it says what you got for it.
More stock, at your prices
Units and value moved together, so the average selling price held. Growth that doesn't cost you price is growth you can repeat.
Fewer units, more money
Price or product mix moved up. Fine as a deliberate step, risky if units keep sliding — a shrinking unit base eventually shrinks the customer base.
Volume bought with price
More stock left for less money, so your average selling price fell. Worth it if it won new buyers, expensive if it went to people who'd have paid full price.
Losing both
Demand fell plainly. Stockouts read exactly like lost demand here, so rule those out before you conclude anything about the market.
The units total and the units per order. Quantity up with AOQ flat means more people bought; Quantity up with AOQ up means the same people took more. One is an acquisition result, the other a merchandising one, and neither number reveals which on its own.
Units moved, and the markdown that moved them. The same units at twice the discount means you paid for volume you already had — a flat month in Quantity and a very different one in profit.
Common misreads
One basket can hold twelve units. OrdersOrdersA simple, powerful demand signal; watch its trend. counts baskets, Quantity counts what was in them, and AOQ is the ratio between the two.
Units carry no price. A half-price weekend lifts Quantity while Gross SalesGross SalesRevenue before discounts; compare with Product Revenue for markdown cost. and margin both fall, and the warehouse still does all the extra work.
It tells you what sold, not what would have sold. Anything that stocked out mid-period reads low here for exactly the wrong reason, and reordering to that number repeats the shortage.
Also called
Units ordered · units sold · items sold · total quantity
See yoursUnits sold for the period, and per product on the Products table next to Gross Sales and Discounts.
Open Products →Quantity
What it means
Quantity on Amazon is the number of units purchased for a SKU, counted from the settlement rows in your date range. It arrives with Amazon's settlement data rather than with the order, so a unit lands in the period Amazon settled it, which is not always the period someone bought it.
There's no price in it. The money for the same rows is carried by the columns beside it — Net SalesNet SalesSee the full entry., COGS, FeesFeesSum of commission, fulfilment, closing, storage, service, refund admin, shipping label, statutory deduction, and related fee fields for the row. and Tax.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
Units purchased is Amazon's own count for the SKU on the settlement rows that fall in the period. It's a count, not a ratio — there's no denominator, and the window is the settlement rather than the order.
Worked example. A SKU settles 1,200 units in March against Net Sales of €36,000, so each settled unit brought in 36,000 ÷ 1,200 = €30. April settles 1,200 units again, but Net Sales come to €31,200 — €26 a unit. Identical volume, €4,800 less money.
Net Sales is Revenue Sales minus Refunded Sales, so it already has returns taken out of it. The unit figure is a purchased count. The two can move apart, and that gap is usually where the month went.
It answers the question
How many units did Amazon actually settle for this SKU? Every money column on the row is that count multiplied by something, so the unit figure is what tells you whether a change was volume or price.
Why it matters
Quantity is the only column on a settlement row that a price cut, a fee or a refund can't move. When Net Sales falls and units held, you already know the cause isn't demand.
It's also the number your supply chain runs on. Inbound shipments, storage and reorder points are all counted in units, and this table is where you see how many of them cleared.
What good looks like
There's no universal target — a unit count follows your catalogue size and your price point, and neither is a standard. Track each SKU against its own trend and against the SKUs beside it on the table.
Two comparisons always mean something. Quantity against Net Sales tells you whether a soft month was volume or price. Quantity against your Shopify unit count tells you nothing at all: one counts units ordered on your own site, the other units Amazon settled, and they were never the same measurement.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Win back the Buy Box | Check price and fulfilment terms on the SKUs where Buy Box % has slipped | Units recover with no extra traffic | Same week | You usually buy it back with price, so the units return against a smaller Net Sales — check the cost share moved with them. |
| Fast Bid up the terms that already convert | Raise bids on the search terms with settled sales behind them | Units up while the budget runs | 1–2 weeks | ACOS rises with the bid, and the units stop the day the budget does. |
| Slow Hold stock cover on the fast SKUs | Raise reorder points on anything that ran to zero mid-period | The units lost to stock-outs come back | 1 quarter | Deeper cover locks up cash and adds storage, which lands in Fees on these same rows. |
| Slow Earn the rank instead of renting it | Improve titles, images and reviews on the SKUs that already convert well | Units climb without more spend behind them | 1–2 quarters | Months with nothing to show, and rank moves for reasons you can't see or attribute. |
Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.
Read it with
Quantity says how many units cleared. The columns beside it say what they were worth.
The count and the money it settled for. Divide one by the other and you get net per unit — the figure that separates a soft month caused by volume from one caused by price or returns. Units up with Net Sales down means you shipped more and banked less, and that is never a demand problem.
Units bought, and the share of them that came back. Quantity holding with Refund Rate climbing means you're shipping the same volume and keeping less of it — a problem that never shows up in the unit count alone.
Losing the Buy Box doesn't reduce the shoppers who reach your listing; it moves the order to another seller. Units falling with Buy Box % slipping is that story, and it needs a pricing answer rather than an advertising one.
Common misreads
They're counted on different bases — one on orders placed with you, the other on transactions Amazon settled. The sum isn't a total of anything.
Net Sales, Fees and Tax on the same row can all move under an unchanged unit count. Flat units mean stable demand, not a stable month.
It won't line up while anything in the window is still unsettled. This column follows Amazon's settlements, so use it against its own history rather than against an order report.
Also called
Units purchased · settled units · quantity purchased
See yoursUnits per SKU on the settlements table, beside Net Sales, COGS and Fees for the same rows.
Open Amazon P&L →