Units Shipped
How many individual items actually went out to customers.
What it means
Units Shipped is the number of individual items dispatched to customers in the period. It counts items, not orders and not euros — one order containing three of something adds three. It's counted on dispatch rather than on order, so a sale placed on the last day of a month can land in the next one.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
A unit is one item dispatched to a customer, so this number sits at or above your order count — further above it the more multipacks you sell.
Worked example. March ships 4,200 units on Net SalesNet SalesSee the full entry. of €147,000 — €35 a unit. April ships 4,600 units on €149,500 — €32.50 a unit. Volume grew 10% and revenue grew 2%, so the mix moved towards cheaper products.
The sales line on its own would have called that a good month.
It answers the question
How much stock actually moved? It's the figure to plan reorders, storage and fulfilment against, because the fulfilment and storage side of FeesFeesSum of commission, fulfilment, closing, storage, service, refund admin, shipping label, statutory deduction, and related fee fields for the row. is charged by unit and by volume, not by revenue.
Why it matters
Volume is what costs you money. Every unit carries a pick, a pack, a box and a slice of storage, so a month that ships 20% more units for the same revenue is a month that got more expensive for nothing.
It's also what rank runs on. Amazon promotes listings that sell steadily, so a SKU whose units drift down while revenue holds — because you raised the price — can lose position while the money looks fine.
What good looks like
This is a count, so there's no number to aim at: a good figure for a 20-SKU catalogue is a poor one for 200. Judge it against your own trend, the same weeks last year, and the stock you have on hand. The more useful reading is the ratio — divide Net SalesNet SalesSee the full entry. by units and watch whether the average is drifting cheaper.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Clear the stockouts on your top movers | Reorder the SKUs that hit zero and raise their reorder points | Units return to the pre-stockout run rate within a cycle | 2–4 weeks | More cash sits in inventory, and slow lines start picking up long-term storage charges. |
| Fast Sell in multiples | Add 2-packs and 3-packs on consumables people rebuy anyway | More units per order at a similar order count | 2–3 weeks | The bundle discount trims revenue per unit, and a bulkier pack can tip the SKU into a costlier fulfilment size band. |
| Slow Put ad budget behind volume, not margin | Shift spend towards the SKUs that move fastest rather than the ones that keep most | Unit volume rises and rank follows it | 1 quarter | Fast movers are usually thin ones. You'll ship more and keep less per unit, which shows up in Net Proceeds before it shows up here. |
| Slow Add variants to proven listings | Extend sizes and colours on products that already sell instead of launching cold ones | More units from traffic you already have | 1–2 quarters | Each variant needs its own stock, and the ones that don't sell sit in Amazon's warehouse charging storage. |
Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.
Read it with
Units Shipped tells you what moved. Next to the money it brought in, it tells you what each unit was worth.
Real growth
More items out and more money in. Confirm revenue grew at least as fast as volume — if it didn't, you're working harder for each euro than you were.
Busier for less
You shipped more and earned less: discounting, a slide towards cheap variants, or refunds. Every one of those extra units still cost you a pick, a box and a fee.
Fewer, richer units
Higher value per unit, lower volume. Good for the payout, risky for position — velocity is what Amazon's ranking rewards.
Volume falling away
Both are down, which almost always has a supply cause before it has a demand one. Stockouts and a lost Buy Box look exactly like this.
Fees divided by units is what it costs to put one item in a customer's hands. Units rising faster than fees means fulfilment is getting cheaper per item; fees rising faster means size, weight or storage time moved against you. Both totals climb in a good month, so only the ratio catches it.
Units out against the share coming back. Growing volume with a steady rate is scale; growing volume with a rising rate is twice the stock returning to your warehouse and twice the handling to pay for.
Common misreads
It counts items. A catalogue sold in multipacks looks far busier here than its order count, so never divide ad spend by this figure to get a cost per order.
Volume costs money. Check the revenue beside it — more units at lower prices can ship a record month and settle for less than the one before.
It's counted on dispatch. A stockout, a late inbound shipment or a carrier delay at month end pushes units into the next period without one customer changing their mind.
Also called
Units Sold · shipped units · unit volume · quantity shipped
See yoursYour Units Shipped by date, next to the sales they produced.
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