Shipping costs for ecommerce in Argentina include far more than the carrier rate: returns, redeliveries from wrong addresses, packaging, and failed-delivery fees stack up silently. A typical Argentine ecommerce store has total logistics costs of 8–15% of revenue, but most owners only see the base rate in their reports.
What are the components of real shipping costs?
The rate your logistics provider charges is only part of the total cost. The real components are:
| Component | Description | Where it shows up in your records |
|---|---|---|
| Transport rate | Per-package cost based on weight, zone, and carrier | Carrier invoice |
| Return cost | Return to origin or disposal of undelivered package | Credit note or separate charge |
| Redelivery | Second delivery attempt after failure or customer request | New carrier invoice |
| Packaging | Boxes, tape, protective fill, labels | Supplier purchases |
| Fulfillment time | Picking, packing, dispatch | Labor cost |
The sum of all five is your real logistics cost per order. Most Tiendanube, Shopify, and Mercado Libre reports show only the transport rate — sometimes not even that.
How much does logistics take from your margin by product category?
The share varies widely by product category and shipping zone. These reference ranges help detect if your logistics cost is out of control:
- Apparel (low ticket, high return rate): 10–18% of sale value. Returns can double the per-unit logistics cost in this category.
- Electronics (high ticket, heavier shipments): 3–8%. The product value absorbs the shipping cost better, but secure packaging is more expensive.
- Cosmetics and personal care: 8–14%. Fragile products, many failed deliveries due to access issues.
- Home and décor (bulky products): 12–22%. Oversized packages trigger surcharges from almost every carrier.
These ranges are reference points. The number that matters is yours, calculated from your own real shipping, return, and packaging data.
Real example: an apparel store in Argentina with an average order value of $22,000 calculated a gross margin of 38%. When they added the carrier cost (8%), returns (17% rate in their category, 1.5% of revenue), and a packaging cost increase from the previous quarter (2.5%), the real margin came out to 26%. Twelve margin points that never appeared in any report.
Why don't sales reports show the real logistics cost?
The problem is structural: the data lives in systems that don't talk to each other. Carrier rates are on the carrier's invoice. Return costs are in a separate report or in emails. Packaging is an accounting entry the accountant logs at month end. Redeliveries appear as new orders in the platform.
The result: the owner builds their profitability analysis with the carrier rate as the only logistics cost, and pulls a margin that doesn't exist. The same thing happens with every other hidden cost in ecommerce: installment fees, tax withholdings, platform fees. Each one seems small alone. Together they destroy the margin.
To make the right calls — like when it makes sense to offer free shipping — you need a break-even point calculated with real costs, not the base carrier rate.
When does it make sense to offer free shipping?
Free shipping is one of the most expensive decisions an ecommerce store makes when it makes it without data. The right question is not "should I offer free shipping?" but "at what average order value is the cost I absorb less than the incremental sale I gain?"
To answer that you need the full real logistics cost — not the carrier rate — and the real contribution margin of the products you would sell at that order value range. If your margin is 35% and the real per-order logistics cost (including packaging and return rate) is $6,500, you need an average order value above roughly $18,600 for free shipping to not be margin-negative on that order.
How Escalafy tracks real logistics costs
Escalafy connects to your Tiendanube or Shopify store and reads the shipping cost reported on each order automatically. You can configure packaging cost as an additional fixed cost per order, and the system deducts it from the margin of each sale in real time.
Escalafy's real-profit dashboard adds up every cost affecting each order: platform fees + logistics + advertising + product cost + installments. Not the carrier rate — the full cost of putting that order in the customer's hands.
100+ stores in Argentina and LATAM use Escalafy to see their real profitability. Several discovered that free shipping was destroying their margin — and paused it before it was too late. See more in our comparison of Escalafy vs Tiendanube Estadísticas Nube.
Frequently asked questions about logistics costs in Argentine ecommerce
How much does Andreani charge for a shipment in Argentina in 2026?
Andreani's rates depend on weight, dimensions, origin zone, destination, and your contract type. Business account rates differ from walk-in rates. Check directly at andreani.com or with your account manager. What matters is that you use your actual contracted rate in your profitability analysis, not a generic reference.
How do I account for returns in my profitability analysis?
The simplest approach is to calculate your historical return rate (returned / total orders) and multiply it by the average logistics cost. That prorated value gets added to the logistics cost of each order. It is an approximation; at higher volumes it is worth tracking returns order by order.
Do Tiendanube or Shopify show the real shipping cost?
Both platforms show the shipping amount charged to the customer and, in some cases, the cost reported by the integrated carrier. But neither one adds packaging, failed deliveries, or returns. For real profitability you need a tool that adds all those components together.
Is the shipping amount I charge the customer the same as what I pay the carrier?
Not necessarily. If you charge a flat rate and the actual cost varies by zone and weight, on some orders you are paying more than you are collecting. That difference comes out of your margin. Calculate how much you absorb on average per order and add it to your analysis.
What percentage of sales ends up as returns in Argentine ecommerce?
The average varies widely by category. Apparel can exceed 15–20% in some segments; electronics typically stays below 5%. For your store, calculate the last 90 days of orders and total returns. That number — not the market average — is what you need to calculate your real cost.
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