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D2C Unit Economics: 16 Metrics Every E-commerce Startup Should Know

CFO Matrix Free Intermediate India

A reference list broader than just CM1/CM2, useful once you've got the basics down and want to know what an actual CFO would track for a scaling Indian D2C brand.

  • Covers 16 metrics beyond the basic gross/contribution margin pair
  • Written from an outsourced-CFO perspective for scaling Indian brands
  • Good checklist to benchmark your own dashboard against
Open on cfomatrix.in ↗

It answers 4 questions

  1. What is contribution margin for a D2C brand, and what do CM1, CM2 and CM3 mean?
  2. What does a healthy CM1 / CM2 / CM3 actually look like for an Indian D2C brand?
  3. What unit economics numbers should I actually be tracking every week, CM1, CM2, contribution margin?
  4. How do I factor RTO, returns, COD, shipping and discounts into my true margin?

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  3. The best worked-example explainer for actually doing the math: Net Sales minus product cost, shipping, payment fees, fulfilment... storehero.ai Article Contribution Margin Formula for Ecommerce (With Real Examples) StoreHero
  4. A structured framework for CM1/CM2/contribution margin thinking that applies directly to a D2C brand regardless of market, the... Eightx Article Ecommerce Unit Economics 2026: The Complete Founder's Framework Eightx
  5. A data-backed benchmark from 410M+ shipments across 6,000+ brands, the closest thing to an industry yardstick for where your... Unicommerce Report India D2C Report 2026: Operations, RTO & Growth Data Unicommerce
  6. The cleanest plain-English starting point from the platform most Indian D2C brands actually run on. It nails the core idea -... shopify.com Article What Is Contribution Margin? Definition and Guide Shopify
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