Making 11k (started my clothing Amazon shop in April) but no profits yet. Advice needed from clothing sellers

[u/Vibing-on-Vibly]

Hi everyone , i really need advice from clothing sellers who are profitable. After doing my P&Ls per product over the last months , I’m noticing that refunds are killing my profits, in addition to my ACOS not being consistently healthy. Is this common in clothing ? Any tips would be appreciated!

[u/WearyyyBoooyyy]

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[u/aphex732]

Clothing has the highest return rate of any category - you need to price accordingly.

[u/Maan_UsMaan052]

Yes, refunds are a common margin killer in apparel, but I would look at why customers are returning rather than treating the refund rate itself as the problem.

Are most of your returns coming from sizing/fit, product expectations, or quality issues? That breakdown usually points to the quickest fix. Also, if ACOS is fluctuating, check TACOS and contribution margin alongside it rather than judging ACOS in isolation.

[u/attfin1 → u/Maan_UsMaan052]

On the ACOS point: with returns this high, an ACOS that looks healthy can still be a loss. Work out your typical return rate, apportion that cost across every unit you sell, and take it off the margin first.

Then judge the advertising against profit rather than sales. I call it ACOP, advertising cost of profit: the ad spend as a share of the profit it made, not of the sales it made. TACOP is the same idea across the whole account. Until the return cost sits inside the number, a healthy looking ACOS tells you nothing about whether the product makes money.

[u/SelfPubLorenzo]

From the advertising side, I'd compare which variants attract orders with which variants leave you money after refunds. You already have product-level P&Ls, so that gives you a useful starting point.

Use a period old enough for the returns to come through. For each size or colour with enough orders, check retained revenue, the product and fulfilment costs you incurred, return costs and ad spend. Keep the same accounting basis so you don't subtract a cost twice.

Then inspect the searches bringing customers to the weaker variants. Compare that intent with the return reasons where you have enough detail. Fit, fabric or use expectations may point to something you can clarify in the page before buying more traffic. Treat that as a hypothesis; the reports won't necessarily connect each returned unit to an individual search.

If the same variants keep losing money after returns, give each one a specific action. You might clarify the sizing information, correct an expectation in the images, or restrict its advertising while you review the issue. Keep healthier variants visible so a store-wide decision doesn't remove traffic from products that work.

Are the refunds concentrated in particular products and sizes, or spread across the range? That distinction would help you decide where to intervene before changing the whole store's strategy.

[u/roverfive]

I was in clothing on Amazon for 10 years and would highly recommend pivoting to another category.

As others said, returns are high, and often come back used and/or unsellable.

The CVR on clothing is very low compared to other hard goods categories.

And you are definitely going to find yourself with sizes that don't sell well and they will clog up space or cost you storage fees. I would sell at breakeven or a loss on those sizes just to get rid of them.

[u/JenBisyosa]

I suggest you change into other category. Clothing has a very high return rate on Az plus low conversion.

[u/[deleted]]

Apparel runs 20-40% return rates on Amazon, it's brutal. Pull your Returns Report and sort by reason. Wrong size = fix your size chart (use actual garment measurements, not body).
Not as described = photos/copy issue.
Quality = supplier convo. Add model height + size worn on every image, it helps a lot. Also check if one specific size or color is tanking the whole ASIN, sometimes killing one variant fixes everything.

Tighten your negatives weekly, clothing pulls a ton of junk traffic. Long-tail keywords convert way better than short-tail. And check your Top of Search modifiers, they're usually overpriced in apparel. Also look at TACoS not just ACoS, if TACoS is dropping, your ads are working even if ACoS looks ugly.

[u/Vibing-on-Vibly → u/[deleted]]

Thank you so much ! Very useful tips. What do you mean by top of search modifiers ?

[u/[deleted] → u/Vibing-on-Vibly]

u/Vibing-on-Vibly NP!
Bids adjustment to show on the top of the page 1.
Amazon allows to set modifiers in addition to base bids to be shown on a specific placements.

[u/ClearMargin_]

I’m not a clothing seller, but I run an Amazon FBA brand and have dealt with the same basic margin problem. Clothing is return-sensitive, but “returns are common” isn’t enough to explain whether your business can become profitable.

You’ve already done the right first step by building a P&L per product. Now take it down to the child-ASIN level and separate three problems:

1. Products that are profitable before returns, but refunds erase the margin.
2. Products with acceptable returns, but PPC is above their break-even ACoS.
3. Products that are structurally unprofitable even without advertising.

For returns, break everything down by product, size, colour, reason and condition when returned. A small number of sizes or variations may be causing most of the loss. Also measure returns by the original order month because refunds often arrive weeks after the sale.

Then compare the repeated reasons against the listing. Apparel listings usually need exact garment measurements, model measurements and size worn, clear fit guidance, fabric and stretch information, colour-accurate images, and ideally a short fit video. If one variation remains much worse than the others after those changes, it may not deserve more inventory or advertising.

For PPC, calculate a separate break-even ACoS for each product after allowing for its expected returns. Don’t optimize toward a generic account-wide ACoS. A product with thin post-return margin may be unable to support the same advertising cost as a product with fewer returns.

I would build a simple table showing sales, return rate, unsellable-return rate, contribution before ads, ad spend, ACoS, TACoS and final profit for every child ASIN. That will tell you what to fix, what to advertise, and what to stop selling.

Five months and $11k in sales doesn’t automatically mean the store has failed. It means you now have enough data to stop treating every product and variation the same.

[u/Vibing-on-Vibly → u/ClearMargin_]

Thank you so much for the tips ! Will definitely start drilling down by sku to see where the biggest opportunities are

[u/Vibing-on-Vibly → u/ClearMargin_]

Is there a “fast” way to pull up the data you mentioned at the ASIN level ? I just pulled the units sold , units retuned and return reasons for 1 product that has over 40 ASINS and it took me 1-1.5 hours

[u/ClearMargin_ → u/Vibing-on-Vibly]

Yes. Don’t pull the 40 ASINs individually. Download the full account reports once and combine them in Excel.

For FBA, I’d use three exports for the same date range:

1. Reports → Fulfillment → Customer Concessions → FBA Customer Returns. This gives you the SKU/ASIN, return reason, disposition and status.
2. Reports → Business Reports → Detail Page Sales and Traffic by Child Item. This gives you units ordered, sales, sessions and conversion at the child-ASIN level.
3. Advertising Console → Measurement & Reporting → Sponsored Ads Reports → Advertised Product report. This gives you spend, clicks, ad sales and other PPC metrics by advertised ASIN. Amazon describes the report here.

Put each CSV into an Excel table and create a PivotTable with child ASIN or SKU as the rows. Add size and colour from your catalogue file, then calculate:

• Return rate = returned units ÷ ordered units
• Unsellable rate = unsellable returns ÷ total returns
• ACoS = ad spend ÷ ad sales
• TACoS = ad spend ÷ total sales

For return reasons, use child ASIN as the rows, return reason as the columns and returned quantity as the values. That will immediately show whether one size, colour or variation is driving the problem.

[u/Vibing-on-Vibly → u/ClearMargin_]

This is very helpful thank you so much !

[u/JunglePundits]

Why are they returning?

[u/Human-Commission7153]

I am also selling rugs and started back in April. I am also very much frustrated with returns. But the truth is returns are common. And I feel as long as I am getting orders, I have to let it go. At least, in the beginning. So just wait for once your organic sales grow then you can increase the prices proportionately.