FlexiFeesCost-based fees (% of COGS)
Last updated: July 18, 2026
A cost-based fee charges a percentage of your cost per item (COGS) instead of the retail price. It reads the Cost per item field from your Shopify inventory, so charges that you incur on cost, like import tariffs, can be passed on at their true size without exposing or taxing your margin.
Why cost, not price?
Import tariffs are assessed on customs value, which is close to what you paid for the goods. Suppose an item costs you 40 and retails at 100 under a 10% tariff:
| Approach | Fee charged | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of retail price | 10.00 | Customer overpays; you collect 2.5× the actual tariff. |
| 10% of cost | 4.00 | Exactly the tariff you paid. Honest and defensible. |
The same logic fits freight recovery and any pass-through charge that scales with what goods cost you rather than what you sell them for.
Cart fee or per-product fee
- Cart fee: a percentage of the total cost of everything in the cart. Items without a Cost per item value count as zero.
- Per-product fee: a percentage of the matching items' cost only. Combine with country of origin or HS code conditions to hit exactly the tariffed goods. See the tariff guide.
Setup checklist
- Fill in Cost per item on the variants the fee should cover (Shopify admin → Products → variant → Inventory). Missing costs count as 0 and add nothing.
- Optional minimum and maximum caps work here like on percentage fees.
- Customers see only the resulting amount as a line item, never your cost data.
Related
- Tariff surcharge guide: origin and HS code conditions in action
- Cart subtotal by cost condition: gate fees on the cart's total COGS
- The full fee type matrix