Fixing a product that is losing money

A product showing negative net profit has exactly five possible leaks. Check them in this order - the cheap fixes come first.

1. Is the cost data right?

Stale unit costs make healthy products look sick. Verify COGS and its effective dates before anything else.

2. Refunds

A refund rate meaningfully above your account norm is a product problem - size, quality, expectation-setting - that no advertising change fixes. The refund detail names the reasons.

3. Fees

Check the fee lines against the product's size tier and price point. Oversize boundaries missed by a centimeter and low-price items under heavy fulfillment fees are pricing and packaging decisions.

4. Advertising

Now bids: compare the product's ACoS to its break-even. Above break-even means every ad sale loses money - work the bid math per target, cut what cannot converge, and check whether spend concentrates on a few bleeding terms (negation, not bid cuts, fixes those).

5. Price

Last, deliberately: a price move changes conversion, ranking, and margin at once. Model it against the fee preview before committing.

Ask your assistant to run this exact diagnostic: "why is [product] losing money - walk the five leaks."