Shipping Cost Analysis

Purpose

Analyze whether the shipping revenue collected on WooCommerce orders (via shipping_total) aligns with your shipping zone rate configuration. Identifies zones or methods where shipping is underpriced relative to actual carrier costs, and quantifies the net shipping P&L. Read-only.

Prerequisites

• WooCommerce store with REST API enabled
• Consumer Key with Read scope
• Minimum WooCommerce version: 3.5.0

Parameters

Authentication

WooCommerce uses OAuth 1.0a for HTTP and Basic Auth over HTTPS.

For HTTPS stores (recommended):

Authorization: Basic base64(consumer_key:consumer_secret)

For HTTP stores (development only): Use OAuth 1.0a — include oauth_consumer_key, oauth_nonce, oauth_signature, oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1, oauth_timestamp, oauth_version=1.0

Never log or output consumer_key or consumer_secret values.

See docs/AUTHENTICATION.md for full setup instructions.

Safety

Read-only skill — no mutations are executed. Safe to run at any time.

Workflow Steps

Step 1 — Fetch completed orders

GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders
  ?status=completed&after=<date_after>T00:00:00Z&before=<date_before>T23:59:59Z&per_page=100&page=1

Extract: id, shipping_total, shipping_tax, shipping_lines[].method_id, shipping_lines[].method_title, shipping_address.country

Step 2 — Fetch shipping zones and methods

GET /wp-json/wc/v3/shipping/zones

For each zone: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/shipping/zones/{id}/methods

Build map: method_id → flat_rate cost

Step 3 — Aggregate by shipping method

Group orders by shipping_lines[].method_id. For each group: total_collected = sum(shipping_total), order_count, avg_collected.

Step 4 — Export analysis

API Endpoints Used

GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/orders                       — order shipping totals
GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/shipping/zones               — shipping zone list
GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/shipping/zones/{id}/methods  — rates per zone

Pagination Strategy

WooCommerce REST API uses page/per_page pagination (not cursor-based).

Standard pattern:

page = 1
while True:
  response = GET /endpoint?per_page=100&page=page
  process(response)
  if len(response) < 100: break
  page += 1

Maximum per_page is 100 for most endpoints. The X-WP-Total and X-WP-TotalPages response headers report totals. Always read X-WP-TotalPages on the first request to estimate job size.

Session Tracking

Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.

STARTUP:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: woo-shipping-cost-analysis       ║
║  STORE: <store_url>                      ║
║  TIME:  <ISO-8601 UTC>                   ║
║  MODE:  READ-ONLY                        ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

PER-OPERATION (emit after each API call batch):

[N/TOTAL] <METHOD> <endpoint> → <result_count> records | params: <key>=<val>

COMPLETION (human format):

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  COMPLETE: woo-shipping-cost-analysis    ║
║  RECORDS PROCESSED: <n>                  ║
║  OUTPUT: <filename>                      ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

COMPLETION (json format):

{
  "skill": "woo-shipping-cost-analysis",
  "store": "<store_url>",
  "completed_at": "<ISO-8601>",
  "records_processed": <n>,
  "output_file": "<path>",
  "dry_run": false
}

Output Format

CSV filename: woo-shipping-cost-analysis_<YYYY-MM-DD>_<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv Columns: method_id, method_title, order_count, total_shipping_collected, avg_shipping_per_order, free_shipping_orders, configured_flat_rate

Error Handling

Best Practices

• High free_shipping_orders relative to total orders reduces average collected shipping — verify your free shipping threshold is profitable.
• Compare avg_shipping_per_order against your actual carrier invoice per shipment for the same period.
• Run quarterly to catch rate drift as carrier prices change.