Dai Nguyen Tuan

Around October last year, this was still just an idea in my head.
I m not an engineer.
I don t come from sales.
I don t come from marketing.
My background is FP&A finance.
So I understood P&L, margins, COGS, unit economics, and the feeling of looking at numbers that seem fine on the surface but don t fully explain what is really happening underneath.
That was the starting point for Okiela.
A simple belief:
Shopify founders should not need 30 hours of spreadsheets just to understand what is actually left after all the costs.
But building even a simple version of that has been anything but simple.
Behind Okiela, there have been months of working through things I had never touched before:
Shopify data.
CSV uploads.
Refund logic.
Discount logic.
COGS assumptions.
Shipping cost gaps.
Payment fee estimates.
Profit waterfalls.
Dashboard bugs.
Billing flows.
Security checks.
Real-world test cases.
Some days I felt proud.
Some days I honestly felt completely out of my depth.
There were moments where one small issue could block the whole product for hours. Sometimes days.
But I kept going because the problem still feels real.
A lot of ecommerce founders can see revenue.
They can see orders.
They can see ROAS.
But they still struggle to answer the question that matters most:
after everything, what is actually left?
That s what Okiela is trying to make clearer.
It is still early.
Still imperfect.
Still being improved every day.
But it is real.
Built by one solo founder from Vietnam, with a finance background, learning in public and trying to make something useful for sellers who deserve better profit clarity.
If you know a Shopify founder or ecommerce seller who is tired of guessing their real margin, I d really appreciate you sharing Okiela with them <3
And if you try it, honest feedback means more than you probably realize.
Still learning.
Still building.
Still here.

#buildinpublic #shopify #ecommerce #saas #founderjourney #profitability #Okiela

Most e-commerce founders treat sales tax like a billing detail. Set it up once, forget it, move on.
Then one day they get a notice from a state they've never even intentionally shipped to... and suddenly they're staring at $13,000 $22,500 in back taxes and penalties they had no idea were coming.
Here's what changed the entire industry: In 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair that online sellers owe sales tax in states where they have economic presence... not just physical. No warehouse needed. Just $100K in sales or 200 transactions in a state and you're on the hook.
Since then, 45 states and DC have enacted economic nexus laws. There are now over 11,000 tax jurisdictions in the US alone. And in just the first half of 2025, there were 408 sales tax rate changes... a 24% jump from the year before.
Most founders aren't tracking any of this. And the margin damage is quiet.
Here's what's actually hurting your profit right now:
Collected sales tax sits in your operating account. It looks like revenue. You spend some of it. Then remittance day hits... and you realize your books were showing 5 10% more profit than you actually had.
Unexpected sales tax at checkout drives 48% of cart abandonments. You're leaking conversions on top of leaking margin.
And if you're registered in a state but had zero sales one quarter? You still have to file. Miss it = $50 $250 penalty per filing, per state.
The fix isn't complicated. A $19/month tool like TaxJar returns 9x 44x ROI just in avoided penalties. The formula to price correctly from the start: Target Price = (COGS + Target Profit + Operating Costs) / (1 - Average Tax Rate).
Sales tax isn't an accounting problem. It's a profit problem.
Full breakdown: https://okiela.io/blog/ecommerce...

Most of us treat shipping like a fixed cost we just have to live with but it s quietly eating 8-15% of revenue for the average store. 
A 20% reduction on a $50K/month shop saves $800 $1,500 every single month. That s real money hitting your pocket without needing extra sales. 
The hidden stuff adds up fast too: packaging, warehouse labor, and returns can tack on another 30-50% to what the carrier charges you. 
I just read this breakdown that walks through 9 practical ways to cut shipping costs 15-30% without slowing down delivery.
Things like negotiating better carrier rates, using aggregators, optimizing box sizes to beat DIM weight fees, zone skipping with multiple warehouses, smart flat-rate choices, and returnless policies for cheap items. 
It even gives ready-to-use scripts and templates you can copy today. 
Especially in 2026 when shipping costs are still high and everyone s chasing efficiency, this one is worth 5 minutes. 
Drop a "shipping" if shipping has ever surprised you with how much it actually costs and I ll send the link:

https://okiela.io/blog/ecommerce...