Markup and Wholesale Price Calculator
A cost and a markup give the price, the margin it lands on, and the wholesale price a retail discount leaves you with.
Cost $40.00
Markup 75% $70.00
Profit per unit $30.00
Gross margin 42.9%
Wholesale at 40% off $42.00
Wholesale profit $2.00
Wholesale margin 4.8%
Nearby markups, on this cost:
25% markup $50.00 (20% margin)
50% markup $60.00 (33.3% margin)
75% markup $70.00 (42.9% margin)
100% markup $80.00 (50% margin)
150% markup $100.00 (60% margin)
200% markup $120.00 (66.7% margin)
A markup is measured against the cost; a margin against the price.
Doubling the cost is a 100 percent markup and a 50 percent margin.
Output is valid and updates as you type.
Fix the highlighted fields to update the output.
A markup is what you add to a cost. This turns a cost and a markup into a price, tells you the margin that price lands on, and shows what is left if a stockist takes 40 percent off it.
The table of nearby markups is the part worth having. Setting a price is not one calculation, it is a comparison: what do 50, 75 and 100 percent look like on this particular cost?
How to use
- Put in the unit cost.
- Put in the markup you are considering.
- Read the price, and the margin it lands on.
- Set the wholesale discount to what your stockists take, and check the wholesale line is still above the cost.
Example
A 40 unit cost at a 75 percent markup:
Cost $40.00
Markup 75% $70.00
Profit per unit $30.00
Gross margin 42.9%
Wholesale at 40% off $42.00
Wholesale profit $2.00
Wholesale margin 4.8%
Nearby markups, on this cost:
25% markup $50.00 (20% margin)
50% markup $60.00 (33.3% margin)
75% markup $70.00 (42.9% margin)
100% markup $80.00 (50% margin)
150% markup $100.00 (60% margin)
200% markup $120.00 (66.7% margin)The wholesale line is the one that catches people. A 75 percent markup looks comfortable at retail and leaves two dollars a unit once a shop takes its 40 percent. That is why the traditional rule in product businesses is to price at two and a half to three times cost if you intend to sell wholesale at all: the retail price has to carry both margins.
Pitfalls
Wholesale is not a discount on your profit, it is a different business. The shop is doing the selling, the returns and the shelf space. If the wholesale line here is thin, the answer is a higher retail price, not a smaller discount, because the shop’s margin is set by its own costs and will not move.
Markup has no ceiling and margin does. A 200 percent markup is a 66.7 percent margin. A 1000 percent markup is a 91 percent margin. They converge on 100 and never reach it.
Landed cost, not invoice cost. Shipping in, duty, and the payment fee on the way out. A 50 percent markup on an invoice cost can be a 20 percent markup on what the unit really cost you.
Round after, not before. Work out 66.67 and then choose 69 or 65 for the price tag. Rounding the markup first hides which direction you moved.
Tax sits outside all of this. Add VAT or sales tax to the final price; it is never part of the markup, and it is not yours.
Compatibility
Arithmetic in the browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and the share link carries the figures so a price can be sent to a partner exactly as you worked it out.
The currency changes only the formatting. Yen rounds to whole units.