Wholesale Price Calculator
Work backwards from the retail price to the wholesale price a shop needs, and check the profit at both.
A shop that buys your work will expect to pay roughly half the retail price, and that half has to cover everything you already paid. This calculator works from the retail price down to the wholesale price, then checks whether the wholesale price still covers the cost and leaves anything for your time. It uses MARGIN, so the wholesale price is the cost divided by one minus the wholesale margin, which is the way a trade price is normally set.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Retail price, Cost per unit, How should the wholesale price be set, Wholesale margin on cost, Trade discount off retail, Multiple the shop applies, Hours per unit
- What you get
- Wholesale price, Retail price the shop would charge, Profit the shop makes, Margin the shop makes, Your profit per unit at wholesale, Your margin at wholesale, Your profit per unit at retail, Profit given up per unit, Margin given up, Minimum wholesale price at a 30 percent margin, Wholesale price covers the cost, Profit per hour at wholesale, Profit per hour at retail, Wholesale units to match one retail sale, The shop reaches a workable margin, Value of a twenty unit order, Profit on a twenty unit order
- Formula shown
- Yes, every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only, always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Wholesale Price Calculator
- 1 Enter Retail price, What the item sells for in a shop or on your own site.
- 2 Enter Cost per unit, The full cost, including materials, labour and overhead.
- 3 Enter How should the wholesale price be set
- 4 Enter Wholesale margin on cost (%), Used by the second method. A MARGIN, which is a share of the wholesale price, so a fifty percent margin doubles the cost.
- 5 Enter Trade discount off retail (%), Used by the third method. Fifty percent off retail is the usual trade ask.
- 6 Enter Multiple the shop applies, Two is the usual keystone. A shop that doubles the wholesale price sells at twice what it paid.
- 7 Enter Hours per unit (h), For the profit per hour figure.
- 8 Press Calculate. You get Wholesale price, Retail price the shop would charge, Profit the shop makes, Margin the shop makes, Your profit per unit at wholesale, Your margin at wholesale, Your profit per unit at retail, Profit given up per unit, Margin given up, Minimum wholesale price at a 30 percent margin, Wholesale price covers the cost, Profit per hour at wholesale, Profit per hour at retail, Wholesale units to match one retail sale, The shop reaches a workable margin, Value of a twenty unit order, Profit on a twenty unit order, and every intermediate step stays visible under "How is this calculated?"
- 9 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result, that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
A 180 dollar retail item at half wholesale
A cost of 70 dollars and the standard keystone split.
You enter
- Retail price
- $180.00
- Cost per unit
- $70.00
- How should the wholesale price be set
- 1
- Wholesale margin on cost
- 50%
- Trade discount off retail
- 50%
- Multiple the shop applies
- 2
- Hours per unit
- 3.50 h
You get
- Wholesale price
- $90.00
- Retail price the shop would charge
- $180.00
- Profit the shop makes
- $90.00
- Margin the shop makes
- 50.0%
- Your profit per unit at wholesale
- $20.00
- Your margin at wholesale
- 22.2%
- Your profit per unit at retail
- $110.00
- Profit given up per unit
- $90.00
- Margin given up
- 38.9%
- Minimum wholesale price at a 30 percent margin
- $100.00
- Wholesale price covers the cost
- 1
- Profit per hour at wholesale
- $5.71
- Profit per hour at retail
- $31.43
- Wholesale units to match one retail sale
- 5.50
- The shop reaches a workable margin
- 1
- Value of a twenty unit order
- $1,800.00
- Profit on a twenty unit order
- $400.00
Wholesale 90.00, a shop retail of 180.00, and your profit at wholesale falls to 20.00 a unit from 110.00 direct.
Setting wholesale from a 50 percent margin
The same item with the wholesale price built from the cost up.
You enter
- Retail price
- $180.00
- Cost per unit
- $70.00
- How should the wholesale price be set
- 2
- Wholesale margin on cost
- 50%
- Trade discount off retail
- 50%
- Multiple the shop applies
- 2
- Hours per unit
- 3.50 h
You get
- Wholesale price
- $140.00
- Retail price the shop would charge
- $280.00
- Profit the shop makes
- $140.00
- Margin the shop makes
- 50.0%
- Your profit per unit at wholesale
- $70.00
- Your margin at wholesale
- 50.0%
- Your profit per unit at retail
- $110.00
- Profit given up per unit
- $40.00
- Margin given up
- 11.1%
- Minimum wholesale price at a 30 percent margin
- $100.00
- Wholesale price covers the cost
- 1
- Profit per hour at wholesale
- $20.00
- Profit per hour at retail
- $31.43
- Wholesale units to match one retail sale
- 1.57
- The shop reaches a workable margin
- 1
- Value of a twenty unit order
- $2,800.00
- Profit on a twenty unit order
- $1,400.00
Wholesale 140.00, which the shop would retail at 280.00. The retail price would have to rise to make the channel work.
A shop asking for 60 percent off
A trade discount deeper than keystone, which is where a floor is needed.
You enter
- Retail price
- $180.00
- Cost per unit
- $70.00
- How should the wholesale price be set
- 3
- Wholesale margin on cost
- 50%
- Trade discount off retail
- 60%
- Multiple the shop applies
- 2
- Hours per unit
- 3.50 h
You get
- Wholesale price
- $72.00
- Retail price the shop would charge
- $144.00
- Profit the shop makes
- $72.00
- Margin the shop makes
- 50.0%
- Your profit per unit at wholesale
- $2.00
- Your margin at wholesale
- 2.8%
- Your profit per unit at retail
- $110.00
- Profit given up per unit
- $108.00
- Margin given up
- 58.3%
- Minimum wholesale price at a 30 percent margin
- $100.00
- Wholesale price covers the cost
- 1
- Profit per hour at wholesale
- $0.57
- Profit per hour at retail
- $31.43
- Wholesale units to match one retail sale
- 55.00
- The shop reaches a workable margin
- 1
- Value of a twenty unit order
- $1,440.00
- Profit on a twenty unit order
- $40.00
Wholesale 72.00 against a cost of 70.00, which is two dollars of profit and less than a dollar an hour. This is the order to decline.
Guides that go with it
How to Price Handmade Products Without Undercharging
The arithmetic behind a price that pays you, why margin and markup are not the same thing, and how to tell when a product simply cannot be priced to work.
Standard Paper Sizes for Crafts and Handmade Projects
If you are pricing a paper project, the honest headline is this: most small handmade paper projects cost somewhere between a few dollars and about $30 in materials, and a bigger run of cards, journals...
How to Make Your Handmade Gifts Look Expensive
You can make a handmade gift read as "expensive" without spending much more money. What gives a gift that premium feel is rarely the raw material. It is the finish, the packaging, the small details, a...
Frequently asked questions
What is the usual wholesale price for handmade goods?
About half the retail price, which is the trade convention known as keystone. A shop buying at half the retail price and selling at the full retail price doubles its money, which is what it needs to cover rent, staff and the stock that does not sell. Some sectors work at 2.2 times and some at 2.5, and a gallery may take a commission instead, but half is the standard starting point for the conversation.
Should I use margin or markup for a wholesale price?
Margin, because that is how trade prices are discussed and how a shop thinks about its own business. Setting the wholesale price as the cost divided by one minus the wholesale margin means the margin really is the share of the wholesale price you keep. A fifty percent markup on cost gives only a thirty three percent margin, which is usually not enough once the shop has taken its half.
What if the wholesale price does not cover my cost?
Then the retail price is too low rather than the shop being unreasonable. Wholesale at half retail, on a cost that is more than half the retail price, cannot work at any volume. The answers are to raise the retail price, to reduce the cost by simplifying the product or making it more efficiently, or to sell direct and accept a lower sales volume. Discounting your labour to supply a shop is a subsidy, not a business.
Is a large wholesale order worth a lower price?
Only if the larger order genuinely lowers your cost per unit. It does reduce the one off setup and the material buying price, and it usually reduces the packing time. It does not reduce the labour per unit unless the process itself changes. Check the profit per hour at the lower price before agreeing, because an order that doubles the quantity and halves the price per unit is worse than the small orders it replaces.
Should I sell wholesale and direct at the same time?
Many makers do, and it works as long as the two prices do not compete. The usual arrangement is that the shop sells at the full retail price and you sell direct at the same price, so neither undercuts the other. Selling direct more cheaply than the shop is what ends a wholesale relationship, and shops do notice. Keep the retail price consistent and let the channel differ rather than the price.
Terms used here
Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.