eCommerce Profit Calculator

Enter your selling price and costs to accurately estimate a product’s net profit margin and other key metrics.

Use Tool Instructions

Product Info

Product Costs

Selling Costs

Net ?
$0.00
Margin ?
…
ROI ?
…
Breakeven ROAS ?
…
Monthly Revenue ?
$0
Monthly Profit ?
$0
Added Brand Value ?
$0

Got feedback about this tool? Please let us know.

eCommerce Profit Calculator User Guide

Use this profit margin calculator to estimate a product’s profitability after the most common cost factors.

It will also show you estimated monthly income, added brand value, and a target ROAS to achieve for break-even customer acquistion.

Let’s go through each step involved in using the tool.

Step 1: Enter Product Info

Start by entering key information about your product:

  • Selling Price: Your current or target selling price before any discounts.
  • Monthly Sales: Your estimated monthly sales volume (in units) for this product.
  • Estimated Return Rate: The estimated return rate of this product. It’s important to understand the industry average for the niche you’re in, but if you’re unsure, you can set 10% as a good guide. Some stats quote the average to be as high as 19-20% but this can be skewed by the clothing niche.

NOTE

This calculator assumes a 70% resell rate of returned stock. For example, if you process 10 returns in a month, 7 units would be deemed in ‘as new’, resellable condition.

Step 2: Enter Product Costs

Next, enter the costs you incur to produce and ship your product to you:

  • Unit Cost: The total cost you pay to your supplier or manufacturer to have the product produced in dollars.
  • Unit Freight Cost: The cost of shipping a unit of product from your supplier to your warehouse or 3PL in dollars.
  • Duties: The import duties related to this product, as a percentage. This can be determined by performing a search with a HS code lookup tool.
  • Other Costs: Any other costs related to having your product manufactured or shipped to you. This should be input as a percentage in relation to your unit cost. For example, if you order 1,000 units at a total cost of $2,000 and pay $200 for a pre-shipment inspection, you would add 10% here ($200/1,000 = $0.20, 10% of your $2 unit cost.). To keep things simple, you can always leave this field empty.

Once you’ve entered this data you’ll see your:

  • Total Landed COGS: The total cost to land a unit at your warehouse or 3PL.
  • Markup: The markup from your total landed COGS to your selling price. For example, if you source for $5 and sell for $25 your markup would be 5x your COGS. We recommend aiming for at least 4x to leave enough room for marketing, operational costs, and — of course — profit!

Finally, you can toggle on the discount function. This will activate a slider to select a percentage discount you may offer.

This is useful for determining the viability of a particular promotional offer. You can set all other metrics up then adjust this slider to see the impact it has on your overall profitability.

Step 3: Enter Selling Costs

Finally, enter the costs associated with processing and fulfilling orders on your eCommerce website:

  • Platform: Choose the eCommerce platform you’ll be selling on. Different eCommerce platforms have different transaction fees and this determines the next step.
  • Transaction Fees: The estimated amount you will pay in payment processing fees for each order. Most platforms charge 2.9% + 0.30c for each order, but this can vary based on payment method and location.
  • Fulfillment Costs: The total costs of getting a unit fulfilled and in the hands of your customer. This includes all pick, pack, and send fees your 3PL or warehouse would charge. If shipping from your own residence of office, just include the postal cost and any mailing bags or boxes.

Step 4: Understanding Your Results

Once you’ve entered all the key metrics you’ll be presented with a range of results:

  • Net: The estimated net profit from each unit sold.
  • Margin: The estimated profit margin on each product sold.
  • ROI: The return on investment from the capital invested in your COGS.
  • Breakeven ROAS: The Return On Ad Spend figure at which point any paid ads would break even and therefore enable you to acquire new customers at no cost.
  • Monthly Revenue: The estimated monthly revenue for this product.
  • Monthly Profit: The estimated monthly profit for this product.
  • Added Brand Value: An estimated projection of value added to your business by selling this product for 12 months. This is a vastly simplified estimation and, due to the number of variables involved, not a concrete number. The intention is for it to serve as inspiration and to help think long-term about the overall value you are building.

If there is anything unclear of confusing about the tool, please let us know so we can improve it! Happy calculating.

FAQs

In simple terms, eCommerce profit margins are calculated by dividing your gross profit (selling price minus associated expenses) by your selling price and multiplying by 100. For example, if you sell a product for $20 and have $10 of costs, your profit is $10, and your profit margin would be 50% (as (10/20)*100=20).

A good profit margin depends on the industry you’re in and the products you sell. Some industries would deem a 50% net profit margin good, whereas others would be happy with 20%. What’s important is you understand the costs of your eCommerce business so you can build an online store that is as profitable as possible. The more profit you can create in your online business, the quicker you can scale operations up.

The margin of an eCommerce business is the profit it makes after expenses, whereas the markup of an eCommerce store is how much it sells a product for in relation to its costs. For example, if an e-commerce business has a $10 cost to manufacture a product and sells it for $40, that is a 4x (or 400%) markup.

Building an eCommerce business can be very profitable as long as you take the time to learn the business model, understand your key performance indicators, and keep a close eye on your numbers (by using a good e-commerce profit calculator…!). The main keys to a highly profitable eCommerce business are creating a great product your customers love and marketing it well so that you can generate high average order value and repeat customers.

E-commerce businesses are generally sold at a multiple of their trailing 12 months profit. The multiple itself depends on a number of factors, such as the size of the business, its profitability, the strength of the brand, the size of the audience, and more. As a rough guide, a healthy eCommerce business can usually be sold for 3-4x its annual profits.