Calculate the cost of saleable stock
Collect supplier cost, samples, domestic transport, purchasing charges, packaging preparation and inbound freight. Decide how to allocate shared costs consistently. Divide by the units you can actually sell, rather than the quantity originally ordered. Keep one-off development costs visible even if you spread them over an expected sales volume.
Illustration: a batch costs 180 in your chosen currency and contains 20 units. If two cannot be sold, the stock cost is 180 ÷ 18 = 10 per saleable unit. Dividing by 20 would hide the loss in every price calculation.
Add the costs created by one customer order
Add picking and packing, packaging, outbound delivery, your production or personalisation time and a reasonable allowance for recurring problems. Record labour time at an explicit hourly amount. Separate costs incurred per item from costs incurred once per order, especially when buyers can purchase several units together.
Review the current Etsy fee schedule for your location and circumstances. Listing charges, payment processing, transaction charges, advertising attribution and other applicable charges may use different bases. Taxes collected or remitted for others also need separate treatment. Copying one headline percentage into a sheet can materially understate cost.
Use a worked price floor, with stated assumptions
For a simplified model where all percentage charges use the same buyer-payment base, the required payment is (order costs + desired profit) ÷ (1 − percentage charge rate). Include the shipping amount paid by the buyer in that payment and include the corresponding delivery cost in order costs. Calculate charges with different bases separately.
Illustration only: if order costs including fixed charges are 24, desired profit is 8 and the assumed percentage rate is 12%, the required buyer payment is 32 ÷ 0.88 ≈ 36.36. For a currency with two decimal places, round up to 36.37 to meet the target. These are teaching inputs, not current Etsy fees or a service quote. The resulting profit is after the labour you included and before any income tax.
Stress-test the order before discounting
Recalculate a discounted order, a higher shipping quote, an attributed advertising charge and a replacement shipment. Use the cost that fits each scenario. A bundle may save on packing while moving the parcel into a more expensive weight band. Compare the actual order contribution rather than the discount percentage alone.
Keep cash timing beside the margin calculation. Stock, custom tooling and freight may need payment before an order produces spendable cash. A profitable price does not tell you how much inventory you can fund or when supplier payments fall due.
Replace uncertain inputs with written quotations
Request a quote for the exact variant, quantity, packing requirements and destination country and postal code. Ask which charges are included, how chargeable parcel weight is determined and which costs remain unconfirmed. Record the date, currency, validity period and assumptions.
Update the sheet after sample approval and again when the final packed dimensions and route are known. Keep quoted, estimated and actual figures distinguishable. The useful output is a price floor for each meaningful order configuration, plus the conditions that require you to recalculate it.
Practical worksheets
Cost record
Record costs and the evidence behind them. You can contact us directly while figures are still being confirmed.
| Cost item | Amount | Currency | Applies to | Evidence or open question |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product and samples | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record |
| Domestic delivery and purchasing service | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record |
| Packaging, handling and labour | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record |
| International shipment and other destination charges | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record |
| Platform charges and applicable tax | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record |
| Returns, defects and overhead allocation | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record | Blank for your own record |
On a narrow screen, scroll sideways to see every column.