Wholesale price calculator
Two questions decide wholesale and bulk pricing. What should a stockist pay per unit? And how far can a quantity discount go before the last tier stops making money? Both calculators below answer one each, using the margin you choose rather than a rule of thumb.
The arithmetic works for any currency with two decimals. Prices show in dollars only so the page reads the same everywhere.
1. Wholesale price from your cost
Use your landed cost per unit: product, inbound freight, duties and packaging.
Margin is not markup
Margin is profit as a share of the selling price. Markup is profit as a share of the cost. A unit that costs $18 and sells for $36 has a 100% markup and a 50% margin. The two numbers describe the same sale, and confusing them is the most common way a wholesale price ends up too low. If a supplier or a stockist quotes you a percentage, ask which one it is.
The calculator solves for margin, then shows the markup beside it. It rounds the price up to the next cent, so the margin you get is never below the one you typed.
Where “keystone” comes from
Keystone pricing means a retail price of twice the wholesale price, a 50% margin for the retailer. It is a common starting point in gift, apparel and homeware, not a rule. Stockists in categories with heavy returns or slow turnover often expect more, and fast-moving consumables often settle for less. Treat the keystone figure as the price a stockist will compare yours against, then check it against what your product actually sells for.
2. Check a quantity-break ladder against your margin
Each tier is a percentage off the retail price, from that quantity up.
| From qty | Price | Margin | Verdict | % off | Profit at that qty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2+ | $40.50 | 55.55% | OK | 10% | $45.00 |
| 5+ | $36.00 | 50% | OK | 20% | $90.00 |
| 10+ | $31.50 | 42.85% | OK | 30% | $135.00 |
How to read the ladder
Each row is a tier: from that quantity up, every unit costs the discounted price. Margin is what you keep on each unit at that tier. Profit at that qty is the profit on an order of exactly that many units.
Deepest discount at your floor is the one number most worth keeping. It is the largest percentage you can take off the retail price before the margin drops below your floor. Any tier deeper than that is paying shoppers to buy more. Some stores do that on purpose to clear stock, but it should be a decision, not an accident.
The .99 rounding option snaps each tier price down to the nearest price ending in .99, never up. Rounding up could erase a small discount entirely. Rounding down means the real discount is slightly deeper than the percentage you typed. That is why a tier that clears your floor can fall just under it once rounding is switched on.
Costs people leave out
- Inbound freight and duties. They belong in the unit cost, spread across the units in the shipment.
- Payment processing. A percentage of every sale, charged on the discounted price, so it shrinks slightly as the tier gets deeper but never disappears.
- Outbound shipping you absorb. A bulk order is heavier. If you offer free shipping, the deepest tier carries the most of it.
- Returns. A returned bulk order costs more to process than a returned single unit.
A simple way to account for all four is to raise the margin floor rather than the unit cost: if those costs run to about 8% of revenue, a 40% floor on product cost is really a 32% floor after them.
If you want a ladder like this on your own product pages, TierUp, the app this site is for, applies it automatically at Shopify checkout. Fixed per-unit prices are on the free plan; percentage tiers with the same .99 rounding used here are on TierUp Pro.
Keep reading
Wholesale and retail pricing in one Shopify store covers selling to stockists and the public from the same catalogue. Charm pricing and picking your break quantities goes into where to put the tiers in the first place, and BFCM pricing that protects your margin applies the same margin floor to a sale.