Turn unit cost and target margin into a wholesale price — with order revenue and profit on top.
Wholesale pricing looks deceptively simple — buy or make it for $12, sell it to retailers for… what? Pick too high and buyers walk; pick too low and you fund everyone else’s margin but your own. Our free Wholesale Price Calculator takes your unit cost, the order quantity, and the margin you want to keep, and returns the per-unit wholesale price that hits that margin exactly — plus the order’s total revenue and total profit so you can see the deal in full.
The math most people get wrong is the margin formula itself. A 50% margin does not mean “add 50% to cost.” Adding 50% to a $12 cost gives $18 — and $6 profit on an $18 price is only a 33.3% margin, because margin is measured against the selling price, not the cost. To truly keep 50% of the price, you must divide cost by (1 − margin): $12 ÷ 0.50 = $24. That $6 difference between the naive $18 and the correct $24 is the most expensive arithmetic error in wholesale — and this calculator exists so you never make it.
Enter your numbers and get the wholesale price per unit, the revenue on the whole order, the profit on the whole order, and the equivalent markup for comparison — with a plain-English read on whether your margin is strong, standard, or dangerously thin.
Wholesale sits in the middle of a three-layer price ladder: your cost at the bottom, the wholesale price you charge retailers in the middle, and the retail price (MSRP) the consumer pays at the top. Each layer needs its own margin, and the layers constrain each other: retailers typically want to buy at about half of MSRP — the famous keystone pricing rule, where retail is double wholesale. If your wholesale price is $24, the retailer lists at $48 and keeps roughly 50% for rent, staff, and their own profit.
This is why your margin choice is not just about you. A 50% wholesale margin at $24 cost-basis pricing gives the retailer a clean keystone story: buy $24, sell $48. If you squeeze your margin to 30% ($17.14 wholesale on $12 cost), the retailer’s keystone retail is $34.29 — and if the market will only pay $40 for the product, the retailer’s actual margin is 57% while yours is 30%. Fine. But if the market pays $48 anyway, you just left money on the table. Wholesale pricing is positioning as much as arithmetic: your price sets the retailer’s story.
Margin (profit ÷ selling price) and markup (profit ÷ cost) describe the same profit from opposite ends, and wholesale lives in margin-world while many beginners think in markup-world. A 50% margin equals a 100% markup: $12 profit on $24 price is 50% of price, 100% of cost. A 30% margin equals about a 43% markup. The widget shows both so you can speak whichever language your buyer uses — retailers think in margin, manufacturers often think in markup.
Then there is landed cost, the number too many wholesalers understate. Your unit cost is not the factory invoice — it is factory price plus freight divided by units, plus duty per unit, plus warehousing, plus the 2–3% of units that arrive damaged, plus payment processing on the retailer’s payment. A $10 factory price is easily a $12.50 landed cost. Price off the invoice and your “50% margin” is really 38%. The calculator is only as honest as the cost you feed it — feed it landed cost.
Key terms:
The division — not multiplication — is the whole lesson. margin is a fraction of the price, so price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). At 50%: divide by 0.5 (double the cost). At 40%: divide by 0.6. At 30%: divide by 0.7. Memorize the divisors for your standard margins and you can quote prices in your head.
You manufacture candles at a $12 landed unit cost and want a 50% margin. A boutique orders 100 units. What do you charge?
The naive “add 50%” price would have been $18 — costing you $600 of profit on this single order ($1,200 vs $600). That is the margin/markup confusion priced in dollars.
You import phone accessories at $4.20 landed cost. The category is competitive, so you target a 30% margin on a 2,000-unit order:
At 30% margin the per-unit profit is $1.80 — small, but 2,000 units turn it into real money. This is the volume wholesaler’s bargain: accept thin margins, demand big quantities, and never let defects or freight surprises eat the $1.80.
The skincare brand. A serum costs $6.80 landed. Target margin 60% (beauty supports it): price = $6.80 ÷ 0.40 = $17.00. A spa chain orders 500: revenue $8,500, profit $5,100. Keystone retail: $34 — and prestige skincare routinely retails at 3× wholesale ($51), giving the retailer 67% margin. The brand’s 60% looks aggressive until you see the retailer’s 67%: in beauty, everyone eats well because the consumer pays for the story.
The coffee roaster. A 12oz bag costs $5.40 landed (beans, bag, roast labor). The roaster wants 45% margin: $5.40 ÷ 0.55 = $9.82 wholesale. A café orders 200 bags/month: revenue $1,964, profit $884/month. The café brews ~15 cups per bag and sells each at $4 — the bag generates ~$60 of café revenue off a $9.82 wholesale cost. Nobody begrudges the roaster’s 45% when the downstream margin is 84%. Price against the value you create downstream, not just your cost.
The apparel importer. Hoodies land at $14.50. Streetwear wholesale margins run ~50%: $14.50 ÷ 0.50 = $29.00. A boutique orders 150: revenue $4,350, profit $2,175. Then freight spikes: landed cost rises to $16.20. Holding $29.00 drops margin to 44.1% — still fine. But if the boutique demands $27 (their “standard”), margin falls to 40% and profit to $1,620. The calculator turns a vague “can you do $27?” into a precise $555 decision — negotiate with numbers, not feelings.
The MOQ trap. A maker quotes 50% margin at $24 wholesale on 100 units — then the retailer asks for 40 units “to test.” Same $12 cost, same $24 price: profit is $480 instead of $1,200, but your fixed time (negotiation, invoicing, packing a small order) barely shrinks. Small orders at wholesale prices are retail work for wholesale money. Set a minimum order quantity whose dollar profit justifies the hassle — the widget’s total-profit line is the MOQ setter.
Fashion and apparel: the classic 50%-margin wholesale / keystone retail ladder rules here, with an extra wrinkle: chargebacks. Department stores deduct for late shipments, mis-ticketed goods, and markdown allowances — effectively a 5–10% margin haircut after the fact. Price 5 points higher than your target margin going in.
Food and beverage: distributors expect 25–35% margin for themselves on top of your wholesale price, and retailers then keystone it. A $5.40-cost bag of coffee wholesaling at $9.82 goes to the distributor at ~$7.30 if you use one — your margin compresses to ~26%. Decide early: direct-to-retailer (keep margin, do the sales work) or distributor (lose margin, gain reach).
Beauty and personal care: the highest wholesale margins in consumer goods (50–70%) because perceived value dwarfs ingredient cost. But slotting fees, free fills (free units per dozen), and marketing co-op (2–5% of wholesale) nibble the margin. Quote your price after subtracting expected co-op: a 60% margin with 5% co-op is really ~58%.
Electronics and accessories: thin margins (20–35%), fast cycles, brutal price erosion. The game is turns, not margin: a 25% margin that turns inventory 8× a year beats a 50% margin that turns twice. Price for velocity — and never hold inventory across a product refresh.
B2B and industrial: margins look thin (15–30%) but orders are large and sticky. The real pricing lever is payment terms and freight: FOB vs. delivered pricing can swing effective margin 5–8%. Quote both, and let the buyer’s logistics decide.
Handmade and artisan wholesale: makers routinely wholesale at 2× materials-only cost and wonder why they are broke — because labor was never in the cost. True unit cost = materials + (hours × hourly rate) + overhead share. If that makes wholesale “impossible,” the product is a retail-only product; not everything should be wholesaled.
One pattern worth internalizing: wholesale price is a promise about the retail price. Every wholesale number you quote implies a retail number (usually 2×), and that implied retail must survive contact with the actual market. Before finalizing any wholesale price, check: does 2× match what competitors charge at retail? If your implied retail is 30% above market, your wholesale price is wrong no matter what your margin math says.
A brief history of the margin: the wholesale margin is as old as the middleman — medieval merchants bought at the fair for one price and sold to town shopkeepers at another, the spread covering travel risk and spoilage. Keystone (2×) pricing emerged with American department stores in the late 1800s as a rule simple enough for floor staff to apply. The margin-vs-markup confusion is equally ancient: it is the same error as the medieval “profit on cost” vs “profit on price” debate in merchant handbooks. The widget settles a 500-year-old argument in one division.
Worked scenario — the counteroffer: you quote $24.00 wholesale (50% margin on $12 cost) for 100 units. The buyer counters: “$21 and we’ll take 300 units.” Run it: price $21 → margin ($21 − $12) ÷ $21 = 42.9%; revenue $6,300; profit $2,700 vs $1,200 at 100 units. You give up 7 margin points and gain $1,500 profit — if your cost truly stays $12 at 300 units. But check: does 300 units need extra storage ($200)? Does the buyer pay net-60 (financing ~$84)? Adjusted profit: $2,700 − $200 − $84 = $2,416 — still double. Take the deal, but put the storage and terms in writing.
Edge cases and pro tips: margin math breaks at exactly 100% (division by zero) — the widget blocks it, because a 100% margin means the price is infinite (zero cost). Rounding: wholesale prices conventionally land on clean numbers ($24.00, not $23.81) — compute exactly, then round to the nearest dollar or .50 and re-check the margin. Currency: if you buy in one currency and sell in another, fix the FX rate in the contract or re-price quarterly; a 10% currency swing deletes a 40% margin’s cushion fast. And always quote “FOB [your warehouse]” or “delivered” explicitly — freight ambiguity has killed more wholesale margins than competitors have.
When this calculator is not enough: it prices one product at one margin — it does not model tiered quantity discounts, distributor layers, co-op marketing deductions, slotting fees, chargebacks, or currency risk. For a full wholesale P&L, build the ladder: landed cost → wholesale price → distributor price → retail price, with each layer’s margin and each deduction explicit. If any layer’s margin falls below its industry norm, the product will stall at that layer — the calculator tells you your layer is sound; the ladder tells you the business is.
Wholesale price = unit cost ÷ (1 − margin as decimal). Total revenue = wholesale price × quantity. Total profit = (wholesale price − unit cost) × quantity. Margin = profit ÷ price; markup = profit ÷ cost; a 50% margin equals a 100% markup. Keystone retail convention: retail ≈ 2 × wholesale. Example: $12 cost, 50% margin → $24.00 wholesale; 100 units → $2,400 revenue, $1,200 profit. Use landed cost (product + freight + duty + packaging), not invoice cost. Source: Sigma Calculator, Wholesale Price Calculator, https://sigmacalculator.net/e-commerce-calculators/wholesale-price-calculator/
Cite this page as: Wholesale Price Calculator, Sigma Calculator, https://sigmacalculator.net/e-commerce-calculators/wholesale-price-calculator/
Last updated: October 12, 2026