How do you calculate a retail price with marketplace fees?
Because marketplace and payment fees are charged on the selling price, the price has to be solved for rather than marked up. Divide your cost plus handling by one minus the margin and fee percentages combined. Marking up the cost instead quietly leaves the fees coming out of your margin.
Retail Price Calculator formula
Retail price = (Unit cost + Handling) / (1 - Margin% - Fees%)
Worked example: A unit costing 20 with 2 handling, a 40% target margin and 15% fees prices at 48.89, of which 7.33 goes to fees and 19.56 is profit.
How this works in your browser
The price is solved for rather than built up, because percentage fees are charged on the selling price you are trying to find. Cost and per-order handling are treated as fixed, the target margin and percentage fees are combined into a single divisor, and the price is derived so that after fees and cost the margin left is exactly the one requested. Building the price up by adding a margin and then subtracting fees, which is the intuitive approach, reliably lands short of the target. Computed in your browser.
Who uses Retail Price Calculator
Marketplace selling
Price so platform fees do not consume your margin.
Launching a product
Establish a floor price before deciding what to charge.
Reviewing after fee changes
See what a platform raising its commission does to your price.
Comparing channels
Work out the price needed on each channel to hit the same margin.
Frequently asked questions
Why include marketplace fees in the price calculation?
Because they come off the selling price, not the cost, so they cannot be added afterwards. A 15% platform fee on a price set for a 30% margin leaves roughly half the margin you planned. Fees have to be built into the price from the start.
How do I price against competitors?
Use this to find your floor, then look at the market. If your floor is above what competitors charge, the answer is to reduce cost or differentiate, not to sell below it. Matching a competitor's price without their cost base is a common route to trading at a loss.
Should the price end in .99?
Charm pricing does measurably lift conversion in most consumer categories, which is why it is near-universal in retail. It reads as cheap in premium and B2B contexts though, where round numbers signal confidence. Match the convention of your market rather than applying it reflexively.
What about sales tax or VAT?
Calculate your price excluding tax, then add it at the applicable rate. Tax is collected on behalf of the authority and passes straight through, so including it in margin calculations overstates what you actually keep.
Are my costs stored?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser.