{"id":207,"date":"2026-07-09T21:53:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2026-07-09T22:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T22:06:27","slug":"markup-on-cost-protect-margins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/retail-markup\/markup-on-cost-protect-margins\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Calculate Markup on Cost to Protect Your Margins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Markup on cost is the most common way small retailers and wholesalers set prices \u2014 straightforward, but worth calculating carefully rather than by rough instinct.<\/p>\n<h2>The formula<\/h2>\n<p>Markup on cost % = (Selling price \u2212 Cost) \u00f7 Cost x 100. To hit a specific target, work it backwards: Selling price = Cost x (1 + Target markup %).<\/p>\n<h2>Setting a markup that actually protects margin<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Include the full landed cost \u2014 product cost plus shipping, duties, and handling \u2014 not just the wholesale price you paid<\/li>\n<li>Build in a buffer for expected returns or damaged inventory in categories where that&#8217;s a meaningful factor<\/li>\n<li>Revisit markup targets when supplier costs change, rather than only when you&#8217;re setting prices on a brand new product<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The risk of underpricing<\/h2>\n<p>A markup calculated only on product cost, without accounting for overhead and operating expenses, can look profitable per unit while the business as a whole still loses money \u2014 markup on cost protects per-item margin, not automatically overall profitability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Markup on cost is the most common way small retailers and wholesalers set prices \u2014 straightforward, but worth calculating carefully rather than by rough instinct. The formula Markup on cost % = (Selling price \u2212 Cost) \u00f7 Cost x 100. To hit a specific target, work it backwards: Selling price = Cost x (1 + &#8230; <a title=\"How to Calculate Markup on Cost to Protect Your Margins\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/retail-markup\/markup-on-cost-protect-margins\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How to Calculate Markup on Cost to Protect Your Margins\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8,10],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retail-markup","tag-gross-margin-calculator","tag-markup-percentage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizmargin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}