True seller margin calculator
What a unit earns after the platform, the shipping, the ads and the returns.
There are three margins on any sale and only one of them is the one you keep. The price suggests the first, the platform takes a bite out of the second, and the orders that come back eat into the third. This shows all three at once, so the distance between them is visible rather than discovered at the end of a quarter.
The unit
When an order comes back
You keep $17.80 per order on average — a true margin of 36%, against the 70% the price suggests before Etsy fees, shipping, ads and returns.
What the returns cost
At 8% returns, 92 orders in every 100 stick and 8 come back. Each return costs $28.20 — the ad spend and the outbound shipping are gone either way, and the platform fee is not refunded, and the unit itself is written off. That is why the true margin sits below the per-sale one.
Not sure what a unit costs to land? Work that out first.
Landed cost calculatorHow the maths works
The fees are not restated here. They come from the same engine as every other calculator on this site, so the figure this page shows for a platform is the same figure that platform’s own calculator shows. A rate change lands in both at once, and the two cannot drift apart.
Returns are an expectation, not a deduction. Of every hundred orders, some come back. Those orders keep none of the revenue but leave behind the advertising that won them and the shipping that sent them — and, depending on the platform and the condition, possibly the selling fee and the unit as well. The page computes the cost of one return, applies it at your rate, and averages.
The two uncertain parts are switches, not assumptions. Whether a platform refunds its fee, and whether a returned unit can be resold, both change the answer materially and neither is a published rate that could be sourced and dated. So they are asked rather than guessed.
Break-even is bisected, not solved. Several platforms have stepped fees, which makes expected profit piecewise in the selling price with no clean inverse. Where no price breaks even — which happens once the returns rate is high enough — the page says so rather than printing a number.
Monthly plan fees stay out of the per-unit figure. A fixed monthly cost has no honest per-sale value without a volume, so where a platform charges one it is shown separately and expressed per order at a stated volume.
Where the fees come from
Every marketplace fee used above is read from that platform’s own published schedule and carries the date it was read. Schedules last verified . Open any platform’s calculator to see its fees itemised with the arithmetic shown and links to the source.
Common questions
Why is my margin lower here than in my spreadsheet?
Usually because a spreadsheet computes price minus cost and stops there. That is gross margin, and it is the most flattering of the three figures on this page. It ignores what the platform takes, what shipping costs you, what you spent to win the sale, and what the returns take back out. Each of those is small on its own and they are rarely all counted together.
How are returns modelled?
As an expectation across orders, not a deduction from each one. A return does not shave a little off every sale — it destroys some sales entirely and leaves most of the costs behind. So the page works out what one return actually costs, applies it at the rate you entered, and reports the average. That is why the true margin sits below the per-sale one even at a modest returns rate.
What exactly do I lose on a return?
The ad spend and the outbound shipping are gone regardless — you paid to win a sale and to send a parcel, and neither comes back. Whether the platform refunds its selling fee, and whether the unit can be sold again, both vary by platform, by category and by the reason for the return. Those two are exposed as switches rather than assumed, because guessing them would quietly change the answer by a lot.
Why do you not know whether the platform refunds its fee?
Because it is not a single published rate the way a selling fee is. It depends on the platform, the refund reason, and sometimes on the seller’s standing. Saufee only states figures it can source and date, so rather than pick one and hide the choice, this page asks you and shows what your answer does to the result.
What is the break-even price?
The selling price at which expected profit reaches zero, given everything else you entered — including the returns rate. It is solved by bisection rather than algebra, because several platforms have stepped fees and expected profit is therefore piecewise in the price. Where no price breaks even, the page says so instead of printing a number.
Where do the platform fees come from?
The same fee database as every other calculator on this site — 16 platforms, each read from its own published schedule and dated. This page does not keep a second copy, so a rate change reaches it automatically and it can never disagree with that platform’s own page.
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What this is not
This is a calculator, not business or accounting advice. It prices the unit you described using figures you chose and published marketplace fees that are dated and linked. It does not know your overheads, your storage costs, your payment timing, or what a customer is worth to you beyond one order — and a platform that takes more while selling far more of your stock can still be the better platform. Saufee states the arithmetic; the decision stays yours.
These calculators are free, and they stay free
There is no account, no email wall and nothing for sale here, which is deliberate — it is what lets the site publish what platforms actually charge and link to where each rate came from. Re-reading ten fee schedules every week is the unglamorous part, and it is what keeps the numbers worth trusting. If that saved you a bad listing decision, you are welcome to put a little toward the domain and the hosting. If it did not, please do not.
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