Maker minimum
Unit cost ÷ (1 − maker margin), rounded up to a cent
Your costs set the floor. Lower wholesale prices leave less of the selling price as your profit.
Free maker & retailer pricing worksheet
Wholesale Price Calculator
Find a price that works for both sides. Compare your minimum with the retailer’s maximum at a known retail price.
A price that works for both
Set your four inputs
Margins are your choices. The example uses synthetic figures, not recommended terms.
Ready when you are
Can both margins fit?
Find your room
to negotiate.
Your cost sets the floor. The retail price sets the ceiling. Add four inputs to see where they meet.
- 01Your minimum
The lowest price that meets your margin.
- 02Retailer’s maximum
The most they can pay at their target margin.
0 of 4 inputs entered
Check an actual wholesale quote Optional
Leave blank to skip. An entered 0 is a real quote.
Enter a quote to check each business’s margin against its target.
Keep the inputs and the decision together
Complete valid inputs to export your current worksheet.
Private by design. Your entries stay in this tab; they are not sent or saved.
Two businesses, two margins
Find room for both businesses
Your cost and margin target set the lowest wholesale price you can accept. The retail price and retailer margin target set the most the retailer can pay. There is a usable range only when the lower bound is no greater than the upper bound. Each business uses its own selling price as the margin denominator.
Retailer maximum
Retail price × (1 − retailer margin), rounded down to a cent
The retail price sets the ceiling. A higher wholesale quote leaves the retailer less profit on that sale.
Both targets met
Maker minimum ≤ wholesale price ≤ retailer maximum
Compare both bounds. An overlap gives room to negotiate; a gap means the entered targets cannot both fit.
Each margin uses that business’s own selling price. Minimum prices round up and maximum prices round down so a cent never disguises a missed target.
See the decision in real numbers
Wholesale pricing examples
A shared range, a price conflict and a one-cent boundary show why both sides matter. These examples use synthetic figures.
Room to negotiate
- Cost / retail price
- $12.50 / $60.00
- Maker / retailer target
- 50% / 40%
- Wholesale range
- $25.00–$36.00
A $12.50 cost and 50% maker margin require at least $25.00 wholesale. At $60 retail and 40% retailer margin, the retailer can pay up to $36.00. Each cent price from $25.00 through $36.00 meets both entered targets. These are synthetic examples, not recommended terms.
When the targets do not fit
- Maker minimum
- $25.00
- Retailer maximum
- $24.00
- Gap
- $1.00
At the same cost and maker target but $40 retail and a 40% retailer target, the $25.00 floor exceeds the $24.00 ceiling by $1.00. Holding both targets fixed would require at least $41.67 retail. The tool does not decide whether customers will pay that amount.
One cent can decide the result
- Unrounded floor
- $13.333…
- First qualifying price
- $13.34
At $8 cost and a 40% maker target, $13.33 gives a 39.98% displayed margin and falls short of the target. $13.34 is the first cent price that meets the exact target.
Keep the checked examples
Compare all four inputs, the cent bounds and the exact quote checks in a spreadsheet. The third worksheet adds $30 retail and a 40% retailer target to complete both sides.
Make the numbers useful
Before you agree a wholesale price
Is wholesale price always half retail?
No. A 50% retailer target happens to give that ceiling. Enter the margin you actually want to check.
Is margin the same as markup?
Margin divides profit by selling price. Markup divides it by cost. A $12.50 cost sold for $25 has 50% margin and 100% markup.
Does a usable range guarantee an order?
It meets the entered mathematical targets. Actual buying decisions also depend on demand, terms, expenses and the product.
What if the range is empty?
Check the cost basis and retail price, then compare targets that fit your agreement. The calculator shows the gap without lowering a target for you.
Calculation rules & sources
- Use the same USD unit basis. Include the costs that belong in unit cost once; no missing expense or currency conversion is inferred.
- Maker margin uses the entered unit cost. Retailer margin uses the wholesale purchase price alone. Additional retailer costs change that basis; these are not business net-income estimates.
- Targets are your choices. No market price, tax, tariff, volume discount, MAP rule or industry benchmark is supplied.
- Money accepts up to two decimals through 999,999,999.99; retail must be positive. Targets accept 0–100% with two decimals.
- At zero cost, the smallest positive wholesale price is $0.01 and maker margin is 100%. A zero price has undefined maker margin. Positive cost cannot reach a 100% maker margin at a finite price.
- A 100% retailer margin leaves a zero buy-price ceiling, so no positive wholesale price meets both defined margins. Derived amounts outside the supported money range stay unavailable.
- Exact cent comparisons determine whether a target is met; rounded percentages do not. Entries stay in this tab without analytics, automatic saving or scenario URLs.
University of Maryland Extension — Matching Prices to Market Outlets — Cost-margin pricing across market outlets. No recommended example margins are adopted.
Virginia Tech Extension — Selling Directly to Buyers: How to Price Your Products — Cost records and different sales channels. Our interval and directional cent rules are disclosed algebraic choices.
Method and inputs checked: .