How to Price a Product for Resale

Updated 2026-08-31 · ProfitKit

Resale pricing goes wrong in one of two directions: a number picked to beat a competitor with no idea whether it is profitable, or a comfortable markup on a cost figure that was never complete. The method below fixes both by settling cost first and price last.

Step 1 — Landed cost, not purchase price

Landed cost is everything you spend to have one sellable unit in your hands:

• Unit purchase price
• Inbound shipping, divided by units in the shipment
• Any import duty or customs charge, divided the same way
• Repackaging or labelling consumables

A $6 item with $180 freight on a 100-unit order is a $7.80 item. Every later calculation uses $7.80.

Step 2 — Add the fee load

Selling costs are a function of price, so they are easiest handled as a percentage plus a fixed amount. Typically:

• Marketplace commission or transaction fee (percentage — confirm yours on the platform's fee page)
• Payment processing (percentage plus a fixed per-transaction amount)
• Any per-listing fee
• Outbound postage and packaging, if you absorb them

Step 3 — Price from a target margin

Decide the net margin you need, then divide rather than add:

Price = Total cost ÷ (1 − target margin)

If your total cost per unit is $11 and you want 35%: $11 ÷ 0.65 = $16.92. Adding 35% would have produced $14.85 and a 26% margin.

Step 4 — Check it against the market

Now, and only now, look at what comparable listings charge. You are not copying their price — you are answering one question: is my profitable price inside the range a buyer will accept? If it is far above, you have a cost problem, a differentiation problem, or the wrong product. That is useful information, and it arrives before you have committed to stock.

Step 5 — Set a floor price and write it down

Your floor is the price at which margin reaches zero after every cost in steps 1 and 2. Sales, bundles and clearance all get priced above it. Sellers who skip this step discover during a promotion that 20% off had taken them below cost.

Re-run it when anything moves

Supplier price, freight, platform fee, postage — a change in any one of them changes your floor. A pricing sheet is not a one-time document. Put the numbers through the calculator again rather than assuming the old price still works.

Do the calculation