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How to price food products for wholesale and retail

Cost everything, set wholesale at about twice your cost and retail at about twice wholesale. If the retail price is too high for your market, the recipe or packaging has to change, not the margin.

Get a plan and a priceSee the picks

The short answer

Wholesale price is typically cost times 2, and retail price is typically wholesale times 2. Price so that you make money at wholesale, and online retail is upside.

The math

  1. Cost everything

    Ingredients, packaging, label, your labor at a real hourly rate, and a share of rent and utilities. That is your cost of goods.

  2. Set wholesale and retail

    Wholesale price is typically cost times 2 (so your margin is around 50%). Retail price is typically wholesale times 2. If the resulting retail price is too high for your market, the recipe or packaging has to change, not the margin.

  3. Account for marketplace fees

    Marketplaces take a cut (Madeline's and Faire take a commission; Etsy charges listing and transaction fees). Price so that you make money at wholesale, and online retail is upside.

  4. Keep shipping out of margin

    Shipping is not margin. Charge it or build it into a shipped-product price that is distinct from your market price.

  5. Revisit costs every quarter

    Lids, jars and butter do not stay still.

Run your own numbers

  • Free tool

    Cost per jar calculator

    Ingredients, packaging, labor and overhead for one batch, down to the true cost of one unit.

    Use the calculator

  • Free tool

    Wholesale price calculator

    Wholesale, case, retail and distributor prices from your cost and margin.

    Use the calculator

  • Have recipe costing set up for you

    Costed recipes and margins that update when input prices change.

    See the solution

  • Where to sell artisan food online

    The main marketplaces and channels, and what each is best for.

    Read the guide

Want one of these set up for you?

Tell us what you make. We send back a short plan and a price.

Get a plan and a price

How it works

  1. Tell us what you make

    What you make and what you use now. A spreadsheet and a Square account is a fine answer.

  2. Get a short plan

    Keep this, replace that, connect these, and the cost.

  3. We set it up

    Setup and migration done for you. You approve before anything goes live.

  4. Run it or hand it off

    Take it from there yourself or keep us on for the upkeep.

Questions

How do I calculate a wholesale price for a food product?

Add up ingredients, packaging, label, your labor at a real hourly rate and a share of rent and utilities. Wholesale price is typically that cost times 2.

What margin should a food product have at wholesale?

Around 50%, which is what cost times 2 gives you.

How do I set the retail price?

Retail price is typically wholesale times 2. If that is too high for your market, change the recipe or packaging, not the margin.

Should shipping be part of my margin?

No. Charge it, or build it into a shipped-product price that is distinct from your market price.

Get a plan and a price

Tell us what you make and what you use today. A spreadsheet and a Square account is a fine answer. We reply by email with what we would keep, what we would change and what it costs.

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