How to Price Products
Knowing what a product costs to make is not the same as knowing what it needs to sell for.
If your price only covers materials, you can end up working for far less than you intended.
This guide explains a simple way to think about product pricing by including your costs, your time, selling fees and desired profit.
Why product pricing is harder than it looks
Materials have receipts. Everything else does not. Your hours, the fees a platform takes and the profit the business needs are all invisible at the moment you pick a number, so it is easy to price against what other sellers charge and hope the maths works out. It usually does not, and the gap only shows up much later, when the orders are already flowing and the money is not.
The costs you need to consider
Materials
Everything one finished product consumes, including packaging and unusable offcuts.
Labor
The time you spend making the product, valued at an hourly rate you would genuinely accept.
Selling fees
Marketplace, listing and payment fees are taken as a share of the sale, before anything reaches you.
Desired profit
Profit is separate from your own pay. It is what the business keeps to reinvest and to survive quiet months.
How to calculate your labor cost
Multiply the time a product takes by your hourly rate. Time your process once honestly rather than estimating from memory — most makers underestimate it, and a twenty-minute error repeated across every order adds up quickly.
How to calculate a selling price
Labor cost = time spent × hourly rate
Minimum selling price = (material costs + labor cost) ÷ (1 − selling fee percentage)
Dividing by the share of the sale you keep is what makes the fee come out of the final price instead of out of your margin.
Worked example
Example only — not a recommended price
- • Material costs: €8
- • Time spent: 1 hour
- • Hourly rate: €25
- • Selling fee: 10%
Labor cost: 1 × €25 = €25
Base cost: €8 + €25 = €33
Minimum selling price: €33 ÷ 0.90 = €36.67
Your own numbers will differ. This example simply shows how the calculation works.
What if the price feels too high?
A price that feels uncomfortable is often just an accurate one seen for the first time. Before discounting, check the inputs: is your time realistic, are you counting materials you could buy better, is the fee percentage the real one? If the numbers hold, you have three honest options — reduce the time the product takes, present it in a way that supports the price, or sell something else. Cutting the price without changing anything else simply moves the shortfall onto your own hours.
How to know whether a product is worth making
Take the price you can realistically charge, subtract the selling fees and your materials, and divide what remains by the hours the product takes. That is what you are really earning per hour on it. Compare that figure across your range and the answer usually becomes obvious: some products earn their place, and some are expensive hobbies wearing a price tag.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much should I charge for my products?
- Enough to cover your material costs, the time you spent at your hourly rate, the fees taken out of the sale and the profit you want. That figure is your floor; what you charge above it depends on your market and positioning.
- How do I price a product if it takes me longer than it should?
- Price on a realistic time, not your slowest or fastest run. If the realistic time makes the price unworkable, that is information: either the process needs to change or the product is not the right one to sell.
- Should shipping be part of the price?
- Shipping is a separate cost from making the product. Whether you charge it separately or build it in, make sure it is not quietly coming out of your labour.
- What hourly rate should I use?
- Pick a rate you would accept for doing the same work for someone else. There is no universal number, but a rate you would refuse from an employer is not a rate you should accept from your own business.
- Does The Paid-for-Labor Calculator cost a subscription?
- No. It is a €17 one-time payment. No subscription, no monthly fee.
Want the full breakdown in one place? See the product pricing calculator.
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