Markup calculator. Bidirectional. Benchmarked.
Enter cost plus any one of markup percent, margin percent, or selling price. The rest fills in. Category benchmarks and the markup vs. margin conversion table sit beside the output.
Enter cost and any one other.
| markup | margin | context |
|---|---|---|
| 25% | 20% | Thin — commodity/electronics |
| 50% | 33% | B2B industrial |
| 100% | 50% | Apparel floor / F&B ceiling |
| 150% | 60% | Apparel midpoint |
| 200% | 67% | Apparel premium / Furniture |
| 300% | 75% | Beauty floor |
| 500% | 83% | Beauty midpoint / Jewelry |
| 900% | 90% | Beauty premium |
Price, profit, effective margin.
Markup is not margin.
Markup is profit as a percentage of cost. Margin is profit as a percentage of selling price. A product that costs forty dollars and sells for one hundred has a sixty-dollar profit; that is a 150 percent markup and a 60 percent margin. Same dollar, two percentages, different denominator. The merchandising team thinks in markup; the finance team thinks in margin. The calculator above displays both and adds a third number the other two miss: effective margin, which subtracts per-order shipping and blended CAC from gross profit to show what actually lands in the bank.
Four places markup math breaks down in practice. First, fixed markup applied across a catalog regardless of per-SKU cost variance (commodity items end up under-priced, premium items over-priced). Second, markup set without checking category benchmark (a 50 percent markup in beauty is a losing proposition; 50 percent in electronics is strong). Third, markup set in retail but not re-checked for DTC after shipping and CAC enter the picture. Fourth, markup paired with promotional discount schedules that erase 20 to 40 percent of the intended margin.
Tools in the same cluster: Break-even calculator for the fixed-cost coverage view. Profit calculator for the full P&L view. AOV calculator for the lift-per-order view.
Five answers.
What is the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is profit as a percentage of cost. Margin is profit as a percentage of selling price. A product that costs $40 and sells for $100 has a $60 profit; markup is 60 divided by 40 (150 percent), margin is 60 divided by 100 (60 percent). Same product, same profit, two different percentages. Retail merchandising teams think in markup; finance and DTC operators think in margin. Both describe the same dollar; the denominator is what changes.
What is a healthy markup by category in 2026?
Fashion and apparel: 100 to 300 percent markup (50 to 75 percent margin). Beauty and cosmetics: 300 to 900 percent (75 to 90 percent margin). Food and beverage consumer packaged goods: 30 to 80 percent (23 to 44 percent margin). Furniture: 200 to 400 percent (67 to 80 percent). Jewelry: 150 to 500 percent depending on precious metal content. Electronics: 5 to 30 percent (low margin, high volume). B2B industrial: 40 to 80 percent typical. These are retail-channel benchmarks; wholesale markups are lower.
How do I convert markup to margin?
Margin equals markup divided by one-plus-markup, both expressed as decimals. A 50 percent markup is 0.50 divided by 1.50 equals 0.333 or 33 percent margin. A 100 percent markup is 0.50 margin. A 200 percent markup is 0.667 margin. In the opposite direction, markup equals margin divided by one-minus-margin. A 40 percent margin equals 0.40 divided by 0.60 equals 67 percent markup. The conversion table alongside the tool above shows the common values at a glance.
Why doesn't the calculator accept shipping and CAC in the markup field?
Markup is a pricing ratio between cost of goods and selling price; it was designed before digital advertising or per-order shipping existed at DTC scale. The tool above exposes optional shipping per order and blended CAC per new customer as separate fields that adjust the effective margin displayed; those numbers should never be hidden inside the markup percentage because doing so confuses the merchandising team with the growth team. Keep them visible and separate.
Does this calculator save my data?
No. Every value you enter lives in memory for this browser tab only. Nothing is transmitted to a server, stored in a database, or synced. Close the tab and the data is gone. The Copy Results button puts a plain-text summary on your clipboard; that is the only output path.
Wrong markup for your category?
Our growth strategy engagements rebuild catalog pricing against category benchmark, audit shipping allocation, and re-cost blended CAC. Written plan in 2 weeks, implementation over 6-10.