How to Calculate Profit on a Marketplace

Net profit per sale is the sale price minus all costs: cost of goods, marketplace commission, logistics, storage, inbound handling, acquiring fees, taxes, and advertising. The "price minus purchase cost" formula is deceptive: it ignores 5–7 line items that together often eat more than the cost of goods itself. Profit must be calculated per SKU, otherwise profitable products mask the losing ones.

In short: profit = price − cost of goods − commission − logistics − storage − taxes − advertising. For every SKU.

• Cost of goods (purchase + packaging + delivery to the warehouse).
• Marketplace commission by category (see WB and Ozon commission).
• Logistics and storage — delivery to the buyer, returns, warehouse space.
• Taxes under your tax regime (see seller taxes).
• Advertising — internal and external, converted to a per-unit figure.

• Margin depends heavily on the category; the benchmark of healthy unit economics is profit after all costs, not a "pretty" markup.
• If a SKU is in the red after the full calculation — that's a signal to raise the price, cut costs, or delist the product.
• For the full model, see SKU unit economics.

Related deep dives: product card funnel.

Related deep dives: Product cost: how to calculate it.

"How do I calculate net profit on a marketplace?" Subtract cost of goods, marketplace commission, logistics, storage, taxes, and advertising from the sale price. What's left is net profit per unit.

"Why can't I calculate profit as price minus purchase cost?" Because that formula ignores commission, logistics, storage, taxes, and advertising — and they often eat more than the cost of goods.

"What margin counts as normal?" It depends on the category. Focus not on markup but on profit after all costs: a SKU must stay in the black on full unit economics.

"Do I need to calculate profit for each product separately?" Yes. Store-wide averages mask losing SKUs. Pricing and assortment decisions are made at the level of each article number.