Unit economics is the only way to know whether a card is profitable
Sellers ask: "the card is selling, but there's somehow less money — where does it go?" The answer is almost always in unit economics. Unit economics is a step-by-step calculation of revenue and costs per single unit sold that shows your real margin.
Without unit economics a seller works blind: they see revenue, they see the account balance — but don't understand how much they actually earn on each sale. And it often turns out that 30% of SKUs are losing money.
This Support article is the unit economics formula for a marketplace seller and a step-by-step breakdown of every component.
Context is in the parent materials:
- Pillar "Marketplace Promotion" — where economics sits in the overall MPO system.
- Support "FBO vs FBS vs rFBS" — costs by fulfillment scheme.
- Support "Hidden Marketplace Deductions" — deductions as part of the P&L.
The basic formula
Margin per unit = Buyer price − All per-unit costs
Where "all costs" are the 8 core components (inbound handling is a situational cost that depends on warehouse load):
- Purchase cost (from the supplier).
- Inbound logistics to the marketplace warehouse.
- Marketplace commission.
- Delivery to the buyer.
- Storage (FBO only).
- Returns (share × cost per return).
- Marketing (ads + buyouts).
- Tax (on revenue or on margin).
Miss even one component and the result will lie by 5–30%.
A full worked example
Take the SKU "moisturizing hand cream 50 ml", buyer price 850 rubles, FBO on WB, category "beauty and care".
Revenue:
- Buyer price: 850 rubles.
Costs:
Margin = 850 − 627 = 223 rubles = 26.2% of price.
That's within the norm for an FMCG category (15–30%). The card is profitable.
The 8 components — what sellers often miss
Component 1. Purchase cost. If you work with a supplier from China — add customs duties, freight, insurance. The real purchase cost can be 1.5–2 times higher than the "price list".
Component 2. Inbound logistics. Carrier + insurance + packaging costs (boxes, stretch film, label printers, cartridges). On small batches, per-unit logistics is higher — 50–100 rubles. On large ones — 15–30 rubles.
Component 3. Marketplace commission. The dashboard shows the base rate for the category. But promos can push it up by 5–10% (if the card takes part in a promo, the marketplace takes a cut).
Component 4. Delivery to the buyer. The marketplace rate. On FBS it can be higher than FBO because the shipment travels from the seller.
Component 5. Storage (FBO only). The most often missed one. Sellers ask: "why count storage, it's pennies?" At a 60-day turnover and a rate of 1.2 rubles/day = 72 rubles per unit = 8.5% of an 850-ruble product price. That's a lot.
Component 6. Returns. Share × average loss per return. Share = your returns / your sales. Cost = average deductions per return + product loss (if written off).
Component 7. Marketing. Dashboard advertising + buyouts. Sellers often file this under "promo spend" and leave it out of unit economics. That's wrong — if a SKU doesn't work without ads, then ads are a necessary part of its costs.
Component 8. Tax. On the 6% simplified regime — on revenue; on the 15% simplified regime — on margin; on the general regime — profit tax + VAT. On self-employed status — 6% of revenue. See Support "Seller Taxes".
When unit economics is negative — what to do
Actions for an unprofitable SKU:
- Raise the price. The baseline move. If competition allows — raise by 5–15% and watch conversion.
- Lower the purchase cost. Negotiate a volume discount with the supplier, look for an alternative supplier.
- Change the fulfillment scheme. Move from FBO to FBS if storage is eating the margin.
- Reduce the return share. Better description, photos, packaging (see Support "Marketplace Returns").
- Cut marketing costs. Shift from aggressive advertising to organic through better SEO (see Pillar "Card SEO and Audit").
- Delist the SKU. If none of the steps yields a profit — the product doesn't fit the marketplace in its current form.
How often to recalculate
A calculation template for your SKUs
A simple Excel/Google Sheets template:
Fill it in for your SKUs and you get a ranking: top-margin SKUs + loss-making SKUs.
What to read next
- Support "FBO vs FBS vs rFBS" — economics by fulfillment scheme.
- Support "Turnover and Dead Stock" — the link between turnover and storage.
- Support "Seller Taxes" — the tax component of unit economics.
- Pillar "Marketplace Promotion" — the overall MPO methodology.
Where to start
Take your 5 top SKUs and run them through the table. Compare margin % across them — you'll see which ones actually earn and which merely churn. On WB, the free forseller AI audit includes an "economics" layer at the portfolio level.
In a standard Trusty MPO project, unit economics is calculated automatically across the 8 components for every SKU and updated weekly — it's the foundation for every decision on assortment, pricing, and advertising.
Related deep dives: Product cost: how to calculate it, Wildberries unit economics, Ozon unit economics.
