A product can sell well and still leave too little money to run a business. Before choosing a print-on-demand product, calculate what one delivered order contributes after variable costs. This worksheet is an educational model, not a statement of any platform’s current fees or a forecast of your earnings.
Start with the delivered order
Record the item price and any shipping charge paid by the buyer. Then record production cost, shipping charged by the supplier, percentage-based selling and payment fees, fixed transaction charges, and an allowance for refunds or replacements. Use quotes for the buyer’s actual destination. A domestic quote cannot reliably stand in for an international order.
Work through one example
Suppose a buyer pays $30 for the item and $5 for shipping. Assume production costs $12, fulfillment shipping is $6, percentage fees are a hypothetical 10% of the $35 collected, the fixed fee is $0.30, and the replacement allowance is $1.20. Contribution is $35 minus $12 minus $6 minus $3.50 minus $0.30 minus $1.20: $12.00. These are invented inputs for demonstration, not Printify, Shopify, or Etsy prices.
That $12 is not net profit. You still need to cover subscriptions, design work, support time, taxes where applicable, and other overhead. If acquiring that order costs $8, only $4 remains toward those items. Organic acquisition also has a cost: the time or money spent creating and maintaining content.
Calculate a price floor
When percentage fees apply to all buyer revenue, a simplified formula is: required buyer revenue = (production + supplier shipping + fixed fee + replacement allowance + desired contribution) / (1 − fee rate). Subtract shipping collected from that revenue to get the item price. If a platform applies fees to a different base, model each fee separately instead. Do not include tax collected on behalf of an authority as spendable revenue.
Stress-test the choice
- Recalculate with a 15% discount on the item, not on every cost.
- Try a higher-cost shipping destination.
- Model a replacement without assuming the supplier reimburses every cost.
- Check whether a second item changes shipping and fixed fees.
Keep the assumptions beside the result and date each supplier quote. Reject a product if realistic scenarios leave insufficient contribution for your business. If the numbers work, compare providers and order samples before promising quality or delivery to customers.