Handmade Product Pricing: Cover Materials, Your Time and Fees
By the Brainfy Studio editorial team · Published
Makers underprice for the same few reasons: they leave out their own time, forget packaging and small overheads, and work out profit before the marketplace and payment fees come off. Price from a full cost and check the profit after fees.
Free online tool: Business Pricing Calculator
Work out the hourly and day rate that covers the pay you want, your overhead and a profit margin, based on realistic billable hours. Runs in your browser; no account needed.
Open the business pricing calculatorBuild the full cost of one item
- Materials — what this item uses, at what you paid (track it in an inventory).
- Labour — minutes per item × the hourly rate you want to earn.
- Packaging — box, tissue, label, card.
- Overhead per item — a share of tools, studio, utilities, software.
Wholesale and retail multipliers
A common starting point is wholesale = cost × 2 and retail = wholesale × 2. A 2× multiplier is a 100% markup, which is a 50% margin before fees. These are conventions, not rules: test them against what similar work sells for and against your profit after fees.
Fees come off the price
Marketplaces and payment processors usually charge a percentage of the sale and sometimes a fixed amount per order. Rates differ by platform, country and over time, so use the current schedule for where you sell (Etsy, for example, publishes its fees). Because fees scale with the price, the minimum price for a target margin is: (cost + fixed fee) ÷ (1 − fee % − target margin).
Worked example: a hand-bound notebook
Example inputs: materials $6.40, 45 minutes of labour at $24/h, packaging $0.90, overhead $1.20 per item. Example fees: 6.5% marketplace + 3% payment processing + $0.25 per order — illustrative rates; use your platform's current ones.
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Labour | 45 min ÷ 60 × $24 | $18.00 |
| Total cost | $6.40 + $18.00 + $0.90 + $1.20 | $26.50 |
| Wholesale (× 2) | $26.50 × 2 | $53.00 |
| Suggested retail (× 2) | $53.00 × 2 | $106.00 |
| Fees if sold at $48 | $48 × 9.5% + $0.25 | $4.81 |
| Profit at $48 | $48 − $26.50 − $4.81 | $16.69 |
| Margin at $48 | $16.69 ÷ $48 | 34.77% |
| Minimum price for a 30% margin after fees | ($26.50 + $0.25) ÷ (1 − 0.095 − 0.30) | $44.22 |
The multiplier method suggests $106; your market may not pay that. At $48 you still keep $16.69 after paying yourself $18.00 for the labour. Below $44.22 the margin after fees drops under 30%.
Pricing checklist
- Materials costed from what you actually paid.
- Your time included at a real hourly rate.
- Packaging and overhead per item included.
- Current fee rates for your platform entered.
- Profit checked after fees, not before.
- Price compared with similar work in your market.
- Prices reviewed when material costs or fees change.
Brainfy files for this task
Checked against the files customers download. Prices are current catalogue prices.
Handmade Product Cost Calculator (Paid — $14.00)
XLSX · 1 file · sheets: Start Here, Settings, Products
Enter your hourly rate, overhead per item, multipliers and fee percentages once; each product row calculates cost, wholesale, suggested retail and profit per retail sale at your price.
Craft Inventory Tracker (Paid — $9.00)
XLSX · 1 file · sheets: Start Here, Supplies, Lists
Supply quantities, cost per unit, stash value and reorder flags — the source of your real material costs.
Questions
Should I pay myself even if it's a hobby?
If you want to know whether the item makes money, yes — otherwise your time is hidden inside the 'profit'.
Do the fee rates in the example apply to me?
Not necessarily. They are examples. Look up the current fee schedule for the marketplace and payment provider you use.
What about sales tax or VAT?
Tax rules depend on where you and your buyers are. This guide doesn't cover them — check with your tax authority or an accountant.
Sources and method
The cost model matches the formulas in the Handmade Product Cost Calculator (wholesale = cost × multiplier; profit = price − cost − price × fee % − fixed fee). The notebook figures are invented and recomputed by an automated test.
- Fees & Payments Policy — Etsy
