What One Order Actually Costs You

Most sellers know their postage cost and almost nobody knows what one order actually costs. It is worth doing once, properly, on a real order rather than a typical one, because the number is usually higher than the guess and it changes what you are willing to charge.

Start with the obvious. What the item cost you, or what the materials cost. Then postage, at the price you actually pay rather than the one you quoted. Then packaging, and count all of it: the mailing bag, the inner wrap, the tissue, the card, the tape, the label. Individually these are pennies. Together they are frequently more than the postage.

Then the fees. Whatever the platform takes and whatever the payment processor takes, and note that the processor usually charges a percentage plus a fixed amount, so the fixed part hurts a small order far more than a large one. That is worth knowing before you set a minimum.

Now the part everyone leaves out, which is your time. Photographing, writing the listing, answering the messages, packing, and the walk to the post office. Put a real number of minutes on it and multiply by something you would be content to earn. You do not have to charge that. You do have to know it.

Add it up and compare it against what you charged. Some orders will come out fine. Small custom work is usually the one that comes out badly, because the time does not shrink when the price does.

Do this on three orders rather than one: your cheapest, your dearest, and something in the middle. The pattern that shows up is more useful than any single figure, and it tends to point at one specific thing you should either stop offering or start charging properly for.

You are not doing this to depress yourself. You are doing it so the next price you set is a decision rather than a hope.