Discount margin calculator
Will this discount lose money? Enter a product's price, what it costs you, and the discount. You get the profit after the discount, the deepest safe discount, and how many more sales you'd need to break even.
- Price after discount
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- Profit per sale, full price
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- Profit per sale, discounted
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- Margin, full price → discounted
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- Deepest safe discount
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- Extra sales needed to break even
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Already ran discounts? Find the orders that sold below cost from your Shopify exports.
How to tell if a discount loses money
A discount comes straight out of your profit, not your revenue. The safe limit is your margin:
Maximum discount % = (price − cost) ÷ price × 100
Anything deeper sells below cost. But even a discount under that limit can leave you worse off, because each sale earns less. To earn the same total profit you need more sales:
Extra sales needed = profit per sale at full price ÷ profit per sale after discount − 1
| Margin | 10% off | 20% off | 30% off |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30% | +50% sales | +200% sales | sells at cost |
| 40% | +34% sales | +100% sales | +300% sales |
| 50% | +25% sales | +67% sales | +150% sales |
| 60% | +20% sales | +50% sales | +100% sales |
So on a 40% margin, a 20% code only pays off if it at least doubles sales of that product.
Questions
What is the maximum discount I can give without losing money?
Your margin. Maximum discount % = (price − cost) ÷ price × 100. A product priced at $40 that costs $31 can take at most 22% off before each sale loses money.
How many more sales do I need to make up for a discount?
Divide the profit per sale at full price by the profit per sale after the discount, then subtract 1. On a 40% margin, a 20% discount halves the profit per sale, so you need 100% more sales just to earn the same profit.
What should I use as cost?
What one unit costs you to buy or make: Shopify's “Cost per item”. For a stricter check, add per-order costs such as packaging and payment fees.
Does this work for Shopify discount codes that apply to the whole order?
For one product, yes: use the percentage the code takes off. For real orders where codes stack or apply across several products, use the loss report on your Shopify exports; it spreads order-wide discounts across the products in each order.