Shipping is not free: price delivery without losing profit

A customer pays $5 for delivery and the carrier charges you $5. It is tempting to ignore both because they cancel out. But selling fees may apply to that $5 of revenue, and your margin target may be based on the whole order.

Keep these amounts separate in your estimate. Enter the carrier charge as your shipping cost. Enter the customer-facing delivery charge as shipping charged to customer. Packaging goes in the packaging fields; do not count it again inside postage.

Consider one item with $8 of production, labor and packaging costs, plus $5 postage. Total order costs are $13. Use an illustrative 3% selling fee on subtotal plus shipping, a $0.30 fixed fee per order and a 30% target margin. There is no tax in this example.

Both leave about $5.96 of estimated profit after $13 of costs and about $0.90 of fees. They have the same economics under these assumptions; they communicate the total differently to the customer. The right presentation depends on the product, market and delivery arrangement.

If you charged only $13 for the item and $5 for shipping, revenue would be $18. After the $13 cost and $0.84 fee, profit would be $4.16: about 23.1% margin, not the intended 30%.

A percentage fee on the product subtotal is different from one on subtotal plus shipping. A fixed fee per order is different from one charged for each item. Check your current marketplace and payment-provider rules before entering a rate; this guide does not prescribe current fees for any platform.

The example above applies the percentage fee to all $19.86 of customer revenue. If a fee applies only to the item subtotal, a separate shipping charge changes that fee amount. Do not reuse the same result after changing the fee basis.

Taxes, optional upgrades, payment-currency conversion and delivery surcharges can also affect the real order. LayerWorth’s quote summary does not calculate tax or buy postage. Review those items separately before sending a final offer.

• Measure the packed parcel. Include the actual box, cushioning and accessories; the print’s filament weight is not the shipped weight.
• Use the destination you intend to serve. A local shipment and a distant or international one need different assumptions.
• Count packing time once. Add active handling time to labor, without also burying the same labor charge in packaging.
• Distinguish unit and order costs. One label and outer box may serve several items. Individual protective sleeves may be needed for every unit.
• Inspect real delivery costs. Revisit the assumptions when parcel sizes, carrier prices or product designs change.

Packaging and both shipping fields are available on Free. You do not need a paid plan to stop postage from disappearing from your estimate. Maker adds reusable cost profiles and saved calculations for jobs you quote repeatedly.