Skip to content

Promotion Profit Calculator

Enter your price and cost once. Compare every promotion type side by side by actual contribution profit and required sales uplift — not by how attractive the discount looks.

Advanced: fees & shipping

Scenarios to compare

Comparison

PromotionCustomer paysUnitsEff. discountContribution profitMarginvs. baselineUplift needed

"Contribution profit" = revenue − product cost − payment fees − seller-paid shipping. It excludes fixed overhead (rent, salaries), so it is not the same as full accounting profit. Required uplift is a break-even requirement, not a guaranteed outcome.

How common offers change contribution profit

Using a $30 regular price and $8 unit cost with no fees or shipping, the same product produces very different profit per order.

Contribution profit by promotion typeRegular price produces 22 dollars contribution per order. Twenty percent off produces 16 dollars and needs 1.38 times as many orders. Buy one get one free produces 14 dollars and needs 1.57 times as many orders.Contribution profit per orderRegular price$22Orders needed to match baseline: 1.00×20% off$16Needs 1.38× the orders · 37.5% moreBOGO$14Needs 1.57× the orders · 57.1% more$0$22 contribution
Profit per order is only one part of the decision. Inventory, conversion, fees, shipping and repeat-purchase behavior can change the better offer.

How the comparison works

Shared model

Contribution profit = Revenue − Product cost − Payment fee − Shipping subsidy Required uplift = Baseline profit / Promo profit − 1 (only when promo profit > 0)

Worked example

$30 regular price, $8 unit cost, no fees — the deterministic example used throughout this site:

Limitations

This does not model demand response — it tells you the profit per order and the break-even volume uplift, not whether customers will actually buy more.

Related calculators

Promotion Volume Uplift Calculator
Turn the uplift % into a monthly order target.
Discount Profit Calculator
Deep-dive into one percentage discount, including the max safe discount.
Bundle Pricing Calculator
Solve for a bundle price given a target margin.

Frequently asked questions

Which promotion is "best"?

There is no single best promotion — it depends what you optimize for. Use the ranking selector to sort by profit/order, margin, discount size or required volume uplift.

Why is BOGO so much less profitable than it looks?

BOGO delivers 2 units for the price of 1, so product cost doubles while revenue stays flat — a 50% "off" headline often hides a much larger profit hit than an equivalent 50% single-unit discount.

Choose a promotion by contribution profit

The biggest discount is not necessarily the strongest offer, and the highest profit per order may not create the most total profit. Compare each scenario using the same costs, then decide what increase in orders is both necessary and plausible.

Run a disciplined comparison

  • Keep product cost, payment fees and fulfillment assumptions consistent across scenarios.
  • Compare contribution profit per order and the required volume uplift together.
  • Test the offer on a limited audience before treating projected volume as fact.

Interpretation limits

  • The calculator does not predict demand, repeat purchase or customer acquisition cost.
  • A promotion can shift purchases forward without creating incremental demand.
  • Stock constraints and service capacity can make an apparently profitable offer operationally expensive.