If you want to carry out e-commerce without making a loss, you need to calculate all the costs that the marketplace you plan to sell on may present and, accordingly, determine the actual gross profit you will obtain. For this reason, before starting to sell on an e-commerce platform, it is necessary to take into account all possible expenses arising from commissions on the platform, additional services such as storage, or service partners contracted by the marketplace that provide such services. In addition, it should not be forgotten that e-commerce is not limited to simply listing products on a site and selling them; e-export must also be organized within a supply chain framework that includes processes such as logistics. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the costs that may arise in the organization of the entire supply process, from the product being sold until it reaches the buyer.

You need to be able to calculate:

• The actual costs of the platform,

• Additional costs such as certification, packaging, boxing, etc. when offering products compatible with the target market,

• Costs that may arise during the delivery of the product to the customer, such as storage, transportation, shipping, returns, etc.,

• The conversion per product offered for sale, in other words, the product-based calculations of marketing activities.

Have You Calculated Profit/Loss for Your Sales on the Relevant E-Commerce Site?

Calculating profit is something that everyone can normally do easily, yet it is also an operation that is often overlooked. Before starting e-commerce and while choosing the site on which you will carry out e-export, calculating the estimated profit margin you can obtain will make the process much more planned. When calculating your potential profit, the important point is that the starting reference should be the price of a competitive seller. After taking these prices as a basis, every link in the chain must be examined one by one. To explain with an example:

Let us assume that we are an e-commerce seller making sales via Amazon in Germany and that we receive FBA service from Amazon (you can access the relevant content on our blog page to learn about the FBA service). Let us assume that the dimensions of our packaged product are 25x10x5 cm and the weight of the product is 370 g. Continuing with these assumptions, the projected profit margin will be 12 USD, as shown on the bottom line below.

Retail sales price: 60 USD

VAT 20%: -12 USD

Marketplace commission: 9 USD

Fulfilment service fee: 2 USD

Platform advertising cost: 6 USD

Storage service expense: 2 USD

Transportation cost to warehouse: 2 USD

Product manufacturing cost: 15 USD

Profit Margin: 12 USD