Any craft
Handmade pricing calculator
List what goes into a batch and how long it takes. You get a cost per unit, a wholesale price, a retail price, and what a consignment shop will actually pay you.
How this is calculated
Materials are entered per batch and divided across the units that batch makes. Packaging is entered per finished piece, because a jar or a label belongs to one unit however big the batch is. Overhead is a percentage on top, which is the simplest honest way to spread costs that don't belong to any one product.
The default multiples are keystone: cost doubled to wholesale, wholesale doubled to retail. Change them if your channel works differently - the formula above stays the same.
Worked example
A batch of twelve 8 oz soy candles taking 90 minutes, at $20 an hour and 10% overhead:
- Materials
- $22.50 + $12.00 + $1.44 = $35.94 per batch
- Per candle
- $35.94 ÷ 12 = $2.995
- Packaging
- $2.50 jar + $0.15 label = $2.65
- Labour
- 1.5 h × $20 ÷ 12 = $2.50
- Overhead
- $8.145 × 10% = $0.81
- Unit cost
- $8.96
- Wholesale / retail
- $17.92 / $35.84
- Consignment
- $35.84 × 60% = $21.50 to you
Where consignment catches people out
A consignment shop doesn't buy your stock. It sells at your retail price and passes on what's left after its cut, usually some time after the sale. That makes the payout sit somewhere between your wholesale and retail figures - and when the shop's share is large or your retail markup is thin, below wholesale or even below cost.
If the consignment line comes out under your unit cost, every piece that sells through that shop loses money. Raise your retail price, negotiate a smaller share, or treat the shop as advertising and price the loss in deliberately.
For candles specifically, the candle cost calculator works from wax weight and price per pound instead of a materials list, and can take its wax figure straight from the wax calculator.
Common questions
How do I price handmade products?
Add up materials, packaging and your own labour for one unit, add a percentage for overhead, and that's your unit cost. Wholesale is usually about twice that, and retail about twice wholesale. Leaving out your labour is the most common mistake - it makes the price look competitive by quietly setting your wage to zero.
What is the formula for wholesale and retail prices?
The common handmade formula is unit cost × 2 for wholesale, then wholesale × 2 for retail, often called keystone pricing. Some makers use 2.5 or 3 at the retail step, especially for small or giftable items where the cost per unit is low.
What percentage do consignment shops take?
Commonly somewhere between 25% and 50% of the sale price, with 30 to 40% being typical for handmade goods. Ask before you agree, and check the payout against your unit cost rather than against your retail price.
How should I work out overhead?
Total your monthly costs that aren't materials or packaging - tools, software, marketplace fees, utilities, booth fees - and divide by what you spend on making things in a month. That gives you a percentage to use. If you haven't tracked it yet, 10 to 15% is a reasonable starting point to revisit later.
Is my data saved?
Your last calculation is kept in this browser so it's still there next time. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Chandler is the iOS app for candle makers - the same candle calculations, on your phone at the bench, with your batches saved.
Get Chandler