Wholesale margin checker
Give it shelf price and costs. Get your margin per unit after retailer cut, promos and freight, scored.
Wholesale margin checker is a free AI skill for the job "Set your prices". Give the instructions to an AI assistant that supports the required files and tools, then review its output.
Free · No account · Made by AI Blocks · Thinking: high
What it does
A shelf price is not your price. A retailer keeps about 45 to 50 percent of it, a distributor may take 15 to 25 percent more, then come freight and promotions. One US beverage founder says trade spend, which covers promos, end caps and events, can run 20 to 30 percent of sales. Many brands learn this after signing. This skill builds the price waterfall step by step, from shelf price to margin per unit. It tests the result against a target of 50 percent gross margin or more, then takes trade spend off at 20 and 30 percent. It costs your promo plan and compares going direct with using a distributor. All these percentages come from one brand in one category, so replace them with real quotes. It ends with a readiness score out of 100 and the measures retailers use: units and dollars per store per week.
You give it
- Your planned shelf price
- Your landed cost per unit
- Retailer margin, distributor margin and freight, from real quotes if you have them
- Your promo plan, with the price cut, who pays and how many weeks a year
- How much you can make, your lead time and cash for stock and promos (optional)
- Spreadsheet (optional)
You get
- A step-by-step price waterfall from shelf price to margin per unit
- A verdict against a 50 percent or more gross margin target, with trade spend at 20 and 30 percent
- A direct versus distributor comparison and the units and dollars per store per week to track
- A readiness score out of 100, with the sum shown
Use it when
- A retailer or distributor asked for your wholesale price and you want to know what you would keep.
- You sell online and are thinking about stores, and want to see if the margin holds first.
- You are choosing between selling direct to stores and using a distributor.
How to use it
- Start a chat with the skill. Open it if you added it to your AI, or copy it and paste it in.
- Paste your shelf price, landed cost and any quotes. Say which percentages are real and which are guesses.
- Add your promo plan and what you can supply.
- Read the failed checks first, then change the price, the cost or the route and run it again.
- Ask the retailer for the units per store per week they expect before you commit.