Clothing Markup Calculator: The Short Answer
A founder with a hoodie costing £12.50 delivered to the warehouse needs one answer: what should it sell for? A clothing markup calculator takes your cost per piece, adds the markup you choose and returns the selling price. At a 100% markup, a £12.50 cost becomes a £25.00 price, which leaves £12.50 profit and a 50% gross margin. The calculator below also works the other way: type a price you are considering and it shows the markup and margin that price actually delivers.
Treat the result as a starting point. A markup is only as good as the cost it sits on, so the most useful habit is to build the cost carefully first and mark it up second. The sections below explain the difference between markup and margin, show a worked chain from factory to shopper, and list the mistakes that quietly erode profit.
Use the Clothing Markup Calculator
Enter your cost per piece in the first box. Use the delivered cost if you have it, because freight, duty and handling belong to the cost of the garment even though the factory never charges them. Then choose a markup percentage. The clothing markup calculator returns the selling price, the profit per piece, the markup you applied and the gross margin that price leaves you with.
Clothing markup calculator
Markup, margin and profit
Gross markup and margin only. VAT, discounts, returns, marketing and overheads are not included, so check them separately before you fix a price.
If you already have a price in mind, type it into the optional price box and the calculator works backwards. That is useful when a competitor sits at £30 and you want to know whether you can match it without giving away your margin. The pieces box turns the per-piece numbers into totals for an order, which helps when you are comparing a small first run with a larger repeat.
Markup vs Margin: The Difference That Costs Brands Money
Markup and margin describe the same profit from two different angles, and mixing them up is one of the most common pricing errors in clothing. Markup is profit divided by cost. Margin is profit divided by selling price. A garment bought for £10 and sold for £20 has a 100% markup and a 50% margin. Both numbers are correct; they answer different questions.
The trouble starts when a brand wants a 50% margin and applies a 50% markup. A £10 cost marked up by 50% sells for £15, which is a 33.3% margin, not 50%. The table below shows how markup converts to margin so you can check any target quickly.
Markup and the gross margin it produces
| Markup on cost | Selling price on £10 cost | Profit per piece | Gross margin on price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50% | £15.00 | £5.00 | 33.3% |
| 60% | £16.00 | £6.00 | 37.5% |
| 80% | £18.00 | £8.00 | 44.4% |
| 100% | £20.00 | £10.00 | 50.0% |
| 150% | £25.00 | £15.00 | 60.0% |
| 200% | £30.00 | £20.00 | 66.7% |
Calculated from margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup). Illustrative £10 cost; the percentages hold for any cost.
Margin can never reach 100%, because profit would have to equal the whole price. Markup has no ceiling, which is why a very high markup can look generous while still producing a modest margin. When you talk to a retailer or a buyer, ask which of the two they mean before you compare numbers.
The Clothing Markup Formula Step by Step
The arithmetic is short enough to do by hand, and knowing it helps you sense-check any tool. Start from the cost, apply the markup, then convert back to a margin to see what you really earn.
From cost to price in five steps
- 1Build the costAdd fabric, make, trims, packing, freight, duty and handling per piece.
- 2Choose a markupPick a percentage on cost that your price point and costs can support.
- 3MultiplySelling price = cost × (1 + markup ÷ 100).
- 4Find the profitProfit per piece = selling price − cost.
- 5Check the marginMargin = profit ÷ selling price × 100, then compare with your target.
To go from a target margin to the markup you need, use markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin). A 40% margin needs a 66.7% markup; a 60% margin needs 150%. Our companion clothing profit margin calculator works from the margin side if you start with a profit target rather than a markup.
What Markup Do You Need? Start From Your Target Margin
Most brands begin with how much of each sale they want to keep, then derive the markup. The second table reverses the first one: pick the margin you need and read off the markup and the price multiple on cost.
Target margin and the markup needed to reach it
| Target gross margin | Markup needed on cost | Price as a multiple of cost |
|---|---|---|
| 30% | 42.9% | 1.43 × |
| 40% | 66.7% | 1.67 × |
| 50% | 100.0% | 2.00 × |
| 60% | 150.0% | 2.50 × |
| 70% | 233.3% | 3.33 × |
Calculated from markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin). These are arithmetic conversions, not recommended targets.
A common rule of thumb in retail is to double the wholesale price to reach the shelf price, which is a 100% markup and a 50% margin at each step. It is a convenient habit, but it is only a rule of thumb. Your own costs, price point and competitors decide whether it works for a particular garment.
A Worked Example: Landed Cost to Retail Price
Take a hoodie with a landed cost of £12.50. A brand that sells wholesale and a retailer that sells to the public each apply a 100% markup. The chain below shows what happens to the price, and the pie that follows shows where the money in a £50 retail price (before VAT) ends up.
Illustrative price chain at 100% markup per step
| Step | Calculation | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Landed cost to the brand | Given | £12.50 |
| Brand wholesale price | £12.50 × 2 | £25.00 |
| Retail price before VAT | £25.00 × 2 | £50.00 |
| Retail price with VAT at 20% | £50.00 × 1.2 | £60.00 |
Illustrative. Assumes a 100% markup at each step and UK standard-rate VAT of 20%. Real prices depend on the product, channel and costs.
Illustrative split of a £50 retail price before VAT
- Landed cost to the brand25%
- Brand profit25%
- Retailer margin50%
Illustrative. From the price chain above: £12.50 landed cost, £12.50 brand profit and £25.00 retailer margin out of £50.00. Before VAT and before the brand and retailer pay their own overheads.
The picture surprises many new brands: the retailer keeps the largest slice of the price, and the brand's profit equals its landed cost only before overheads. If you sell directly to customers, you take both slices, but you also carry marketing, returns and fulfilment. Our guide to pricing clothing for wholesale and retail goes into that trade-off.
What Goes Into the Cost You Mark Up
A markup applied to the wrong cost gives the wrong price. Many first-time buyers mark up the factory quote and forget everything that happens after the goods leave the factory. Freight, insurance, import duty, handling and packing all add to the cost of each piece, and they should sit in the base that you mark up.
Costs to include before you apply a markup
- Fabric and make price per piece from the factory quote
- Trims, labels, hang tags and polybags if they are not in the quote
- Sampling and development costs, spread across the order
- Freight and insurance from the factory to your warehouse
- Import duty and any handling or clearance charges
- Inspection, testing and packing costs if you pay for them separately
Check current duty rates on the UK Trade Tariff rather than guessing. Duty rates depend on the product and the origin.
Our landed cost calculator totals these items for you, and the guide to clothing manufacturing cost explains what drives the factory price itself. If your quote is on FOB terms, our explanation of what an FOB price includes shows what is still left to add.
Clothing Markup Mistakes That Erode Profit
Most pricing problems are not about arithmetic. They come from assumptions that go unchecked. The list below covers the ones we see most often when brands move from a first order to a repeat order.
Sound habits and common traps
Habits that help
- Marking up the landed cost, not the factory price alone
- Checking margin as well as markup before fixing a price
- Testing the price after VAT, discounts and returns
- Keeping a note of the cost assumptions behind each price
Traps to avoid
- Treating a 50% markup as a 50% margin
- Forgetting duty, freight and packing in the base cost
- Applying one markup to every style regardless of cost
- Ignoring discount events that cut the margin in half
Qualitative guidance. Your own figures decide what is acceptable for each style.
Uniform markups are especially risky. A simple tee and a heavyweight hoodie carry different costs, different perceived values and different return risks, so the same percentage may under-price one and over-price the other. Price each style from its own cost and its own market.
After the Markup: VAT, Discounts and Returns
The selling price from the clothing markup calculator is a gross figure before the things that happen to it in the real world. Selling to UK consumers means VAT is part of the shelf price, which our UK VAT calculator for clothing splits out. Most brands also run sales, and a discount lands directly on your margin, which you can test with the clothing markdown calculator.
Take the selling price, remove VAT, remove the largest discount you plan to run, and subtract your cost. If what is left still covers returns, fulfilment and marketing, the markup is doing its job. UK VAT rates and rules are set out on GOV.UK VAT rates.
How Ruhrose Helps You Price With Confidence
Ruhrose develops hoodies, fleece, jersey, denim and woven casualwear for UK buyers, with production in Bangladesh. A markup is only reliable when the cost beneath it is, so we explain the elements of a quote clearly, sample before bulk and help you understand which choices move the cost per piece. See what we make on Ruhrose's clothing manufacturing pages, then bring your target price and we will talk through what is realistic.
Before you finalise a price, ask yourself one question: if your cost rose by 10% tomorrow, would this markup still leave a margin you could live with?