1. Cost one finished order, including your time.
Choose an actual product and variant. A small plain tray and a large personalised tray can take different amounts of material, finishing and packing. Price the version you intend to sell rather than an average that hides the expensive option.
Time a normal batch, including preparation, finishing, personalisation, packing and routine order handling. Divide shared work across the sellable items. If a batch produces ten pieces but two cannot be sold, the other eight must carry its costs.
A wooden desk tray: worked cost worksheet
These invented US-dollar figures explain the method. They are not typical Etsy costs, fee rates or a recommended hourly wage.
| Cost for one order | Example | What to record for yours |
|---|---|---|
| Materials and consumables | $6.00 | Wood, finish and a share of normal waste. |
| Working time | $15.00 | 45 minutes at a chosen $20/hour, including order preparation. |
| Packaging | $1.25 | Box, protection, tape and label. |
| Allocated overhead | $2.50 | A realistic share of equipment, workspace and other running costs. |
| Outbound postage | $5.25 | The amount paid to send this packed order. |
| Total before selling fees | $30.00 | Keep fees and the intended profit separate. |
Allocate overhead using a realistic number of sellable units. Check the figure again if production volume changes. Avoid counting the same expense twice: packaging already included here should not also sit in your overhead allowance.
2. Find what remains after the whole order.
Suppose the example tray costs the buyer $35 plus $5 shipping: $40 collected for the item and delivery. Assume the applicable selling-fee estimate for this particular example is $4. After the $30 cost above and those fees, $6 remains.
$40 collected − $30 order costs − $4 assumed fees = $6 remaining. Your working time is already covered in the cost worksheet. Calling the whole amount left after materials “profit” would hide that time, postage and the other expenses.
The $4 is an illustration, not an Etsy fee quote. Use the Etsy fee and profit calculator with your seller country, item price, shipping charged and relevant options. Check its assumptions against the fees that apply to your shop and order.
Your price floor is the order income needed to cover the costs you included, including your chosen pay for time and applicable fees. A floor leaves no extra profit. Because some fees change with the selling price, recalculate them when trying a new price. Do not simply add today’s fee estimate to every future price.
For this example, the $6 remainder is 15% of the $40 collected: the margin on that income. The markup on the $34 total cost, including the assumed fees, is about 17.6%. Keep the cost base clear when comparing a margin with a markup.
3. Compare the offer, not the cheapest thumbnail.
A competitor’s price does not reveal their costs. Compare the same quantity, material, dimensions, finish and selected personalisation, with delivery to the same destination. A digital woodworking plan is not a cheaper physical tray.
Use our product comparison worksheet to keep those details together. If your required price sits above the offers you find, identify the useful difference a buyer can actually see. If there is no convincing difference, revise the design, process or intended customer before making stock.
4. Check the profit before offering a discount.
Taking 10% off the $35 item removes $3.50 from the order income if shipping stays unchanged. The wood, working time and postage still cost the same. Recalculate selling fees too; a smaller fee does not return the full discount.
The Etsy discount calculator lets you compare the original and sale scenarios. Check the money remaining per order, then ask how many extra orders would be needed to match the original result. Also check whether you have time to make them.
5. Leave with one price test.
Copy this into your product notes
- Product and selected option: ______
- Cost, including working time and delivery: ______
- Item price, shipping charged and fee estimate: ______
- Amount remaining and reason to choose this offer: ______
- Test date, available quantity and review date: ______
Record relevant visits, orders, buyer questions and actual production time. Keep other major changes steady where practical. A few quiet days cannot establish that a price is wrong; equally, more orders are not progress if each one leaves too little to justify the work.
Sources and approach
Prepared by What Sells Next on 10 November 2026. Etsy’s pricing guidance supports combining a view of costs with market research and testing. The desk-tray worksheet and calculations are our original hypothetical example. They do not include every possible business expense or establish a suitable price for your shop.