Use a task on Product prices to calculate selling prices from Cost per item. Margin and markup use different formulas. These features require Advanced or Premium and are not available for market-price changes or sales.
Margin and markup are different
Goal | Calculation | With a cost of 20 |
|---|---|---|
50% margin | Cost divided by 1 minus the margin | Selling price 40 |
50% markup | Cost plus 50% of that cost | Selling price 30 |
Margin is the difference between price and cost as a share of the selling price. Markup is that difference as a share of cost. These calculations use Shopify's cost per item, not your total business expenses, shipping charges or payment fees.
Set a target margin
Click Create task.
Select Product prices.
Under Price, choose Set margin.
Enter the target margin in Percent.
Under Compare at price, select Don't change compare at price and No rounding to preserve that field.
Under Cost per item, select Don't change cost per item and No rounding.
Select the products under Apply to and review exclusions.
Click Create when ready to apply.
The margin must be greater than 0 and less than 100. For a 60% margin on a cost of 20, the calculated price is 50. Currency precision can affect the final margin.
Set a markup on cost
Click Create task and select Product prices.
Under Price, choose Increase price.
Set Relative to to Cost per item.
Set Change type to By percent.
Enter the markup in Percent.
Under Compare at price, select Don't change compare at price and No rounding to preserve that field.
Under Cost per item, select Don't change cost per item and No rounding.
Select the products under Apply to and review exclusions.
Click Create when ready to apply.
Increase price here means an increase from cost, not from the current selling price. A variant costing 20 and currently selling for 50 will become 30 with a 50% markup. The result can lower an existing selling price.
Check costs before running the task
The cost-based calculation needs a positive cost for each variant. Missing or zero costs cannot produce the requested margin or markup. Fill in those costs first and check the task's Details afterward. Other selected actions or rounding settings are separate, so do not assume a missing cost prevents every possible change to that variant.
Changing a selling price from cost does not itself update the cost field. To preserve cost, keep both Don't change cost per item and No rounding selected. Rounding can change cost even when its action says not to change it.
This is a one-time calculation. It does not continuously recalculate selling prices whenever a supplier changes costs. Start with a small live test.
To update the cost field itself, follow change cost per item without changing selling prices.