Free & impartial money advice
Scenario-driven pricing toolkit

Profit Margin & Pricing Strategy Planner 2025

Optimise price points, margin resilience, and contribution economics across channels before your next pricing cycle.

Contribution modelling Benchmark calibration Export-ready insights

Step 1 • Commercial inputs

Cost stack & targets

Adjust assumptions to benchmark against your peers.

Step 2 • Scenario explorer

Pricing simulations

Compare baseline, value creation, and promotion guardrails to understand price elasticity and contribution dynamics.

Current pricing framework

Reflects your current cost stack, target margin, and payment fees.

Recommended price
£158.52
Gross margin
70.5%
Markup
264.7%
Monthly profit
£45,336
Break-even units
115
  • Recommended price £158.52 (70.5%)
  • Contribution £111.72 per order with £4.60 fees
  • Break-even at 115 units (£18,230)
Recommended

Value creation play

Bundling, merchandising, and CX improvements yield +4pts margin and cost efficiencies.

Recommended price
£175.58
Gross margin
74.3%
Markup
322.4%
Monthly profit
£54,665
Break-even units
101
  • Recommended price £175.58 (74.3%)
  • Contribution £130.39 per order with £4.74 fees
  • Break-even at 101 units (£17,734)

Adjustments

  • Margin target adjusted by 4.0%.
  • Supplier savings of 5.0% applied.
  • Lower performance marketing spend of 6.0% per order.
  • Payment + platform fees reduced by 0.2%.
  • Bundle premium of £4.00 applied to price.

Promotion guardrail

Seasonal discounting, higher marketing pressure, and increased payment friction.

Recommended price
£139.24
Gross margin
65.4%
Markup
207.8%
Monthly profit
£34,981
Break-even units
136
  • Recommended price £139.24 (65.4%)
  • Contribution £91.00 per order with £4.46 fees
  • Break-even at 136 units (£18,937)

Adjustments

  • Margin target adjusted by -6.0%.
  • COGS pressure of 2.0% applied.
  • Higher performance marketing spend of 12.0% per order.
  • Payment + platform fees increased by 0.3%.
  • Promotional reduction of £2.00 applied to price.

Platform economics

Commerce fee comparison

Understand how platform fees shift contribution per order and break-even targets for your baseline price.

Shopify Advanced

Enterprise-grade automation, lower processing fees, blended omnichannel stack.

70.5% margin

115 break-even units

£111.72 contribution per order

Fees/order £4.60 • Monthly profit £45,336

Shopify Core

Balanced pricing with analytics and marketplace integrations.

70.0% margin

114 break-even units

£110.93 contribution per order

Fees/order £5.39 • Monthly profit £45,114

BigCommerce Enterprise

Native B2B features, flexible pricing rules, catalog depth.

71.0% margin

115 break-even units

£112.51 contribution per order

Fees/order £3.80 • Monthly profit £45,609

WooCommerce + Stripe

Extensible, self-hosted commerce with payment plugins and add-ons.

69.6% margin

115 break-even units

£110.30 contribution per order

Fees/order £6.02 • Monthly profit £44,775

Pricing sensitivity

±5% experiment
5% discount margin
69.1%
5% price lift margin
71.7%
Break-even at -5%
123 units
Break-even at +5%
107 units
Net monthly profit delta (+5%)
£4,002

Use this to brief finance and lifecycle teams on response needed for promotions or premium positioning.

Guardrail checklist

Margin buffer

5.1%

Headroom before margin compresses to promotion guardrail level.

Promotion floor price

£139.24

Lowest sustainable price while covering payment fees and fixed overhead.

Price delta vs baseline

£19.28

Required change to pivot from baseline to guardrail scenario.

Competitor gap

£86.52

Relative positioning compared with your anchor competitor price.

Step 3 • Competitor positioning

Pricing posture brief

Summarise where you sit against competitors and outline plays to reinforce pricing power.

Price anchor

Baseline price: £158.52

Competitor price: £72.00

Positioning

£86.52 premium above competitor.

Narrative

Price is positioned above competitor; emphasise bundle value, CX, and retention to justify premium.

Step 4 • Action plan

Insights & next moves

Signal

Margin sits 18.5% above the 52% median for your segment.

Signal

Markup is 186.7% above segment peers.

Signal

Value-add scenario unlocks £9,328 additional monthly profit with 3.8% margin lift.

Signal

Pricing is £86.52 above the competitor anchor. Price is positioned above competitor; emphasise bundle value, CX, and retention to justify premium.

Signal

Track refund rates and LTV:CAC ratio quarterly to maintain pricing power and guardmarket share.

Frequently asked questions

How do I protect margin when costs increase?

Track supplier and freight contracts quarterly, maintain a reserve of bundle or subscription offers, and rehearse promotion guardrails so you know the lowest sustainable price before discounting.

When should I run pricing experiments?

Anchor tests around product launches, cohort restarts, or when LTV:CAC rises above your target band. Use the sensitivity view to brief finance on volume shifts required to hold contribution.

How reliable are the benchmarks?

Benchmarks blend public filings, network surveys, and operator dashboards from 2023-2024. Treat them as directional guardrails and calibrate with your channel mix and LTV trajectories.

Disclaimer

This model provides directional pricing guidance. Validate with finance, revenue operations, and legal teams before executing price changes. Performance will vary with channel mix, promotional cadence, and customer retention. Some links may be affiliate links; read our affiliate disclosure for more details.