Landed Cost and Margin Calculator: What a Custom Apparel Order Really Costs
A supplier unit price is only the first line of a costing sheet. This free calculator takes the figures you already have – your quoted unit price, samples, artwork setup, freight, insurance, duty, import tax, broker fees, delivery, a defect allowance and your channel commission – and turns them into a landed cost per sellable piece, a break-even retail price and a gross margin. Every number is yours. We publish no prices, duty rates or tax advice in this tool.
The gap between a unit price and a sellable unit
A 120-piece run does not have 120 sellable pieces after a defect allowance, and a 12 percent marketplace fee is charged on the price you charge, not on your profit. Add samples, screens, freight, duty and last mile and the ex-works price can be half of what each garment really costs you. Pricing from the first number is how small launches quietly lose money.
Why we built a calculator that does not know our own prices
We are a manufacturer, and our unit cost depends on a specific base cloth, construction, decoration sequence, packing spec and quantity. We confirm fabric before we issue a costed quote, and a public widget that printed a dollar figure would either expose our cost structure or invent a number that changes the moment the spec is agreed. That is why our Budget Range Estimator shows cost drivers rather than a price.
But buyers still need somewhere to put the numbers they do have. A freight quote from a forwarder, a duty rate from a broker, a sample invoice, a marketplace commission schedule – these are real figures that belong in one place. This calculator is that place. It is deliberately a worksheet: you supply every rate, and it does deterministic arithmetic you could check with a pocket calculator.
It also handles the two adjustments people forget. The first is that a defect allowance reduces sellable units, so every fixed charge is spread over fewer garments. The second is that a percentage channel fee is charged on the full retail price, so the break-even price rises faster than the landed cost when commission goes up.
The ten cost lines, and where they come from
Goods value is quantity times your ex-works unit price. One-off charges – samples, screens and artwork setup, freight, insurance, broker and port fees, inland delivery and other overhead – are charged once for the order, which is exactly why they hurt a small run so much. Import duty is a percentage of the customs value: in some jurisdictions that is goods only, in others goods plus freight and insurance. The worksheet lets you choose the basis your broker uses.
Import VAT or GST is applied here to goods plus freight plus duty. If your business can recover it, tick the box: the amount stays in the cash you must fund, but leaves the landed cost used for margin. That distinction matters. A recoverable tax is still a real cash-flow requirement for a small brand placing its first order.
Break-even, markup and margin are three different numbers
Break-even retail is the price at which your net revenue after the channel fee exactly equals your landed cost. Gross margin is gross profit divided by net revenue, not by landed cost. The retail multiple is simply retail price divided by landed cost – a 3x multiple is not a 300 percent margin. Mixing these up is a surprisingly common way to overestimate profitability.
The worksheet also shows the retail price you would need to hit a target margin at your current channel fee. If that number is far above what your market will pay, the honest answer is not a cleverer formula: it is a different spec, a larger run to spread one-off charges, a cheaper freight mode, or a higher-value product.
Build your landed cost worksheet
Enter the figures you have. Leave a line at zero if you do not know it yet – the worksheet will flag it as a lower bound rather than guessing. Everything recalculates instantly in your browser, and nothing is sent to a server.
What does one garment really cost by the time it reaches your shelf?
A unit price from a supplier is the first line, not the answer. Samples, artwork setup, freight, insurance, duty, import tax, broker fees, last-mile delivery, defects and marketplace commission all change the number you actually need to price against. Enter your own figures and this worksheet turns them into a landed cost per sellable piece, a break-even retail price and a gross margin.
The goods
One-off charges for the whole order
Border and delivery
Selling side
The number that matters
Where the money goes
| Line item | Basis | Order total | Per sellable piece | Share of landed cost |
|---|
Margin and break-even
| Metric | Value | What it means |
|---|
Worksheet to copy into your planning file
This is a personal arithmetic worksheet, not a quotation, a landed-cost guarantee or tax advice. Nothing is uploaded; inputs are saved only as a local draft on this device.
How to use the result with a real quote
Start with our written quote for the ex-works unit price, then add what your forwarder and broker tell you. Compare the landed cost per sellable piece with your planned retail price before you commit to a size run or a marketing spend. If the margin only works at a retail price nobody will pay, say so early – a smaller first run with fewer colourways often spreads one-off charges more honestly than an optimistic forecast.
The worksheet deliberately assumes every sellable piece sells at full price. It does not model markdowns, returns, unsold sizes, currency movement, finance cost or the working capital tied up while goods are on the water. Treat the total gross profit line as a best case, not a forecast. Our MOQ and Size Run Planner helps you think about the size curve that creates those unsold sizes in the first place.
Where a low-MOQ order surprises first-time buyers
Samples and setup are the usual shock. On a 60-piece run, a sample invoice and a handful of screens can add more per piece than the garment itself. Freight is the second: air freight rescues a deadline but changes the arithmetic completely compared with sea, and a carton count based on folded hoodies is not a carton count based on tees. Ask for both options when you request a quote.
The third is the defect allowance. No factory ships zero defects, and a written QC standard with an agreed acceptance rate is worth more than a reassuring sentence in an email. Put the agreed tolerance into this worksheet and see what it does to your cost per sellable piece before you sign off.
Limits, and what we will not claim
This tool contains no Fexwear prices, no duty tables, no HS code lookup, no VAT registration logic, no live freight or currency rates, and no connection to any API. It does not know your commodity code, origin rules, preferential trade agreements, de minimis threshold, carrier contract, insurance terms or tax status. It makes no currency conversion: the currency selector is a label, and every figure must use the same currency.
It is arithmetic on numbers you typed. Any unit price, duty rate, freight cost, tax treatment, delivery date or availability used in a purchase decision must be confirmed by your supplier, broker and carrier, and by a written quote from our team. Pair it with the RFQ Brief Builder so your enquiry arrives complete enough to price accurately.
Frequently asked questions
Does Fexwear supply the unit price or duty rate in this tool?
No. Every price and rate is entered by you. We do not quote before fabric and specification are confirmed, and we give no customs or tax advice. Request a written quote for the ex-works price, and ask your broker for the duty rate.
Why is my landed cost per piece higher than my unit price plus freight divided by quantity?
Because a defect allowance reduces sellable pieces, and one-off charges, duty and import tax are spread across that smaller number. Channel fees affect the selling side, not the landed cost.
Should import VAT be in my landed cost?
If your business can recover it, it is a cash-flow item rather than a cost, so tick recoverable. It stays in total cash funded. Confirm recoverability with your accountant; this tool makes no determination.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Gross margin is profit divided by net revenue. The retail multiple here is retail price divided by landed cost. A 2x multiple is a 50 percent margin before channel fees, not a 200 percent one.
Is duty applied to goods value or to goods plus freight?
It depends on the destination and the valuation rule your broker applies. The worksheet offers both bases. Choose the one your broker confirms for your shipment.
Does the tool convert currencies?
No. The currency selector is a display label only. Enter every figure in the same currency, including freight, duty and retail price.
What does the total gross profit figure assume?
That every sellable piece sells at the full planned retail price. It excludes markdowns, returns, unsold sizes, financing cost and currency movement, so treat it as an upper bound.
What should I send to get a real ex-works price?
Style, fabric, quantity, in-hand date and destination, plus decoration and artwork details. The RFQ Brief Builder writes the brief and the Launch Timeline Planner checks the date is realistic.
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Further reading from our team
About the team behind this tool
Fexwear was founded in 2010 and runs a self-owned factory with in-house knitting, cut-and-sew, sublimation, embroidery and QC. We hold 50+ BSCI test certified fabrics in stock, build dedicated youth-adult and mens-womens grading blocks, and ship retail-ready, barcoded cartons to 30 countries by air or sea. Our ten design specialists work from local market needs, and the same team that samples your garment is the team advising on it. That is why this calculator hands the arithmetic to you and keeps our own prices out of it: a number you can verify is worth more than a number we invented.