Skip to content
Concept 2 Consumer — home

Glossary · Costs & pricing

Markup vs. margin

Markup is profit as a percentage of cost; margin is profit as a percentage of the selling price. A 100% markup is a 50% margin.

Why it matters for a product launch

Mixing the two up is an easy way to misprice a product, so check which one a buyer or supplier means.

General definition for education only, not legal, tax or customs advice.

Related terms

  • Keystone pricing: Setting the retail price at twice the wholesale cost: a 100% markup, which is a 50% margin.
  • COGS: The cost of the products you sold in a period: what you paid to buy or make them, plus costs to get them into inventory, such as inbound freight and duties.
  • Landed cost: The full per-unit cost of getting an imported product into your inventory: product cost plus freight, duties and tariffs, insurance, brokerage and fees.

All glossary terms

Related services

Market Research & Validation

Understand your market, your customers and your competitors, and what it will cost to launch, before you commit to design or production.

Next step

Bringing a product to market?

Tell us where your product stands today. Every submission is reviewed personally, and we'll be in touch about next steps.

Start a projectAll glossary terms