Floral recipe pricing and markup
Enter the recipe as you would buy it. The price, the margin, and the profit update as you type, and the formula is written out underneath. No account and no email, here or anywhere on this site.
1. The recipe
| Item | Stems | Cost each | Line cost | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $74.40 | ||||
| $42.30 | ||||
| $22.20 | ||||
| $17.10 | ||||
| $6.40 | ||||
| Wholesale cost | $162.40 |
Figures are illustrative. Use your own invoices.
2. How you price
3. Labor, if you price it here
Labor folded into the flower markup disappears the moment the recipe changes. If you keep it here, keep it visible on the quote as well.
What this page does, step by step
The wholesale cost is the sum of every line you entered: stems multiplied by cost each, plus hard goods. Freight belongs in those numbers, so use the cost you actually paid rather than the list price.
wholesale cost = sum of (quantity x cost each)
Add up every line of the recipe at what you paid.
price = wholesale cost x markup
Multiply what you paid by your markup, or divide by one minus your target margin. The two methods are the same arithmetic read from different ends.
gross margin = (price - cost) / price
Subtract your costs from the price and divide by the price. Margin is a share of what you charge, not a multiple of what you paid.
| Markup | Margin |
|---|---|
| 2.0x | 50.0% |
| 2.5x | 60.0% |
| 3.0x | 66.7% |
| 3.5x | 71.4% |
| 4.0x | 75.0% |
Cost of goods percentage
Read the percentage off a price you already quote, or work back to the price that holds a target.
Read the percentage off a price
Cost of goods is the cost divided by the price. Before rounding, it and the gross margin sum to 100 percent of the price.
Work back from a target
$541.33
$162.40 / 0.30 = $541.33
Divide the cost by the target expressed as a decimal. The result is the price at which the flowers cost exactly that share of what you charge.
Stem count and the wholesale order
Count stems from the recipe, then turn the count into whole bunches, because that is how the wholesaler sells them.
| Piece | How many | Stems each | Stems | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | ||||
| 56 | ||||
| 12 | ||||
| 180 |
Counts are illustrative. Your recipe decides the stems.
Markup calculator questions
- How do I use a florist markup calculator?
- Enter the recipe line by line: how many of each stem or hard good, and what each one cost you with freight included. Choose whether to price from a markup or from a target margin, and add labor as its own line if you quote it that way. The calculator returns the price, the gross margin, and the gross profit, and prints the formula under the result so you can check it by hand. It runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
- What markup should I enter?
- Your own. We publish no standard florist markup, because we have no citable source for one. What we can show is what any markup does: gross margin is one minus one divided by the markup, so a 2.0 markup keeps 50 percent of the price and a 3.0 markup keeps 66.7 percent. Which one covers your business depends on your own costs, and the profit margin chapter shows how to find out.
- How do I convert a markup to a margin?
- Margin is one minus one divided by the markup, and markup is one divided by one minus the margin. A markup of 2.5 is 1 minus 0.4, a margin of 60 percent. A target margin of 75 percent is 1 divided by 0.25, a markup of 4.0. The table on this page lists the common pairs, all derived by that one line of arithmetic.
The long form of this arithmetic is in the floral pricing formula chapter, and the gap between the margin on a quote and the margin you keep is in the profit margin chapter.