A discount may increase orders without increasing profit. The useful question before joining a promotion is how much remains from each completed sale after the costs attributable to it.
1. Find out who funds the discount
The buyer-facing price is not always the amount charged to the seller. A seller-funded markdown, marketplace subsidy and coupon can produce different settlement figures. Check the promotion terms and the relevant report rather than applying a generic “10% off” calculation.
2. Build one SKU baseline
Collect sale price, commission, logistics, ad spend per completed sale, purchase cost and other applicable deductions. Match their periods and sources. Mark missing costs as unknown, not zero. If two reports disagree, use this reconciliation method.
An illustrative calculation: a 1,000 ₽ sale minus 400 ₽ purchase cost, 200 ₽ combined commission and logistics, 100 ₽ advertising and 50 ₽ other costs leaves 250 ₽. If the seller funds a reduction to 900 ₽ and every other amount truly stays fixed, profit falls to 150 ₽. This is a sensitivity example, not a sales forecast. Percentage fees and variable costs must be recalculated under the new terms.
3. Set a decision threshold
Record the minimum acceptable profit per completed sale and the maximum advertising cost per completed sale. If the plan relies on more volume to offset lower unit profit, calculate the required number of completed sales separately. More orders do not automatically mean more completed sales.
4. Compare the plan with the actual result
After launch, compare actual price, fees, logistics, returns and ads over a consistent period. Check purchase cost freshness first: a recent cost change can make the margin look better than it is.
ProfitVena helps inspect SKU economics using available marketplace data, configured costs and supported Excel/CSV imports. Completeness depends on connected sources, product mapping and your cost rules. The technical part was updated in ProfitVena; this does not claim an automatic prediction of promotion outcomes. ProfitVena is part of the Wicsora ecosystem.
Decision question: what profit remains from one completed SKU sale if you fund the discount?
