True Dropshipping
Profit Calculator

Buy for $10, sell for $30, pocket $20? That's markup — not profit. Most calculators stop before the costs that actually decide whether you make money: ads, platform & payment fees, refunds and chargebacks. This one doesn't. Enter your numbers and see your real take-home per order — plus the breakeven ROAS you need to clear.

Calculate my profit
See margins by niche

Built on the Branvas Margin Stack™ cost model · benchmark data from Shopify, NRF & Branvas operating data · No email required

The Calculator

What do you actually keep per order?

Load a niche preset or enter your own numbers. Open advanced costs to factor in refunds, fixed fees, and monthly software — the line items that quietly turn a “profitable” product into a loss.
True net profit / order · before fixed overhead
$0.00
0% true net margin

What markup suggests vs. what you really keep

“Markup” margin
0%
Real net margin
0%
Breakeven ROAS
0.0×
Your ROAS
0.0×
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Per-order breakdown

Monthly net profit
$0
Orders to break even
0
Tip: your breakeven ROAS is the revenue you must earn for every $1 of ad spend just to avoid losing money. If your actual ROAS sits below it, every sale costs you — higher margin niches give you a lower bar to clear.
The 6 silent margin killers

Where your profit actually goes

The Branvas Margin Stack™ accounts for every cost between “what you paid your supplier” and “what lands in your bank.” Skip any layer and your real margin is fiction.
01
Product COGS (landed)
The product plus inbound freight and any duties — not just the supplier's sticker price.
02
Packaging & branding
Boxes, inserts, tags. The unboxing that justifies a premium price isn't free.
03
Shipping to customer
Your outbound cost. Bulky or heavy items quietly erase margin here.
04
Platform & payment fees
Shopify, Stripe/PayPal, or marketplace cuts — typically 3% to 9%+ of revenue.
05
Blended ad cost per unit
Total ad spend ÷ units sold. The layer founders omit most — and it's usually the biggest.
06
Return & chargeback reserve
A % of revenue set aside for refunds and disputes. Apparel's 25% dwarfs jewelry's ~6%.
Benchmark Rankings

What good margins look like by niche

Industry-typical figures for a branded model. Notice the spread: the categories with the most demand often carry the highest returns and thinnest real margins.
NicheGross marginReturn rateBlended ad % of revenueKeystone markup
Jewelry & Accessories60–75%4–8%15–25%300–500%
Beauty & Skincare60–72%5–10%20–28%200–400%
Fitness & Supplements65–78%4–8%25–35%250–500%
Phone Accessories55–75%6–10%22–30%200–400%
Print-on-Demand Apparel55–65%3–6%22–30%120–180%
Home Goods & Decor45–60%10–15%15–22%100–200%
Pet Products40–55%5–8%18–25%100–180%
Apparel & Fashion50–65%20–30%20–30%150–250%
Footwear45–55%18–27%20–30%120–200%
Electronics & Gadgets15–30%8–15%20–28%30–70%
Source: Branvas Margin Stack™ benchmark research (NYU Stern margins data, NRF returns data). Return rate and ad cost are the two levers that most often separate a healthy net margin from a break-even one.
The number that actually matters

Revenue is vanity. Contribution margin is sanity.

Plenty of stores run ads for weeks, watch sales roll in, and assume they're winning — while quietly subsidizing every customer's purchase. The fix isn't more ad spend; it's knowing your true unit economics before you scale. Research in the Journal of Business Venturing found stores still unprofitable after year one are 1.79× more likely to fail.

This is also why niche choice is a margin decision, not a taste decision. Generic dropshipping often runs on 15–25% gross margins, leaving almost nothing after a $68–$84 customer acquisition cost. A branded, high-margin category gives you room to absorb rising ad costs and still bank profit. Jewelry is the clearest example — low shipping weight, low returns, and 60–80% private-label margins mean a far lower breakeven ROAS to clear.

15–25%

typical generic dropshipping gross margin

$68–84

average ecommerce customer acquisition cost

60–80%

private-label jewelry gross margin

Sources: ScienceDirect (JBV) · Common Thread Collective · TrueProfit · Branvas operating data.

FAQ

How do you actually calculate dropshipping profit?
Start with revenue per order, then subtract every variable cost: product (landed) cost, packaging, your shipping cost, platform and payment fees, a return/chargeback reserve, and your marketing cost per order. What's left is your true net profit per order. The mistake most beginners make is stopping at “price minus product cost” — that's markup, and it ignores the four or five costs that decide whether you're actually profitable.
What is breakeven ROAS and how is it calculated?
Breakeven ROAS is the return on ad spend you need just to avoid losing money. It equals your revenue per order divided by your gross profit per order before ads (equivalently, 1 ÷ your contribution-margin ratio). If a product has a 60% contribution margin, your breakeven ROAS is about 1.67× — you need $1.67 in revenue for every $1 of ad spend. Anything above that is profit; anything below it is a loss. Higher-margin products have a lower breakeven ROAS, which is why margin matters more than demand.
What's a good profit margin for dropshipping?
Generic dropshipping often runs on 15–25% gross margins, which is fragile once ads and returns are factored in. A healthy contribution margin after variable costs is 20–35% of net sales, and strong brands target 35–50%. Below 15% is a danger zone where one bad month of ad performance wipes out profit. Private-label categories like jewelry routinely reach 60–80% gross margins because you control the brand and the price.
Why does my calculator say I'm losing money when my markup looks high?
Because markup and margin aren't the same thing. A $16 product sold for $45 looks like a 64% markup — but after a $5.50 ship cost, fees, a 25% return reserve (typical for apparel), and ad spend, the real net margin can go negative. This calculator surfaces exactly that gap so you catch it before you scale ad spend, not after.
Is dropshipping still profitable in 2026?
Yes, but the profitable version is branded and margin-led, not generic arbitrage. With customer acquisition costs now averaging $68–$84, thin-margin generic stores struggle to clear their breakeven ROAS. The stores that win pick high-margin, low-return categories and build a brand that supports premium pricing — which is what keeps the breakeven ROAS low enough to scale.
Next step

Want the margin math to start in your favor?

Branvas gives you pre-negotiated landed costs on private-label jewelry, branded packaging, and blind fulfillment — the margin structure that keeps your breakeven ROAS low enough to scale. You only pay for products after your customer pays.

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Choosing what to sell first? Try the

Niche Profitability Scorecard