Build an order that matches the way you sell
Choose a country and check whether the product uses its standard VAT rate. Enter the selling price actually expected after seller-funded discounts. Keep customer-paid shipping separate from the delivery bill: the first is money received, while the second is an expense. A carrier invoice does not become smaller because the buyer paid for shipping.
Enter landed product cost, outbound handling and packaging, advertising as a percentage of gross product sales, creator rate and eligible affiliate revenue share. The model converts percentage advertising into a per-order cost. Use costs excluding recoverable input VAT when appropriate to your accounting basis, or include irrecoverable tax consistently; the calculator cannot determine your tax recovery entitlement.
- Select the country, VAT treatment and confirmed commission tier.
- Enter the transaction price and buyer-paid shipping.
- Add product, fulfilment, packaging and allocated operating costs.
- Set the creator rate, eligible affiliate revenue share and advertising percentage.
- Run a no-return baseline before adding refund rate, handling and stock recovery.
Follow the money instead of subtracting one blended fee
VAT-exclusive revenue and the platform's chargeable base are different concepts. For a simple undiscounted order, this model applies platform commission to the VAT-inclusive item amount plus buyer-paid shipping. TikTok's order-commission guidance subtracts refunded sales and refunded customer shipping from that base.
Platform-funded coupons, mixed categories and partial refunds need order-level detail. The commission guide and the fee-reduction policy describe coupon terms differently; use Seller Center's actual base when reconciling those orders. Do not silently reinterpret the platform's Net Sales field as tax-exclusive accounting revenue.
The displayed contribution margin uses original gross item sales plus buyer-paid shipping before refunds as its denominator. The ROAS calculation uses gross product sales excluding buyer-paid shipping. Keep these definitions when comparing the model with reports that use retained sales or another revenue basis.
Contribution = revenue excluding output VAT − platform fee − affiliate cost − ads − product cost − fulfilment − packaging − other direct costs − expected return effectIllustrative example: a €60 French order
Assume a €60 VAT-inclusive sale, 20% VAT, a 9% platform fee, €18 product cost, €5 fulfilment, €1 packaging and €6 advertising. Assume every order is attributed to a creator at 10%, with no discounts, buyer-paid shipping or returns. These are invented planning inputs, not a typical seller's results.
Revenue excluding VAT is €50. After €41.40 of direct costs, contribution is €8.60. Dividing €8.60 by the €60 customer price gives a 14.33% contribution margin on gross sales. Using €50 as the denominator would produce 17.20%, which is a different metric and should be labelled separately.
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Customer price | Given | 60.00 |
| Output VAT | 60 − 60 / 1.20 | 10.00 |
| Platform commission | 60 × 9% | 5.40 |
| Affiliate commission | 60 × 10% | 6.00 |
| Product + fulfilment + packaging | 18 + 5 + 1 | 24.00 |
| Advertising | Given | 6.00 |
| Contribution | 50 − 5.40 − 6 − 24 − 6 | 8.60 |
Use the result to change a specific decision
If contribution is negative, changing the displayed margin target cannot fix the order. Find the cost you can actually alter: selling price, product cost, creator offer, parcel specification or acquisition spend. Test one change at a time so the effect can be attributed to a real operating decision.
For a launch, run the introductory fee and the applicable post-promotion fee on the same order. For a mature product, compare recent advertising cost and return experience against the assumptions. A small positive result needs a reserve for costs that have not yet been measured.
- Use the price-floor tool before approving a discount.
- Use the creator-limit tool before publishing a collaboration rate.
- Use break-even ROAS to translate remaining contribution into an ad budget.
- Reconcile a sample of settled orders before using the model for a large inventory decision.
Turn the result into a price, ad budget or creator offer
The fee and profit questions use the same order model here. Check the contribution breakdown before changing the selling price: costs paid outside Seller Center still reduce contribution, while a bank payout can include other orders and later adjustments.
Copy the result to keep a record of the market, currency and assumptions you actually used. The clipboard export stays under your control; inputs are not added to a public share URL. This model does not reconstruct mixed-category orders or funded coupons from a settlement file.
Which uncertainty deserves the next measurement?
The biggest visible percentage is not always the least reliable input. A confirmed platform fee can be more dependable than a guessed resale value for returned stock or an ad cost calculated from orders that have not matured. Improve the input whose plausible range changes the decision.
Keep the base case and the revised case together. If reducing stock recovery or increasing acquisition cost makes a product unviable, that tells you which operating evidence to collect before scaling. A calculator can identify that threshold; it cannot supply conversion, return quality or demand data for a product you have not tested.