Margin is retail minus everything that happens after the customer pays.
Profit margin questions are really landed-cost questions. Two sellers with the same retail price can have wildly different outcomes if one ignored minimum job pricing, shipping zones, or royalty-bearing marketplace files. This article breaks down the line items Printlooper surfaces in seller tooling and why you should never trust a single blanket percentage.
The margin stack
Start with retail price, subtract supplier production including material by weight, setup, post-processing, and packaging, then subtract marketplace royalty if applicable, seller platform fee, transaction fees, and your effective shipping charge after any subsidies.
Refunds and reprints erode margin; bake conservative failure assumptions into pricing instead of hoping averages hold.
Why grams and geometry both matter
Weight drives material cost, but print time and failure risk drive supplier pricing. Complex branches or tall thin walls can increase labor even when weight looks low.
Designers can help by offering robust orientations and supported islands that reduce scrap on the network.
Tools to model your case
Use the seller calculator for a quick scenario, then read Pricing for fee schedules. Compare against dropship SKUs if you list supplier catalog items with different economics.
For scaling thought experiments, pair this page with the scale article in this series.
Frequently asked questions
What is a minimum job price?
Suppliers often declare a floor so tiny parts still cover machine prep, QA, and packing. It can dominate economics for very light items.
Do designers always take a royalty?
Royalties apply when sellers use marketplace-sourced files per platform rules. Your own uploads may not carry a third-party royalty.
Where are official fees documented?
The Pricing page and in-app listing breakdowns are authoritative; calculators are illustrative only.