ProductCatalogs.ai

Margin after a price increase

Checking Margin After a Price Increase

A percentage increase in an email tells you nothing about your margin on its own. You have to look at your cost and your sell price together, for every product the increase touches, before you know whether it's fine or a problem.

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Why this matters

A 4% cost increase looks minor next to a 3,000-row price file. Applied to a product you already sell close to your minimum margin, it can turn a profitable line into one priced near break-even, and nobody decided that on purpose — it just came in with everything else.

A safer process

Turn the update into a clear decision.

  1. 1Pull the new cost and your current sell price for every product the supplier changed, not just the ones that look different.
  2. 2Calculate the resulting margin for each one against your minimum margin rule, not against the old margin.
  3. 3Flag anything that falls under your rule, even if the increase itself looked small.
  4. 4Separate products you can reprice immediately from ones where the sell price is fixed elsewhere (a contract, a catalog, a marketplace listing).
  5. 5Approve the cost increases that hold your margin; hold the rest for a pricing decision before they take effect.

Review checklist

Before you approve.

  • Every changed cost has a paired sell price, not just the new number from the supplier.
  • Margin is recalculated, not assumed to move by the same percentage as cost.
  • A minimum margin rule exists and is applied the same way every time.
  • Products below the rule are held, not accepted by default.
  • The decision on each flagged product is recorded somewhere you can find it later.

Frequently asked questions

Does a 5% cost increase mean a 5% margin drop?

No — margin is not cost. A 5% cost increase can be a much bigger hit to margin percentage, especially on a product already priced close to your minimum, so the two numbers have to be checked together, not assumed to move in step.

What if the sell price can't change right away?

Then the margin hit is real until it does. Flagging it at least means it's a known, chosen risk instead of a number nobody looked at.

Check your own supplier file before anything changes.

Start with one CSV or Excel file. ProductCatalogs.ai shows the risky changes and keeps the current catalog protected until you approve.

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