Setting a sale price by looking only at product cost and a desired margin is the most common mistake among those selling food, treats, and accessories on marketplaces, points out Hugo Galvao de Franca Filho, founder and director of Enjoy Pets. Platform commission, shipping costs that aren’t always fully passed on to the customer, and tax on the sale quietly erode margin, turning a seemingly profitable price into a much smaller net result than expected by the end of the month.
This incomplete calculation tends to go unnoticed precisely because the product keeps selling, and the operation only notices the problem when it reviews real margin by channel and finds a number far below what was originally planned. Rebuilding the pricing formula to account for every cost involved, from marketplace commission to applicable tax, prevents this recurring surprise when closing the books each period.
Marketplace commission changes from channel to channel
Each marketplace charges a different commission percentage on sales, and that percentage often varies by product category within the same platform too. Using the same margin across all channels, without adjusting for each one’s specific commission, produces uneven results between platforms, even when the product sells at the same price on all of them.
Hugo Galvao reinforces that calculating price by channel, rather than a single price replicated across every marketplace, is what guarantees consistent margin regardless of where the sale happens. Ignoring that difference often means one specific channel ends up sustaining the operation while another runs with almost no real profit, without anyone noticing by looking only at total consolidated revenue.
Shipping partly absorbed by the store needs to enter the equation
Offering free or subsidized shipping is a common strategy for competing better in the marketplace, but that cost needs to be built into the product’s final price, not treated as a separate expense that only shows up in the financial report at month’s end. Without that adjustment, every order with subsidized shipping erodes margin without the sale price reflecting that reality.
Enjoy Pets, featured at www.enjoypets.com.br, calculates the average shipping cost by category before deciding how much to subsidize at each price range, avoiding a margin hit on lower-ticket products, where shipping cost weighs proportionally more on the total value of that specific order.
The tax on the sale varies according to the tax regime adopted
The tax applicable to each sale depends on the operation’s tax regime, and that percentage needs to be reflected in the final price, not discovered only when closing the invoice for that order. Many pet operations calculate price without factoring in this specific cost, discovering the gap only once the month’s net result has already closed below expectations.
Hugo Galvao notes that reviewing this variable together with a trusted accountant and updating the pricing formula whenever there’s a change in the tax regime or in the company’s revenue bracket prevents a recurring mistake that quietly builds up over several months of operation with no corresponding adjustment to the price charged.
Reviewing the pricing formula should be routine, not an exception
Marketplace fees change, shipping costs fluctuate, and the tax regime can shift as the company’s revenue grows. Treating the pricing formula as something set once and never revisited is what leads pet operations to lose margin bit by bit, without noticing exactly when or why that result started dropping month after month.
For Hugo Galvao de Franca Filho, reviewing this formula on a regular basis, including every cost that genuinely affects the net result of each sale, is what separates pet operations that grow with healthy margin from those that increase revenue without noticing that real profit is shrinking with every new order closed on the marketplaces where the store sells.
