The direct answer
A 10% price cut can require much more than 10% extra volume because the costs of each order do not all fall with the price. Compare contribution per full-price order with contribution per discounted order before approving the promotion.
The customer gets a discount. Your costs may not.
Product cost, packing, fulfilment and many shipping charges remain when the ticket price falls. Percentage payment fees may fall with revenue; fixed fees do not. That difference is why revenue-based discount comparisons miss the commercial effect.
Put the actual costs into the model. A store absorbing delivery or paying transaction fees has different economics from one passing those charges to the customer.
Do the second calculation.
Illustration: R1,000 price, R400 COGS, R60 shipping subsidy, R20 fulfilment, R40 other costs and 3% payment/platform fees. The full-price contribution is R450. At 10% off, price becomes R900 and contribution becomes R353.
At 100 full-price orders, contribution is R45,000. Preserving that total requires 128 discounted orders after rounding up: 28 extra orders. That is before any extra advertising cost needed to win them.
Volume needs a delivery plan.
Can your stock, cash and fulfilment team support the extra orders? A promotion can improve sales while increasing returns, overtime or support load. Add those expected costs to the model where you have evidence.
The calculator holds order mix and per-order costs fixed. Use different scenarios if your discounted baskets, product mix or delivery zones change. A single average can conceal a promotion that works for one product and loses money on another.
Try a different offer before cutting everything.
A useful bundle, a relevant upsell or a threshold-based shipping offer may improve the customer’s perceived value without cutting every product’s price. Each alternative still needs a contribution calculation.
Test against the current offer with comparable audiences. Record revenue, contribution, acquisition cost, refunds and repeat purchase behaviour. The winning promotion is the one your business can keep, not merely the one shoppers notice.
Put your own numbers into it.
Use the free calculator, change the inputs and keep a private snapshot of your scenarios.
Run my numbers →What to check next
- Calculate discounted contribution before launching.
- Include any extra acquisition and fulfilment costs.
- Check stock and cash capacity for the required volume.
Questions worth answering
How do I calculate required discounted orders?
Divide the current contribution total by positive discounted contribution per order, then round up. Subtract current orders to find the extra volume required.
What if discounted contribution is zero or negative?
More discounted orders cannot restore positive starting contribution under the same cost assumptions. Review the discount, price or costs.
The ad is part of the job. The journey is the job.
See how Blaze approaches the offer, website, acquisition and follow-up around the click.
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