How to price a skincare product: from cost to wholesale and retail

To price a skincare product, start from your landed cost per unit, set a retail price the market will accept, then work back to the wholesale and distributor prices you will offer. Retailers typically expect to sell at about twice what they pay you, so your wholesale price is roughly half of retail, and your costs have to fit under it.

This guide gives you the method and the formulas. The numbers in the examples are round, hypothetical figures, so swap in your own.

Step 1: know your landed cost per unit

Landed cost is everything you pay to get one sellable unit into your warehouse. It is the floor under every price you set.

At KoreanOEM a serum starts from $3.70 per unit at 500 units with a library formula, stock bottle and one-color label, and the written quote itemizes formula, packaging, decoration, tests, documents and freight. Starting prices for all 30 product types are on our products page.

Keep one-off costs such as samples, design and trademark filing out of the unit cost. Track them as launch costs and recover them through your margin.

Step 2: set the retail price from the market

Cost sets the floor; the market sets the ceiling. List 10 to 20 products your customer would compare with yours and convert each to a price per milliliter or gram. A $38 serum in a 30 ml bottle is about $1.27 per ml, and a $24 serum in 50 ml is $0.48 per ml. Decide where you belong in that range, and why: formula, ingredients, size, packaging or audience.

Then test the result against your cost with one number, the retail multiple: retail price divided by landed cost. A $38 retail price over a $6.00 landed cost is a multiple of about 6.3. The multiple you need depends on your channels, which is the next step.

Step 3: work back to wholesale and distributor prices

If you plan to sell through shops or distributors, build your price ladder from the top down.

The 50% retailer margin is the common case: Faire, a wholesale marketplace, says retailers typically need a 50% margin, or twice the wholesale price. Distributor margins vary more by market and by the services they provide, so the 30% above is only an example. Ask each distributor for its terms in writing.

Now check the bottom of the ladder. At the distributor price you keep $13.30 minus $6.00, or $7.30 per unit, a gross margin of about 55%. At wholesale you keep $13.00, about 68%. Selling direct at $38 leaves more per unit, but you pay the card fees, shipping and marketing that shops and distributors otherwise carry.

If the distributor line leaves too little, you have three levers: a higher retail price, a lower landed cost through a larger run or simpler packaging, or no distributor in that market for now.

Step 4: check each channel's fees

• Your own store. Card processing takes a percentage of each order plus a fixed fee, and you pay shipping and the ads that win each order. Check your platform's current rates.
• Amazon. In beauty, health and personal care the referral fee is 8% for items priced at $10 or less and 15% above $10, with a $0.30 minimum, and the Professional plan costs $39.99 a month. FBA fulfillment fees come on top and depend on size and weight.
• Wholesale marketplaces. They take a commission on orders, and some require your prices there to match or beat your prices elsewhere.
• Distributors. Besides their margin, they may ask for marketing support, free goods or exclusivity. Price those in before you agree.

The Amazon threshold matters for low-priced items. A $10.00 lip balm pays an $0.80 referral fee and leaves you $9.20. At $10.50 it pays about $1.58 and leaves you about $8.92, so the higher price earns less.

Discounts, bundles and price changes

What a discount really costs

A discount comes straight out of your margin. Say a serum sells for $38 and each sale costs you $11 in landed cost, fees and packing, so you keep $27. At 20% off the price is $30.40 and you keep $19.40, so you need about 39% more sales just to earn the same amount.

Bundles

A routine set shares one shipment and one marketing cost across two or three products, which is why a bundle can carry a smaller discount than single items. Price the bundle below the sum of its parts, but comfortably above their combined landed cost plus your per-order costs.

One retail price everywhere

Keep your retail price the same on your own site, in shops and on marketplaces. Retailers notice when a brand undercuts them, and platforms can enforce it: Faire requires a brand's wholesale and retail prices there to be the same as or lower than on its other channels.

When costs change

Costs move. US duty on Korean skincare changed several times in 2025 and 2026, and freight rates vary. Build a buffer into the first price, and review prices when a new quote, duty rate or fee schedule arrives, not after a quarter of thin margins. If duty is a big part of your landed cost, our comparison of Korean and US manufacturers shows the break-even math.

How volume changes your unit cost

Unit prices fall as runs grow. At KoreanOEM a serum is $3.70 per unit at 500 units, an estimated $2.96 at 1,000, $2.41 at 3,000 and $2.15 at 5,000. Price for the run you will actually buy next, not the one you hope to reach.

When a larger run lowers your cost, keep the retail price steady and use the extra margin for marketing or for more room in your wholesale ladder. For the launch costs that sit outside the unit price, see how much it costs to start a skincare line; for what each channel leaves after fees, see is a skincare business profitable. When you are ready to put real numbers in step 1, ask for a written quote; it arrives within one business day.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Faire Help Center: Pricing policy for US and Canada based brands
• Amazon: Selling plans and referral fees
• USTR: Action in the forced labor Section 301 investigations (July 2026)
• USITC: Harmonized Tariff Schedule, 3304.99.50