PRICING AND INVENTORY
How Many Items Do You Need to Sell to Break Even on a Clothing Bale?
Our break-even price guide asks what average price each garment must reach. This article asks the other question: at a realistic price, how many items from one bale must you sell before the order stops losing money?
Every figure below is hypothetical and in units of your own currency. The method is what matters; the numbers are there to show the arithmetic.
THE VARIABLES
Define every input first.
Write each one down before calculating.
- Landed cost (L): the bale price plus packing, freight, handling and payment charges.
- Preparation cost (K): cleaning, tags and bags for the whole bale.
- Order cost (C) = L + K.
- Items in the bale (N) and unsellable items (U); sellable items (S) = N − U.
- Average selling price (P): what buyers pay per item, before fees.
- Selling costs per sale (V): platform or payment fees plus any packaging or delivery cost you pay on each sale.
- Contribution per item = P − V: what each sale leaves over to recover the order cost.
HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE
The inputs.
Hypothetical figures, not a Balematrix price, a market price or a forecast.
The fee is 10% of the selling price (5 per sale), plus 2 per sale for packaging, so V = 7.
Hypothetical example only.
| Variable | Value |
|---|---|
| Bale price | 6,000 |
| Freight and handling | 1,000 |
| Landed cost (L) | 7,000 |
| Preparation cost (K) | 500 |
| Order cost (C) | 7,500 |
| Items in the bale (N) | 300 |
| Unsellable items (U) | 45 |
| Sellable items (S) | 255 |
| Average price (P) | 50 |
| Selling costs per sale (V) | 7 |
| Contribution per item | 43 |
THE CALCULATION
Break-even quantity, step by step.
Divide the order cost by what each sale contributes, and round up to a whole item.
Break-even quantity = C ÷ (P − V) = 7,500 ÷ 43 = 174.4, rounded up to 175 items.
- 175 is 69% of the 255 sellable items (175 ÷ 255 = 0.686).
- Gross sales at break-even: 175 × 50 = 8,750.
- Selling costs at break-even: 175 × 7 = 1,225.
- Contribution at break-even: 8,750 − 1,225 = 7,525, which covers the 7,500 order cost. The extra 25 comes from rounding up.
FOUR DIFFERENT NUMBERS
Gross sales, contribution, break-even and profit.
These are easy to confuse. In the same hypothetical example, suppose 200 items sell:
- Gross sales is what buyers paid: 200 × 50 = 10,000.
- Contribution after selling costs is gross sales minus selling costs: 10,000 − (200 × 7) = 10,000 − 1,400 = 8,600.
- Break-even is the point where contribution covers the order cost: 175 items here.
- Profit on the order is contribution minus the order cost: 8,600 − 7,500 = 1,100.
Profit here is before running costs such as rent, wages and your own time.
| Items sold | Profit |
|---|---|
| 150 | −1,050 |
| 175 | 25 |
| 200 | 1,100 |
| 230 | 2,390 |
| 255 (all sellable) | 3,465 |
WHAT MOVES IT
Unsellable stock, freight and price.
Change one input at a time and recalculate. In the same hypothetical example:
- More unsellable stock: if U is 75 instead of 45, S falls to 225. Break-even stays at 175 items, because the order cost has not changed, but that is now 78% of what you can sell (175 ÷ 225), leaving less room for slow sellers.
- Higher freight: if freight and handling cost 1,800 instead of 1,000, C becomes 8,300 and break-even rises to 194 items (8,300 ÷ 43 = 193.0, rounded up).
- Lower price: if P is 45, the fee falls to 4.50 and V to 6.50, so contribution is 38.50 and break-even rises to 195 items (7,500 ÷ 38.50 = 194.8, rounded up).
- Running costs: to make the order also cover its share of rent or wages, add that share to C.
USE IT
Before and after buying.
Break-even is a planning check, not a prediction of results.
- Before buying, ask whether you can realistically sell the break-even quantity in your channel; compare it with your sell-through rate.
- Take L from a full landed cost calculation and U from your own bale records.
- For a price floor per garment instead, use the break-even price method or the profit calculator.
NEXT STEP
Running the numbers on a real order?
A quotation gives you the bale price to start from. Send your categories, quantity and delivery location.
Hypothetical figures for illustration only, not a forecast or a promise of returns. Results depend on your own market, stock, prices and costs. Not financial advice.