Discounts are a big part of selling in Nepal, especially around Dashain and Tihar. But a discount that looks small can wipe out a large share of profit. These three calculators help you set prices and test discounts before you announce them. The defaults are a hypothetical example. Everything runs in your browser.

Use costs and prices before VAT. To add or remove 13% VAT, use the Nepal VAT calculator.

1. Margin and markup from your price

Use prices and costs before VAT. The defaults are a hypothetical example.

Colourful scarves hanging on a rack outside a shop with price tags

2. Selling price from a target margin

3. Festival discount: how many more sales you need

Margin vs markup

  • Gross margin = (price − cost) ÷ price.
  • Markup = (price − cost) ÷ cost.

They describe the same profit in different ways, and mixing them up is one of the most common pricing mistakes. If you want a 40% margin and add 40% to cost, you get a price of NPR 1,680 on a cost of NPR 1,200. That is only a 28.6% margin. The correct price for a 40% margin is cost ÷ (1 − 0.40) = NPR 2,000.

What to count as cost

Include everything you pay per unit sold: the product or materials, packaging, and any per-order fees. Delivery, payment fees, and returns also matter for online sellers. The break-even ROAS calculator adds those in and shows how much you can spend on ads per order.

Why discounts need more sales than you expect

When you cut the price, the cost stays the same, so the whole discount comes out of your profit.

Hypothetical example: a shop sells at a 40% margin, so on every NPR 100 of sales it keeps NPR 40. A 15% Dashain discount brings the price down to NPR 85, but the cost is still NPR 60, so profit falls to NPR 25. To earn the same NPR 40 profit as before, it must sell 1.6 times as many units: 60% more. If the discount equals or exceeds the margin, every sale loses money.

Better ways to run a festival offer

  • Discount fewer products. Use deep discounts on a few items to attract buyers and keep regular prices elsewhere.
  • Bundle instead. “Buy two, get free delivery” or a gift set raises order value without cutting the price of each item.
  • Offer a gift with purchase that costs you less than its value to the customer.
  • Set a minimum order for the discount to protect small orders.
  • Time-limit the offer and tell customers when it ends.
  • Measure the result: compare units, revenue, and gross profit with the same period before the offer, not just orders.

For planning the season, see the Dashain online shopping checklist for Nepali sellers.