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Product launch calculator

Before you place the first order: how much cash the launch ties up, how many sales get it back, and what it makes if every unit sells.

Purchase price plus freight and duties.

Without VAT or sales tax, after any launch discount.

Shipping, packaging and payment fees you pay on each sale.

Ads, content, samples: anything spent once for the launch.

Your own forecast, to turn units into months.

Result

Fill in landed cost per unit, selling price, units in the launch order, launch marketing budget to see the result.

How it works

A launch spends money twice before it earns any: on the first stock order and on getting the word out. The stock is paid for up front, so each sale brings back its price minus only the costs of that sale, and the cash is back when those sales add up to what went in.

Profit is a different count: what each unit leaves after its own product cost, shipping and fees, times the units sold, minus the launch budget.

cash tied up = units ordered
  × unit cost + launch budget

cash back per sale =
  price - costs per sale
sales to get the cash back =
  cash tied up ÷ cash back per sale

contribution per unit = price
  - unit cost - costs per sale
profit if the order sells out =
  units × contribution - budget

break-even ROAS =
  price ÷ contribution per unit

What each term means

Landed cost per unit
Purchase price plus freight and duties: what one unit costs you by the time it can be sold.
Selling price
What the customer pays, without VAT or sales tax, after any launch discount.
Costs per sale
Shipping, packaging and payment fees you pay on each sale.
Launch budget
Ads, content, samples and anything else spent once to launch.
Break-even ROAS
The return on ad spend at which launch ads repay themselves from the contribution of the sales they bring.
Contribution per unit
Price minus the unit cost and the costs per sale: what each sale adds towards the budget and profit.

What it assumes: the whole order is bought up front and sold at one price. Units that do not sell are still stock at their cost, so the profit line counts only units sold. For the reorder itself, use the reorder point calculator.

Source: Wikipedia, Payback period (the time needed to recoup an investment) (read 26 September 2026).

Worked example

Example numbers, round on purpose, not a real store:

Landed cost per unit
€15
Selling price
€50
Other costs per unit sold
€8
Units in the launch order
1,000
Launch marketing budget
€10,000
Units you expect to sell per month
250
  1. 1Cash tied up: 1,000 × €15 + €10,000 = €25,000
  2. 2Cash back per sale: €50 - €8 = €42
  3. 3Sales to get the cash back: €25,000 ÷ €42 = 595.2, so 596
  4. 4Contribution per unit: €50 - €15 - €8 = €27
  5. 5Profit if all 1,000 sell: 1,000 × €27 - €10,000 = €17,000
  6. 6Break-even ROAS on launch ads: €50 ÷ €27 = 1.85x
  7. 7At 250 a month: sold out in 4 months, cash back in 2.4

So this example gets its cash back from the first 596 sales, a little over half the order; the rest of the order is where the profit is.

Frequently asked questions

  • How big should a launch order be?
    Big enough to cover demand until a reorder can arrive, and no bigger than you can afford to be wrong about. Set the months to sell out against your supplier's lead time: if the order sells out before a reorder could land, you will be out of stock at the moment the launch works.
  • Why are getting the cash back and breaking even different numbers?
    Because the stock is paid for before it sells. Each sale brings back its price minus its own shipping and fees, and the cash is back when those add up to the stock plus the budget. Profit also takes off each unit's product cost, and only counts the units sold, so the budget is covered at a different number of sales.
  • What is a break-even ROAS for a launch?
    The sales each unit of launch ad spend has to bring for the contribution on those sales to repay it: price divided by the contribution per unit. Below it the launch ads cost more than their sales leave; above it they pay for themselves. Compare it with sales you can tie to the launch spend, not with what an ad platform reports about itself.
  • What if the launch order cannot pay itself back?
    Then even selling every unit returns less than went in. The gap closes only with reorders, where each restocked unit sold adds its contribution. The calculator says how many more sales that takes.
  • How do I forecast monthly sales for a new product?
    From your own evidence: pre-orders, a waitlist, sales of a similar product, or a small test batch. Run the calculator with a low and a high forecast. If the launch only works at the high one, that is worth knowing before you place the order.

In the glossary: return on ad spend and customer acquisition cost.

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