If you run a retail store, online or in person, you use three tools regularly: a markup calculator, some kind of markdown plan, and an ad spend tracker. And the free versions available online are terrible.
Most "markup calculators" are a single input field that divides two numbers. Most "ROAS calculators" do the same thing. And markdown planners don't exist as free tools at all, everyone does it in spreadsheets.
We built all three. They're free, they run in your browser, and they're significantly better than anything else available. Here's what each one does and why we built them the way we did.
1. Markup & Margin Calculator
The problem: Retailers confuse markup and margin constantly. A 50% markup is only a 33.3% margin. If your accountant says you need 50% margins but you're applying a 50% markup, you're underpricing your entire catalog by a third. Most online calculators don't mention this, let alone help you avoid it.
What we built: A markup calculator with four modes.
Single product mode lets you enter cost and price to see markup, margin, and profit. Or work backwards: enter a desired markup percentage and get the selling price calculated. Or enter a desired margin percentage and get the selling price. Three ways to approach the same problem, because different retailers think about pricing differently.
Multi-product mode lets you enter your whole catalog. You get a table showing markup, margin, and profit for each item, plus weighted averages across everything. Export to CSV for your spreadsheet.
Break-even mode tells you how many units you need to sell each month to cover your fixed costs. It accounts for payment processing fees (default 2.9%) that most calculators ignore. Add a profit target to see the sales volume needed to hit your income goal.
Industry benchmarks compare your pricing against typical markups for 24 retail categories. Apparel runs 100-300%. Electronics is 8-40%. Eyewear is 200-1000%. The tool flags when you're below your category's standard range and tells you whether MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policies apply.
Why the benchmarks matter
Pricing without context is guessing. A 50% markup is excellent for electronics accessories but poor for jewelry. A 100% markup is the floor (keystone) for apparel but unrealistic for grocery staples. Knowing where your margins sit relative to your category tells you whether you're competitive, generous, or leaving money on the table.
The calculator includes the full markup-to-margin conversion table, a keystone pricing explainer, and MAP policy guidance for categories where manufacturers restrict advertised prices.
2. Sale & Markdown Planner
The problem: This tool genuinely does not exist as a free product anywhere. Every retailer plans markdowns, but they all do it in spreadsheets or by gut feel. "When should I take my first markdown?" is a question with a data-driven answer, but nobody builds tools around it.
What we built: A markdown planner that models multi-tier clearance schedules.
Enter your product's original price, cost per unit, inventory count, and selling window in weeks. Choose from four preset strategies or build a custom schedule.
Standard (Gradual) is the most common approach in apparel: 4-tier step-down from full price to 25% off, 45% off, then 70% off. It maximizes total revenue by giving each price point time to work.
Aggressive Early takes a bigger markdown sooner. Research from Wharton suggests this recovers 10-15% more total revenue on trend items because demand decays exponentially. You're trading per-unit margin for speed and certainty.
Premium/Luxury holds full price for 9+ weeks with minimal discounts. For brands where discounting damages perception.
Perishable is a compressed 4-week schedule for flowers, bakery, or anything with an expiration date. The goal is minimizing waste, not maximizing margin.
The comparison table
The best part is the strategy comparison. When you enter your numbers, the tool calculates total revenue, profit, sell-through percentage, and average discount for all four strategies side by side. You can see immediately whether aggressive early clearance or gradual step-down is better for your specific product, cost, and timeline.
The visual timeline shows revenue per tier as a bar chart, color-coded by discount depth. Navy is full price, gold is first markdown, amber is second, red is clearance. If any tier puts you below cost, it flags it.
Sell-through benchmarks
The tool includes category-specific sell-through targets from industry data. Women's fashion targets 80-85% over a season. Electronics targets 85-95%. Grocery targets 95-98%. If you're below 40% at the season midpoint, it's time for your first markdown regardless of strategy.
3. ROAS & Ad Spend Calculator
The problem: Most ROAS calculators divide revenue by ad spend. That's one number. It tells you nothing about whether you're profitable, how you compare to your category, or what budget you'd need to hit a revenue target.
What we built: A ROAS calculator with three modes.
Calculator mode takes your product cost, selling price, ad spend, conversions, and clicks. It shows ROAS, break-even ROAS, CPA, profit per conversion, and total profit. Select your ad platform and category to compare against industry benchmarks.
The key insight: a "good" ROAS depends entirely on your margins. At 50% margin, you break even at 2:1 ROAS. At 20% margin, you need 5:1. The calculator shows your break-even threshold alongside your actual ROAS so you can see exactly how much headroom you have.
Campaign planner mode works backwards from a revenue target. Enter how much you want to make this month, your margins, your ad platform, and your retail category. The planner estimates how much you'd need to spend, how many clicks and conversions to expect, and the maximum CPC you can afford without losing money.
This is the mode store owners use before launching a campaign. Instead of guessing a budget, you start from a revenue goal and the tool tells you what it takes to get there based on actual platform benchmarks.
Benchmark database has full tables for Facebook, Google Search, Google Shopping, and TikTok across 10 retail categories. CPC, CTR, conversion rate, ROAS, and average order value. Google Shopping has the highest average ROAS (6.3:1) because shoppers have high purchase intent. TikTok looks lowest (2.6:1) partly because it drives discovery that converts outside the attribution window.
The benchmarks are averages, not promises
We include a clear note: new ad accounts typically underperform benchmarks by 30-50% in the first 90 days as the algorithm learns. Actual results depend on creative quality, targeting, landing page experience, and competition. The benchmarks tell you where the average is. Outperforming that is your job.
Why we built these
Same reason we built free dealer tools. We make software for retailers (Mika is a sales assistant that lives on your website), and the free tools market is embarrassingly bad. Giving away genuinely useful tools earns trust. If your store ever needs a 24/7 sales assistant, you'll think of us. But the tools are free whether you buy anything else or not.
All three tools run entirely in your browser. We don't store your pricing data, ad spend, or inventory counts. The only data we collect is your email when you sign up, which we use to send retail content (and you can unsubscribe anytime).
Try them: Markup Calculator | Markdown Planner | ROAS Calculator