Cost calculator — factory price from the selling price

It depends what the margin has to pay for. A brand with staff, a warehouse and paid marketing needs far more than a side project. Rather than copying a number, add up your fixed costs for a year and divide by the units you expect to sell — that is the margin per unit you actually need before profit starts.

Three levers, in order of how often they work: raise the retail price, cut the selling cost (usually the discounting), or change the product. Squeezing the factory is the lever everyone reaches for first and the one with the least room in it — and the one that costs you quality.

Yes, once you have a real one. What you should not do is give a target you invented. A factory that has to hit a number will change something to hit it, and if you do not know which number is real you will not know what changed.

Retail divided by landed cost is the quickest sanity check in apparel. Under about 2.5× there is no room for a markdown, a returns spike or a bad batch. Most brands that survive work at 3× or more.