How to calculate profit margin for your products in Ghana

By Queen Sika · Updated 11 October 2026

Many sellers price by copying others and only later find they made nothing. Profit margin is what is left from each cedi of sales after paying for the item and getting it to the buyer.

Find your real cost per item

What you paid for the item or its materials.
Packaging (bag, box, label).
Transport to buy stock, divided by the number of items.
Payment charges taken by your payment provider.
Any free delivery you give.

The margin formula

Profit = selling price − real cost.

Margin (%) = profit ÷ selling price × 100.

Your lowest safe price is your real cost plus the profit you need per item. Never go below real cost to win a sale.

Worked example

Item	GHS
Materials	25
Packaging	3
Stock transport share	2
Real cost	30
Selling price	50
Profit	20
Margin	40%

A real case: the pork seller who cut her price

During one of my live diagnoses, I met a new seller selling pork nationwide. To get customers, she dropped her price and paid half the delivery fee on every 1 kg order.

About ten people a day bought 1 kg. Around five bought 3 kg, and two bought 2 kg. The 3 kg buyers paid their own delivery without complaining. But the 1 kg orders were eating her money on delivery, and her business wasn't growing.

Her mistake was not the discount. It was discounting with no goal. She collected no delivery photos and no reviews, so the low price built a habit, not trust. Customers kept buying 1 kg and she stayed stuck.

You attract your value, not your price. Never cut your price just to make sales. If you pay for delivery as a beginner, have a reason, like building trust, and collect proof for it: delivery photos and customer reviews.

Work out your real cost per order, including any delivery you pay for.
If you subsidise delivery, set a limit and a goal, for example your first 20 orders.
Ask every subsidised buyer for a photo or a review.
Show those reviews on your page so new buyers trust your value, not your low price.
Price bigger orders so they carry the delivery cost.

Questions people ask

What is a good profit margin?

It depends on your product and volume. What matters is that every sale covers your real cost and leaves profit you can live on.

Margin or markup — what's the difference?

Markup is profit divided by cost. Margin is profit divided by selling price. GHS 20 profit on a GHS 30 cost is a 67% markup but a 40% margin.

Let the system fix your sales for you

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Find out why your sales stop

Answer a few questions and see the one step losing you buyers, then get the fix.

How Content to Sales handles this

Once your prices are set, put them on a Content to Sales business page so buyers see the price upfront and pay with mobile money.

Find your blockage, then fix it

Start with the free sales audit — it names the stage where your sales stop before you change anything else.