How to Price Fashion Jewellery for Resale (Markup and Margin Guide)

Pricing is where many fashion jewellery resellers quietly lose money. You buy well, photograph well, reply fast, and then price on instinct, and the margin that was meant to be there is not. This guide is a method: how to build your true cost, choose a markup that fits the category and the sales channel, and hold that price when a buyer pushes back. The rupee figures below are round examples for illustration, not our rates. For current wholesale rates, ask on our wholesale page.

What is the difference between markup and margin?

They describe the same sale from two ends, and mixing them up is the most common pricing mistake. Markup is the amount you add on top of cost, expressed as a percentage of cost. Margin is the profit you keep, expressed as a percentage of the selling price. Sell a piece that cost you 150 rupees for 349 rupees and your markup is about 133% while your margin is about 57%. Resellers who say "I work on 50%" often mean margin but do the sum as markup, and end up cheaper than they intended. Pick one measure, use it everywhere, and for a small catalogue margin is the more useful one because it maps directly to what lands in your account.

How do I work out my landed cost?

Landed cost is the wholesale price plus every rupee it takes to get the piece photographed and ready to ship: your share of inward freight, packaging and pouches, payment gateway or UPI charges, and a small allowance for pieces that arrive faulty and cannot be sold. On a 120 rupee pair of earrings, 25 to 35 rupees of added cost is normal, so your landed cost is closer to 150 than to 120. Price off the 120 figure and you have given the difference away on every sale. Our guide to how to order wholesale jewellery in India covers the freight, MOQ and sample costs that feed this number, and where to buy wholesale fashion jewellery in Mumbai covers sourcing.

What markup should I use on fashion jewellery?

For direct sales on Instagram and WhatsApp, roughly 2 to 2.5 times landed cost is the common working range for daily-wear pieces, so a 150 rupee landed earring priced at about 329 to 399 rupees. Occasion and bridal pieces can carry more because buyers are less price-sensitive there. Fashion jewellery can take this markup because the material cost is low and the value the buyer sees is in the design, the finish and how you present it, not in metal weight. It also has to take it: this stock has little resale value if it does not sell, so the pieces that do sell have to carry the ones that do not.

Should every category use the same markup?

No. A flat percentage across the whole catalogue is the second most common mistake after confusing markup with margin. Fast-moving daily-wear categories such as studs, small hoops and thin bangles do better on a tighter markup that keeps them impulse-priced and turning. Slower, higher-ticket occasion pieces such as necklace sets, heavy kundan and bridal sets can hold a wider markup because they sell on desire and are compared less. Judge by rupees of profit per month, not by the percentage: a 120 rupee-profit earring that sells forty times beats a 900 rupee-profit set that sells twice. Weight your buying and your shelf space toward the categories that actually turn, which for most resellers means earrings first.

How do I price for a marketplace like Amazon or Flipkart?

Wider than for a direct sale. A marketplace takes a commission plus fulfilment and closing fees, and jewellery sees higher return rates there, with the returned piece often coming back unsellable. Between commission, fees and a provision for returns you can lose 25 to 35% of the selling price before your own cost is counted. To keep a similar rupee margin to a direct sale you usually need to price marketplace listings at about 3 to 3.5 times landed cost, and accept that the net is still thinner than selling the same piece yourself. Many resellers list only their sturdiest, hardest-to-damage styles on marketplaces for this reason. Start on Instagram plus WhatsApp, as how to sell fashion jewellery online without a shop lays out, and add a marketplace only once your packaging and supply are steady.

How do I set a tag price and still run discounts?

Decide the price you actually want first, then set the tag price above it so a festival or first-order discount lands back at your real number. If 399 rupees is the price you want for an earring, a 499 rupee tag with a "20% off" offer gets you there and gives the buyer a reason to act now. Keep the gap believable. A 1,299 rupee tag on a piece anyone can see is a 400 rupee earring reads as dishonest and costs you trust that is hard to rebuild. Do not discount below landed cost to clear stock unless you have genuinely written that stock off in your own books; a "sale" that loses money on every unit is not a sale.

What about GST when I price?

Fashion jewellery attracts GST, and both the applicable rate and the turnover at which registration becomes mandatory can change over time. Build the tax you actually owe into your landed cost or your sale price on purpose, rather than finding at year end that it has eaten your margin, and confirm your current position with a qualified accountant, as this is not tax advice. If you are not yet registered, still price as though the tax applies, so that crossing the threshold later does not force a sudden price rise on your customers.

How often should I review my prices?

Once a quarter, and additionally whenever your wholesale cost or freight moves. Pull your last three months of sales and mark two lists: pieces that never sold, and pieces that sold out in days. The never-sold list usually means the price was wrong for your audience or the piece itself was wrong; discount it once, clearly, and do not reorder. The sold-out-fast list is telling you there was margin left on the table, so the reorder can carry a slightly higher price. Small evidence-based moves each quarter beat one large nervous re-pricing once a year.

What do I do when a customer says the price is too high?

Do not drop the price by reflex, because that teaches buyers to always ask. Answer on value instead: the finish, the plating, the fact that you check every piece before it ships, and the styling help and fast replies they get from you. If you sell good stock and can explain how to check imitation jewellery quality, that conversation is winnable. Suspiciously cheap competitors are often selling stock that fails within weeks, which is covered in how to avoid wholesale jewellery scams, and a buyer who has been burned once will pay a fair price for something reliable. Keep one lower-priced entry piece in each category for the genuinely budget buyer, and hold your line on the rest.

How do I price bundles and sets?

A bundle should be a little cheaper than the same pieces bought separately, but only a little. The reason to bundle is a bigger order and less admin per sale, not a discount war. If two earrings priced at 399 rupees each are offered as a pair-set at 699 rupees, you have given up about 99 rupees to lift the order value and clear two pieces at once, which is usually worth it. Do not bundle a slow piece with a fast one and call it a deal, because buyers see through it and you have just discounted your best seller to move dead stock. Bundle like with like, and photograph the set as one styled look; our guide to how to photograph fashion jewellery for online selling covers shooting grouped pieces.

Saloni Fashion Jewellery manufactures and wholesales fashion jewellery from Santacruz West, Mumbai. For current wholesale rates and the minimum order, see our wholesale page or message us on WhatsApp at +91 98705 89560. If you are still choosing what to stock, how to start a fashion jewellery retail business in India covers the category mix.

Further reading: How to Tag and Label Jewellery: Price Tiers and Design Codes and A Festive Promotion Without Discounts for a Jewellery Shop.