For pharmacies and health stores
Price health products from your real trade price
Margins on health products are often small and some prices are set by rules. Enter your trade price and fees to see what each item earns.
Quick answer: how should pharmacies and health stores price a product?
Add every cost, then the fees that take a share of the price, then choose your margin. For vitamin c tablets, 60 pack that works out at $6.68, leaving $2.00 profit. Skip a cost and the profit shrinks without you noticing.
Check your best seller in two minutes
Take the product you sell most. If its price was set by adding a mark-up to the trade price and you have never counted expiry and write-off allowance or scheme or insurance discount allowance, card fees and monthly costs, it may earn less than you think. Some items may even lose money. You will not see it in your till, only in the end-of-month result.
The mark-up trap, worked through
Marking up only the trade price by 30% gives a price of $5.46. After the other costs and the fees taken from that price, the sale leaves $0.84, not the $2.00 you planned. The same costs priced properly give $6.68.
Illustration with the example costs below. Your numbers will differ.
Where pharmacies and health stores usually lose money
Thin margins
See the exact margin on each item, so low earners are not a surprise.
Short-dated stock
Add a write-off allowance for stock that expires before it sells.
Regulated prices
Where a price is capped, check what margin is left after your costs.
Example: Vitamin C tablets, 60 pack
These costs go in. The price comes out of the same engine the app uses.
- Trade price$4.20
- Inbound freight$0.15
- Card terminal fee2.9% of price
- Expiry and write-off allowance2% of price
- Profit you want30% margin
Sell it for
$6.68
Profit per sale $2.00 on a total cost of $4.68.
What pharmacies and health stores see in the app
Real screens. Your own costs and products go in, the same kind of answers come out.
A ready cost list
Pick pharmacies and health stores and the usual cost lines appear. You fill in the amounts.
The exact price
Fees that depend on the price are solved exactly, so the profit you ask for is the profit you get.
Products that lose money
Check a whole price list at once and see which items run thin or below cost.
Already set up for pharmacies and health stores
Choose this business type in the calculator and these cost lines appear. You only fill in the amounts.
- Trade price
- Inbound freight
- Bag and label
- Dispensing labour
- Cold-chain handling
- Card terminal fee
- Expiry and write-off allowance
- Scheme or insurance discount allowance
- Rent (monthly)
- Pharmacist and staff wages (monthly)
- Licences and insurance (monthly)
- Refrigeration power (monthly)
- Licence and registration (monthly)
- Pharmacy software (monthly)
What pharmacies and health stores get with CostCal Pro
The pricing maths is free. Paid plans add bulk tools and store connections.
Exact selling price
FreeEnter the trade price, other costs and fees, choose a margin, and get the price that keeps it.
Catalog check
FreeUpload a product export and see which products lose money or run on a thin margin.
Discount simulator
FreeSee the largest discount that still leaves a profit before you run a sale.
Break-even
FreeAdd monthly costs and see how many sales cover them.
Branded PDF report
FreeSend a clear cost and price breakdown to a customer or partner.
CSV import and typical costs
StarterBring in many products at once and start from ready cost templates.
Store connection
StarterLink calculations to products in your online store by SKU.
Weekly below-cost email
PremiumGet an email when a store product is selling below cost.
Apply prices to your store
PremiumPush approved prices to a connected WooCommerce store.
See plans and prices, all features or a sample report.
Questions pharmacies and health stores ask about pricing
How do I price vitamin c tablets, 60 pack?
Add every cost (trade price, inbound freight, card terminal fee, expiry and write-off allowance), then choose the profit margin you want. With these example costs and a 30% margin, vitamin c tablets, 60 pack should sell for $6.68, which leaves $2.00 profit on a total cost of $4.68. Your own costs will differ, so enter yours in the calculator.
What is the formula for a selling price that keeps your margin?
Price = fixed costs divided by (1 minus the percentage fees minus your margin). Here the fixed costs are $4.35, the percentage fees are 4.9% of the price and the margin is 30%. Percentage fees must be taken from the selling price, not from the cost, which is why a simple mark-up on cost usually leaves less profit than planned.
What costs do pharmacies and health stores often forget?
The easiest to miss are expiry and write-off allowance, scheme or insurance discount allowance, your own time, and monthly costs such as rent, pharmacist and staff wages, licences and insurance. Each one is a row in the Pharmacy / health store preset, so you only fill in the amounts.
How do I know if a product is losing money?
Compare the selling price with the total cost, including the share of the price taken by fees. If the price is lower than that total, the product loses money. Catalog check does this for a whole product export and marks every item that loses money or has a thin margin.
Does it work for regulated medicines?
It shows the margin at any price you enter, so you can see what a capped price leaves you. Follow your local pricing rules.
Can I add VAT?
Set your VAT or sales tax rate in Settings and the customer price shows it.
Is the CostCal Pro calculator free for pharmacies and health stores?
Yes. The Free plan never expires and needs no card. It includes the exact price calculation, 5 saved calculations, 5 PDF reports and a catalog check of up to 50 products. Paid plans start at $49 a year and add more saved calculations, CSV import, store connection and API keys.
Last reviewed 2026-11-11. Example figures are illustrations, not advice.
More in beauty, health and pets: