How do you price a handmade product? Add up materials, hours of work times your hourly rate, a share of your overheads, packaging and payment fees: that is what the piece costs you. Put your margin on top; shipping is counted separately. Only then look at what others charge, to check your result, not to let them decide for you.
Makers pricing their own work often go by eye: materials times three, a glance at the next stall, a round number. That way the hours vanish, and they are almost always the biggest item. Here are the formula, a worked example and the checks, updated for September 2026.
How to price a handmade product: the formula
The formula is: cost = materials + hours × hourly rate + share of overheads + packaging + payment fees; then price = cost + margin. It works for handmade goods in almost every craft, and every item is worked out per piece.
- Materials: everything that goes into the piece, waste included: if one hide gives you eight wallets, divide it by eight.
- Hours: real time, from preparation to finishing. If you work in batches, divide the batch hours by the pieces.
- Hourly rate: what one hour of yours is worth. We work it out below.
- Overheads: rent, energy, tools, accountant, divided by the pieces you make in a year.
- Packaging: box, paper, tape, card.
- Payment fees: what the payment system keeps on each payment.
How much to charge for an hour of your work
Start from what you need to earn in a year, before tax, and divide it by the hours you actually spend making. Not by every hour you work.
Photos, messages, markets, parcels and bookkeeping are real hours, but no customer pays for them directly. If you work forty hours and spend twenty-five at the bench, the rate is calculated on twenty-five, or you are giving the rest away.
Overheads, packaging and fees
Overheads are the costs you pay even in months when you sell nothing. Divide a year's total by the pieces you make that year: that is each piece's share.
- Studio rent, or the part of your home you work in
- Energy for the kiln, the soldering iron, the sewing machine
- Tools that wear out: blades, brushes, bits
- Accountant, social security contributions, insurance
- Market pitches and travel
Packaging and fees repeat on every order. With Stripe, as of 28 September 2026 its official pricing page lists 1.5% plus 0.25 euros for standard European Economic Area cards; premium, UK and international cards cost more, and terms change, so check them there. If you sell on a marketplace, there is almost always a platform percentage on top.
Margin: why cost is not yet a price
Margin is what is left after every cost is paid, your own work included. It is not a bonus: it covers unsold pieces, the ones that crack in the kiln, the quiet months, the new tools.
Do not confuse it with markup. Markup is calculated on cost: cost 30 euros, 30% markup, price 39 euros. Margin is calculated on price: to keep 30% of the price, divide 30 by 0.70 and you get about 42.86 euros. With a 30% markup, the real margin is about 23%.
Worked example: a ceramic mug
A mug that costs 22.50 euros to make sells at 35 euros and leaves about a third as margin. Hypothetical numbers, only to show the method: use your own. They leave VAT out, as under the flat-rate scheme: if you charge VAT, add it on top. The overheads are deliberately low; with rent, an accountant and contributions yours will almost certainly be higher.
- Materials (clay, glazes, waste included): 3.50 euros
- Work: 45 minutes at 20 euros an hour, so 15.00 euros
- Overheads: 2.50 euros (3,000 euros a year divided by 1,200 pieces)
- Packaging: 1.50 euros
- Cost before fees: 22.50 euros
- Price with a 30% margin: 22.50 divided by 0.70, about 32.14 euros
- Plus the Stripe fee on that amount (standard EEA card): about 0.73 euros, so about 32.87 euros
- Rounded up: 35 euros
At 35 euros, after about 0.78 euros in fees and 22.50 of cost, 11.72 euros of margin are left, with your work already paid for. With the materials-times-three shortcut, the mug would sell for 10.50 euros: less than the hours alone.
Five pieces in your shop for free, zero platform commission.
Open your free Handsome profileWholesale, retail and consignment prices
The retail price is what the end customer pays, and it should be the same everywhere: market, studio, online. Wholesale means selling to a shop, which resells with its own markup. On consignment the shop displays your pieces and keeps a share only of the ones it sells.
Work from the bottom up: your wholesale price covers the cost and leaves you a margin; your retail price leaves room for the shop's markup. Before setting your price list, ask what markup the shop applies and what share it keeps on consignment.
- Market and studio: you take the full price (minus card-reader fees, if you take cards); pitch, travel and rent are already in your overheads.
- Online: you take the full price, minus payment fees and any platform fee.
- Wholesale: you take less, but on several pieces at once.
- Consignment: you take the price minus the shop's share, and only once the piece sells.
Checking against the market
The market tests the price you calculated; it does not replace it. If similar pieces cost much less, check they really are alike before cutting yours.
- Same material and same workmanship, or just the same shape?
- One-off piece or batch production?
- Does the price include shipping?
If yours is still higher, you have two honest options: explain better what goes into it, as in the value of handmade and with a product listing that states size, materials and care, or reduce time or materials. For the prices that hold up in different crafts, see where to sell ceramics, jewellery and textiles.
Why underpricing does not pay
A price that is too low makes you work more to earn less. Raising it later is hard: people who know you remember the old figure; with no margin you cannot work with shops; and on handmade work a low price suggests mass production. A discount is fine when it is a choice, such as a piece with a flaw.
How zero commission changes the sums
On Handsome the platform keeps no percentage on products: the only fee left in your sums is Stripe's.
Handsome is an Italian marketplace for creative workshops where, since 18 September 2026, every Maker with a verified Italian VAT number, Stripe connected and the selling terms accepted can sell pieces from the shop on their profile. The line-by-line comparison is in what it costs to sell one piece online, how it works in selling handmade products online with zero commission.
- Price: you set it, from 1 to 10,000 euros per piece.
- Shipping: one cost per order, up to 50 euros, plus an optional free-shipping threshold your margin must cover. Check what a parcel really costs in the Poste Delivery Web price lists.
- Pickup at your studio, if you switch it on: buyers who choose it pay no shipping, and you pay no courier.
- Plan: free up to five pieces published at once; Handsome Pro (9.90 euros a month or 95 euros a year) goes into your overheads.
The money is on your Stripe account when the customer pays; the transfer to your bank account is a separate step, with no promised date. Complete listings can also end up on Google, but it takes weeks: at the start people reach the shop from your profile, your workshops or the link you share, for example at the end of a workshop.
Tax: what you keep depends on your regime
All of this is before tax, and what you keep depends on your regime. Under Italy's flat-rate scheme (regime forfettario), for example, income is not worked out by subtracting expenses from revenue: a profitability coefficient set for your activity is applied to revenue, so the expenses built into your price do not lower your tax, with one exception: compulsory pension contributions are deducted from that income. The rules are on the Agenzia delle Entrate page on the flat-rate scheme. If you charge VAT, the price to the end customer already includes it: add it to the sum, do not take it out of your margin.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
- What is the formula for pricing a handmade product?
- Cost is the sum of materials, hours of work times your hourly rate, a share of overheads, packaging and payment fees. Price is cost plus margin: for a 30% margin on the price, divide the cost by 0.70. Shipping is calculated separately, except when you offer it for free.
- How much should I charge per hour for handmade work?
- There is no figure that fits everyone. Take the yearly income you need, before tax, and divide it by the hours you actually spend making, not by every working hour, since nobody pays for photos or messages. The result is your minimum hourly rate.
- Can I price my work by multiplying materials by three?
- It is a handy shortcut but almost always wrong for handmade work, because it ignores hours and overheads. On a piece with cheap materials and a lot of work, such as a thrown mug, it gives prices that do not even pay for the time. Use it as a check at most.
- What is the difference between margin and markup?
- Markup is calculated on cost, margin on price. With a cost of 30 euros, a 30% markup gives 39 euros, but the real margin is about 23%. For a 30% margin you divide the cost by 0.70 and reach about 42.86 euros. Mixing them up makes prices that are too low look healthy.
- Should my online price match my market stall price?
- Ideally yes, because people who know you compare. Online you pay fees and packaging, at the market a pitch and travel: different costs your margin has to absorb. A lower price online undercuts the shops that resell your work; a higher one makes the market look like a sale.
- How does selling on Handsome change my price?
- Handsome takes no commission on products: the payment is created on your own Stripe account and the only cost is Stripe's fee on the payment method used. You do not need to inflate your price to cover a platform. The free plan keeps five pieces online at a time; Handsome Pro goes into your overheads.
Redo the sums once a year, or whenever materials or rent change. The right price is not the market's lowest: it is the one that lets you make the next piece.
Verified VAT number and Stripe connected: then sell at the price you calculated, with no platform commission.
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