Wisque · Print cost audit

What do your prints cost you, all in?

Most artists know the price of a print. Very few have added up what it costs to sell one once the packaging, the postage, the card fees, the apps and their own evenings go on the bill. Put your numbers in; nothing is stored and nothing is sent.

Your numbers

Example figures shown until you change them.

Use whichever you can find quickest. A month is multiplied by 12; everything below works on the year.
£
If you sell more than one size, the price of the one you sell most, or somewhere between. Before postage.
Orders or units, from Shopify or Etsy.
hrs
Printing, packing, post office runs, customer emails, chasing parcels, stock, the lot.
£/hr
£15 packer£35 studio day rate£75 commission rate£120
Not what you pay yourself. What an hour of painting would earn instead of an hour of packing.
Cost assumptions, change any you know
£
Paper, ink, or what your printer charges.
£
Board mailer, tube, tissue, sticker, note.
£
Royal Mail Tracked 48 small parcel is about £3.37 with surcharges.
£
Shopify or Etsy plan, shipping app, reviews app, email tool.
%
Shopify Payments on the Basic plan is 2% plus 25p in the UK, so about 3% on a £30 print. Etsy is nearer 10% once transaction, processing and listing fees are added.
%
Orders you had to print and post again: damaged in transit, wrong size sent, lost in the post.
With Wisque, the terms behind the third column
£
Per order, for picking, packing and dispatch. No commission on this plan; your plan, apps and card fees stay as they are.
£
Charged at cost, giclée on Hahnemühle.
£
Charged at cost.
£
Charged at cost, on Wisque's Royal Mail account.
hrs
Approving proofs, the odd customer question. Everything else is handled.

Where the money goes

A year's figures, with the per-print figure underneath each. Included means Wisque carries it.

LineDoing it yourselfWith Wisque

How to read it

The per-print figure is everything it costs you to get one print from a file to a customer's wall, including the hour of your life it took. The cash costs alone usually land between a third and a half of the sale price. Add the hours and most artists find there is far less left than the shop suggests, which is why a shop that looks busy can feel poor.

About the Wisque column

It uses Wisque's fulfilment plan: print, packaging and postage charged at cost, plus a £1.97 handling fee per order for picking, packing and dispatch. No commission. Your Shopify or Etsy plan, apps and card fees stay with you, as now. It is not a quote; sizes, framing and volume move the costs, which is what a twenty minute call with Paul settles, numbers in hand.

Assumptions default to typical UK figures for an A4 to A3 giclée print sold direct. Change any of them under cost assumptions. Nothing you type leaves this page unless you copy the link.