To price a gift basket you add up its full cost first: the products inside, jam, crackers, chocolate, nuts and tea by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the basket, shred, cellophane and ribbon, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one basket costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a holiday basket of jam, crackers, chocolate, nuts and tea that costs $27.50 to make, a 40% margin after 3% fees means $48.25, rounded up to $48.25. The basket and wrapping cost almost five dollars, so they belong in the price, not in overhead. Corporate orders of 20 or more are a lower price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Wisconsin gift basket maker prices a holiday basket and a corporate order.
The short version
- Full cost = products a basket + your time + basket, shred, cellophane and ribbon + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Price the products at what you paid, then add the basket and wrap.
- Assembly time is real: 15 minutes a basket adds up.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack keeps products, baskets and ribbon counted and costs every batch. More below.
What goes into a basket's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Products | The batch's cost ÷ baskets a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ baskets × your hourly rate |
| Basket, shred, cellophane and ribbon | Per basket |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the baskets you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
Assembling kits and boxes is in kitting for gift boxes, and the business year in gift box business plan.
An example: a holiday basket
Northwoods Gift Co., a made-up gift basket maker in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, assembles 20 holiday baskets at a time from local jam, crackers, chocolate, nuts and tea:
| Products | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Products for the basket | 20 | $340.00 |
| A batch | $340.00 |
| A basket | Cost |
|---|---|
| Products, $340.00 ÷ 20 | $17.00 |
| Time, 300 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 20 | $5.00 |
| Basket, shred, cellophane and ribbon | $4.70 |
| Overhead | $0.80 |
| Full cost | $27.50 |
At a 40% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $27.50 ÷ 0.57 = $48.25, so $48.25. At $48.25 a basket, each leaves $19.30. It had been asking $45, which leaves $16.15, and moved to $48.25. A bank ordered 60 baskets at $40.00 each, which leaves $11.30, worth it for one order that fills a week. How a price becomes a margin is in what is a good profit margin for a food product.
Get the calculator
Download the gift basket price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's products, amounts and costs, the baskets it makes, the hands-on minutes, the basket and wrap and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator prices one basket. With products bought from six suppliers at six prices, and baskets mixed for each order, the real cost of December's baskets is different from the sheet.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps products, baskets and ribbon counted, and costs every batch.
Supplies in their units. Products bought by the case are counted by the each, and ribbon by the roll is used by the yard.
Designs as recipes. Each basket is a recipe of its supplies, so a batch takes them off stock and is costed from what they cost, and good and rejected pieces are recorded.
Reordering. Supplies come up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast they're used.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Supplies on hand | Count the shelf | Stock in its own units |
| What a batch cost | Prices you type | Costed from what you paid |
| Baskets for each order | A packing list | Each basket a recipe of its products |
| When to reorder | When it's low | Reorder list in days of cover |
Recipes, units, costing and reorder lists are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.