Pricing a stationery scoop: worked examples for ₹199, ₹299 and ₹499

A scoop price is easy to copy from another shop and easy to get wrong. Two shops can both sell a ₹299 scoop, and one makes a living while the other loses money on every parcel, because they pay different amounts for stock, packing and shipping. The only price that works for you is one built from your own costs.

Every number in this guide is an example. They are round figures chosen to make the arithmetic easy to follow, not real prices for any product. Put your own numbers in at each step.

Step 1: know what each piece really costs you

Start with landed cost: what a piece costs once it is sitting on your table.

• Case rate: ₹360 for a case of 36 (example)
• GST on the invoice: ₹65 (example; your invoice shows the real figure)
• Your share of freight: ₹20 (example)
• Landed cost per piece: ₹445 ÷ 36 = about ₹12.40

Do this for every design you buy and write the result on the case. If you have a GSTIN and claim input credit, the GST may come back as credit, so your real cost is lower; if you do not, the GST is part of your cost and belongs in this sum.

Step 2: sort pieces into layers

Group what you stock by landed cost. In these examples:

• Filler pieces cost about ₹6 each.
• Mid pieces cost about ₹15 to ₹18 each.
• Hero pieces cost about ₹30 to ₹45 each.

Your groups will sit at different numbers. What matters is that every piece belongs to a layer, so a recipe can say "five filler, three mid, one hero" and the cost stays predictable whatever designs go in.

Step 3: add packing, shipping and fees

Per parcel, list everything that leaves with the scoop:

• the pouch or box the scoop goes in
• tissue or filler paper
• a sticker to seal it and a thank-you card
• the outer courier bag or mailer box
• shipping, at the rate for your real packed weight
• the payment fee, if a gateway or marketplace takes one

If buyers pay you directly by UPI there may be no fee. If you use a payment gateway, a website checkout or a marketplace, find the fee in your own account and use that. The examples below use 3% as a stand-in.

Worked example: the ₹199 scoop

Recipe: 4 filler, 2 mid, 1 hero (7 pieces).

• Filler: 4 × ₹6 = ₹24 (example)
• Mid: 2 × ₹15 = ₹30 (example)
• Hero: 1 × ₹30 = ₹30 (example)
• Contents: ₹84
• Packing (pouch ₹12, tissue ₹4, sticker and card ₹6): ₹22 (example)
• Shipping: ₹55 (example)
• Payment fee at 3% of ₹199: about ₹6 (example)
• Total cost: ₹167
• Left for you: ₹199 − ₹167 = ₹32, about 16% of the price

₹32 has to cover your time, the occasional replacement for a damaged parcel, and stock that does not sell. That is thin. There are three ways to fix it, and each changes what the buyer sees.

1. Charge shipping separately. The buyer pays ₹199 plus ₹55. Your cost drops to ₹84 + ₹22 + about ₹8 in fees, so you keep about ₹85.
2. Cut a mid piece. Six pieces instead of seven saves ₹15, but the scoop looks smaller on camera.
3. Raise the price. ₹249 with shipping included leaves about ₹81.

Some shops treat the lowest price as an entry scoop and plan to earn more on the bigger ones. That works if you decide it on purpose, not by accident.

Worked example: the ₹299 scoop

Recipe: 5 filler, 3 mid, 1 hero (9 pieces).

• Filler: 5 × ₹6 = ₹30 (example)
• Mid: 3 × ₹15 = ₹45 (example)
• Hero: 1 × ₹40 = ₹40 (example)
• Contents: ₹115
• Packing: ₹25 (example)
• Shipping: ₹55 (example)
• Payment fee at 3% of ₹299: about ₹9 (example)
• Total cost: ₹204
• Left for you: ₹299 − ₹204 = ₹95, just under a third of the price

This is the middle of the ladder, and the buyer can see the step up from ₹199: two more pieces and a better hero. Shipping costs the same as for the ₹199 scoop, so the extra ₹100 mostly goes to contents and margin.

Worked example: the ₹499 scoop

Recipe: 6 filler, 4 mid, 2 heroes (12 pieces).

• Filler: 6 × ₹6 = ₹36 (example)
• Mid: 4 × ₹18 = ₹72 (example)
• Heroes: 2 × ₹45 = ₹90 (example)
• Contents: ₹198
• Packing (a sturdier box and a nicer card): ₹35 (example)
• Shipping (heavier parcel): ₹70 (example)
• Payment fee at 3% of ₹499: about ₹15 (example)
• Total cost: ₹318
• Left for you: ₹499 − ₹318 = ₹181, about 36% of the price

The top scoop has to look clearly bigger than the ₹299 one when both are on camera. Two heroes do more for that than three extra erasers.

Step 4: check the price against what the buyer sees

Arithmetic gives you a floor. The buyer decides whether the price is fair by looking, so check each recipe against these questions:

• Laid out on a table, does the ₹499 scoop look worth more than twice the ₹199 one?
• Would a buyer recognise the hero piece as something they could not find in the shop down the road?
• Does the scoop fill its pouch or box, or does it rattle?

If the answer to any of these is no, change the recipe rather than the price.

Step 5: check what your time earns

The amount left over is not all profit. It also pays for the hours you spend packing, answering DMs and going live. Put a number on it.

Say you pack and label one ₹299 scoop in 10 minutes (example), so 6 an hour. At ₹95 left per scoop, an hour of packing earns ₹570 before replacements and unsold stock. Add the time spent on messages, the courier drop and the live session, and the hourly figure falls. Say that extra time doubles the hours per order: you are then earning about ₹285 an hour.

If that number is lower than you want, the fixes are the same as before: a bigger margin, faster packing, or more orders per live session. The arithmetic shows you which one to work on.

Step 6: leave room for things going wrong

A small allowance per scoop for replacements and for stock that does not sell keeps one bad week from wiping out a month. You can set aside a fixed amount per order, such as ₹5 (example), or aim for a margin high enough to absorb it. Either works if you write it down and check it each month.

Discounts come out of the same margin. A "3 scoops for ₹799" bundle on ₹299 scoops costs you ₹98 in margin across three orders, but one parcel instead of three saves two lots of shipping and packing. Work out the bundle with the same steps before you post it.

Redo the sums when your costs change

Freight, courier rates and your own case rates change. Each time you place a new order, recalculate the landed cost of the designs in it and check that each recipe still leaves the margin you planned. A spreadsheet with one row per design and one tab per recipe takes an evening to set up and saves you from guessing.

For stock to build these recipes, see our mystery scoop supplies and the erasers and sharpeners that make up most filler. If you are planning your first purchase, your first ₹2,500 order turns these layers into a real case list.