Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

Start calculating contribution margin

9 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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1:25

Finance teams need SKU-level contribution margin reporting to make better decisions. Include product cost, freight, shipping, payment fees, fulfillment costs, and customer acquisition cost. Update it monthly and share it as a working tool so marketing, supply chain, and leadership can identify winning products and guide growth decisions.

Chapters

If your finance team isn't calculating contribution margin by sku, no one is making informed decisions. CM isn't a nice to have metric. It's the number that tells every team what's actually making money and finance is the only team that can calculate it properly. Here's what Finance needs to build a CM calculation by SKU that includes product cost or cobs, inbound freight allocated per unit, outbound shipping cost, payment processing fees, peak pack and fulfillment return rate cost that's rate times cost per return. Then customer acquisition cost is allocatable Update frequency monthly at minimum cost change distribution share with marketing and supply chain not as a report they will ignore as a working tool they use for decision visibility. Everyone should know which products are winners and which are margin rates. When finance owns this number and shares it, clearly the whole business gets smarter. Marketing pushes the right products, supply chain prioritizes the right inventory. Leadership makes informed decisions about what to grow and what to cut. If you're in finance, build the SKU level CM report this month. If you're a founder, ask Finance if it exists. DM me Finance for the CM calculation template.