It can be confusing to understand theories like profit margins, retail prices and wholesale volume requirements. When you apply these mathematical concepts to real life, they make a lot more sense. For example, think about shopping for school supplies. Understanding the difference between the calculation of retail and wholesale pricing can help you understand the real costs when you buy school supplies. Which you can then use for the rest of your life as you move on to college and adulthood.
Retail
Retail price is also known as the list price. To continue to use the example, that’s the price you see on a cash register when you go to the store to buy your school supplies. The retail price is the price of a consumer good when it’s sold to you, the end user. If you’re the end user, it means that you’re going to use the product yourself; you’re not going to sell it to a third party. The goal of the retailer is to realize an optimum profit margin. The profit margin is calculated by dividing the net income by the net sales. The net income is equal to the net sales after subtracting the retailer’s expenses. For example, if the retailer has $100 in net sales and $50 in expenses, he would have an income of $50 and a profit margin of .5. Retailers work hard to improve their scalability. Scalability is the ability of the retailer’s business to maintain similar profit margins despite an increase in sales volume.
Wholesale
If you’re the student in the example of buying school supplies, your objective is to pay the least amount when shopping for school supplies. Once you use math to understand stores’ profit margins when they sell goods at retail value, you’ll see that buying wholesale school supplies individually might be cheaper. Retail prices may seem more expensive than the cost of school supplies at wholesale, but that’s only on the individual level. Wholesalers usually set volume requirements by demanding a minimum order quantity. This ensures that the products are bought in quantities large enough to justify their wholesale pricing. Consequently, the piece price, which is the price for an individual item, may be lower than its retail price. The piece price factors in manufacturing costs and transport, which is known as the cost of production. Wholesale products have lower transport costs, per item, which permits the seller to use a reduced piece price.
In conclusion, math can be applied to all sorts of things in our lives. W can use it to find the best deal for things like school supplies, but also find the best price for anything we are wanting or may need in the future. Just because the retail price is the most visible, doesn’t mean that it’s the cheapest option. If you ever need to buy a lot of the same thing in the future, make sure to see if wholesale options are available!