Before you discount: plan one offer with confidence

Guide

A discount can be a lovely way to give a product a little attention. Before you switch it on, it helps to have a quiet moment with the stock, the costs and the packing bench.

This planner brings those three checks together. Choose one product and one proposed offer; you do not need to untangle your whole business today. Follow the thread, one question at a time.

Pick the version that suits you

• The workbook has a blank Your offer sheet with editable amber cells, calculations and prompts beside each step. A separate Worked example sheet shows the fictional mug offer from Before you discount.
• The one-page PDF is a blank A4 sheet for printing and working through by hand. Keep it beside you, or use it to talk the proposal through with someone.

Both are free to use without a ChannelWeave account. Save a fresh copy for each offer so you can return to your original assumptions.

1. Give the offer a clear starting point

Note the product or SKU, the Channels involved, your stock snapshot and the dispatch period. Use one currency and a consistent tax basis for every amount. The planner does not choose a tax treatment for you. The workbook rounds monetary results to two decimal places, as used for GBP, EUR and USD; it is not designed for currencies with a different minor unit.

The calculation starts with physical units and subtracts separate holds, existing reservations and any stock you want to keep back for ordinary trading. Count each unit only once. Then compare what remains with your planned orders multiplied by the units in each order.

If two listings share the same stock, their displayed quantities are not two separate piles. Check how the live stock rules and offer limits work across those listings. If a count needs investigating first, the Stock Reconciliation Kit can help.

2. See what each order leaves behind

Enter the proposed proceeds, including delivery charged, and the costs of that order: product, fees, packaging, delivery, advertising, expected returns and any other direct costs. Count each cost once. In the workbook, product cost is entered per unit and multiplied by the units per order; the other costs are entered per order.

What remains is contribution before labour and overheads, not profit. Compare it with your own chosen minimum. The example's £2 minimum belongs to that fictional seller; it is not a recommendation for your business.

Leave an unknown amount blank while you find it. Enter zero only when the cost really is zero. The workbook leaves affected results blank if a required number is missing or invalid, rather than treating an unknown as money saved.

3. Leave room at the packing bench

Use a realistic number of packing slots for the same dispatch period, allowing for routine work and likely interruptions. One slot means capacity for one order of the planned size. Subtract existing commitments and the proposed offer orders.

Remember the practical bits too: packaging, handling time and the carrier's cut-off. A dispatch-by date describes when you send the parcel, not when it will arrive.

4. Choose one useful next step

The worked example leaves four units for the offer, but only 60p per order before labour and overheads, and two fewer packing slots than the proposed volume needs. That is useful information while there is still time to adjust.

You might reduce the batch, revisit a cost, change the offer or allow more time. Write down the next action, who will do it and when you will review the figures. If that person is you, your name is all you need.

A few helpful boundaries

This is a manual planning aid for one product, whole units, one currency and one defined seller-managed stock pool. Bundles, fractional units, pre-orders and separate fulfilment pools need their own model. It does not connect to Channels, enforce listing limits, adjust stock or give an automatic launch verdict. Positive numbers still need the practical checks above.

The workbook's calculations have been checked in the authoring engine and LibreOffice Calc, including missing inputs and changes to order size. Native Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers have not been separately verified. If your spreadsheet app changes the formulas or layout, the printable version provides a straightforward alternative.