Need help solving for unknown w/ variable percentage (selling price to break even)

[Mth5687]

I am trying to setup and run an equation in Excel to determine what my sell price would need to be to break even. This is normally a simply equation except I have a variable factor in the form of a final sales price fee. 15% is subtracted from the sales price.

I know my item cost, shipping cost, and the % amount taken off of the final sales price (%15).
I need to solve for the sales price to obtain my breakeven point.

In other words, item costs $50, shipping costs $50 = $100 Total (Normally $100 would be the breakeven price). However, the ecommerce site takes %15 of the total sales price. So in this instance if I sold it at cost ($100) without factoring in the 15% fee, I would take a $15 loss.

What would be the formula to find my $0.00 Profit/Loss (Breakeven) point based on the known factors listed above? Is this even possible?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Deleted member 4993]

I am trying to setup and run an equation in Excel to determine what my sell price would need to be to break even. This is normally a simply equation except I have a variable factor in the form of a final sales price fee. 15% is subtracted from the sales price.

I know my item cost, shipping cost, and the % amount taken off of the final sales price (%15).
I need to solve for the sales price to obtain my breakeven point.

In other words, item costs $50, shipping costs $50 = $100 Total (Normally $100 would be the breakeven price). However, the ecommerce site takes %15 of the total sales price. So in this instance if I sold it at cost ($100) without factoring in the 15% fee, I would take a $15 loss.

What would be the formula to find my $0.00 Profit/Loss (Breakeven) point based on the known factors listed above? Is this even possible?

Thanks in advance.

You need to define your variables as a symbol (letter) and use algebra. Nothing fancy!

Assume your

sale price = S

Item cost = I

Shipping cost = H

e-commerce charge = 0.15 * S

Then (according to your narrative):

S = I + H + 0.15 * S (collect all the unknowns - here 'S' - to one side)

S - 0.15 * S = I + H

0.85 * S = I + H

S = (I + H)/0.85

For the given example:

S = (50 + 50)/0.85 = 117.65

check

117.65 - 117.65 * 0.15 = 117.65 - 17.65 = 100 (no loss, no profit - breakeven)