Wholesale vs direct-to-consumer calculator
Put your direct and wholesale channels side by side — revenue, what each contributes after fulfilment and acquisition, and the true cost of a customer in each, beside the blended number that hides it.
Free, no sign-up. Everything is worked out in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere.
How it's worked out
contribution = orders × AOV × margin − orders × fulfilment − acquisition spend true CAC = channel's acquisition spend ÷ its new customers blended CAC = all acquisition spend ÷ all new customersContribution margin is a channel's contribution as a share of its revenue.
Questions
- What's wrong with a blended CAC?
- It averages two different businesses. A few wholesale accounts that each cost $1,000 to win disappear into thousands of $30 online customers, so the blended figure looks healthy while one channel may be losing money. Work out CAC per channel.
- What is contribution?
- What a channel leaves after the product's cost, fulfilment and what you spent winning its customers — the money it contributes to your overheads and profit. It's a fairer comparison than revenue, because wholesale's big orders come at a lower margin.
- Should a wholesale CAC be compared with a D2C one?
- Only alongside what each customer is worth. A stockist reorders for years at a much larger order value; set each CAC against that customer's lifetime contribution, not one month's.
Run wholesale and direct from one stock count
Manifold sells to your online customers and your stockists from the same inventory: your store's orders arrive on their own, trade customers price from their own catalogs, and margin is reported per line, per order and across the business.
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