COGS means Cost of Goods Sold: what it really cost you to make the piece (materials, labour, and a share of studio fixed costs). It is not the client’s price. Sell prices are built from that making-cost number.

How do I price gold and silver when market prices change?

Build cost from today’s replacement price for the metal you would buy to make the piece again, not only from an old invoice. Review collections when spot moves a lot. Alloy & Ledger keeps market rates behind your costing so updates are less of a scavenger hunt.

What is the difference between wholesale and retail for handmade jewellery?

Retail is what a wearer pays you directly. Wholesale is what a stockist pays so they can sell on. Wholesale must still clear your true cost; retail is higher. In Alloy & Ledger both start from COGS with multipliers you control.

How do I set a bench jeweller labour rate?

Pick an hourly wage you would honestly pay a skilled maker, then multiply by time on the piece (including finishing and admin you always forget). Raise the rate as your skill and speed grow. Put labour into COGS before you apply wholesale or retail multipliers. When raw minutes underprice skilled speed, use task-rate thinking and adjust efficiency in Alloy & Ledger so craftsmanship is not punished.

What about gallery or consignment pricing?

If a gallery takes a percentage of the sale, set the sticker so you still receive your chosen wholesale or retail base after their commission. That is base divided by (1 minus commission %), not a random markup on top of retail.

What is the difference between markup and margin?

Markup is added on top of cost (50% markup on 100 is 150). Margin is profit as a share of the selling price (50 profit on 150 is about 33% margin). Saying “I need 50%” without knowing which one you mean is how studios talk past each other, and undercharge.

Should expensive stones or high-karat gold use a lower multiplier?

Often yes on the material portion: a flat 3× on a very costly stone can push you out of your market. Keep labour and ordinary consumables fully valued. In practice, many studios adjust multipliers per piece or collection while keeping the cost-to-channel path clear, which is what Showroom is for.

How to price handmade jewellery | Alloy & Ledger

Name: Alloy & Ledger
Brand: Alloy & Ledger

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Why jewellery pricing feels harder than it should

You are designing, soldering, setting, photographing, packing, and answering messages. Pricing is one more job, often done late, with half-remembered metal costs and a quiet fear that clients will walk away.

Most undercharging is not a lack of talent. It is missing cost, unpaid hours, or selling at last year’s metal price while today’s spot has moved. Once you see the full picture, the number gets calmer, even if it is higher than you first wanted to write.

Tired of guessing? Start a free studio and price one piece.

What really belongs in your cost

Metal and stones are obvious. The rest is where margins disappear.

Materials beyond the glamorous bits
Solder, flux, polishing compounds, saw blades, findings, scrap loss, and failed attempts all belong somewhere in your cost. If you only count the gold gram weight on the scale, you are pricing a fantasy piece.
Outsourced work
Casting, stone setting, engraving, plating: if someone else did it, that invoice is part of making the piece. Leave it out and you donate their labour.
Studio overhead and fixed costs
Fixed costs are what you pay to keep the studio open even when no piece is on the bench: rent or workshop share, utilities, insurance, software, and similar monthly bills. They are not the gold on one ring; they are the cost of having a place to make it. In Alloy & Ledger you enter these in Studio settings. The app folds an overhead share into each piece’s making cost (COGS) from the hours on that piece, so two jewellers with the same materials and hours can still see different production costs if their fixed costs differ.

Price metal for replacement, not for what you paid last year

Gold and silver move. If you bought sheet when silver was cheaper and still price from that purchase, every sale shrinks the money available to restock. Replacement cost (today’s market) protects the next piece, not only this one.

Independent studios that check spot prices before a collection or a commission sleep better. Alloy & Ledger keeps market rates behind your costing so you are not hunting a chart every time you name a number.

Pay yourself a bench rate, not leftovers

Labour is not “what is left after materials.” Decide an hourly rate that respects your skill (many makers start somewhere in a skilled craft range and raise it as speed and reputation grow), multiply by honest hours, and put that into cost before markup.

Track time loosely at first: design, making, finishing, even the boring packing. Outsourced labour counts too. The goal is a wage you would pay a skilled maker, because that is what you are.

A flat multiplier on (materials + labour) can punish you as you get faster. If an advanced jeweller sets a stone in 15 minutes that takes a beginner an hour, the simple formula shrinks the retail price for higher craftsmanship. Value-based or task-rate pricing often serves high-skill work better than raw minutes alone.

Alloy & Ledger includes efficiency settings you can change (craft and design efficiency, plus studio defaults) so faster, more skilled work does not automatically underprice the piece.

One piece, three stories: client, stockist, gallery

The same ring should not use one lonely number for every door it walks through.

Direct to your client
You keep the sale (minus fees). Your retail price must cover true cost and leave room for the business to breathe.
Wholesale / stockist
A shop buys lower so they can mark up. If your “retail” was already tight, cutting it in half for wholesale can wipe you out. Build wholesale from cost upward, then set retail from there, or from cost with a clearer multiplier.
Gallery commission
Galleries often take a percentage of the sticker. The right sticker is not “retail plus a bit.” It is the price that still leaves you your chosen base after their cut. Alloy & Ledger uses that commission maths so the gallery path is honest, not hopeful.

What COGS means (in plain language)

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) is the “what did this piece really cost me to make?” number.

Imagine a silver pair of earrings:

Materials (metal, findings, a little scrap): 40
Your time at the bench: 60
A slice of rent / insurance / software from Studio settings: 20

COGS = 120.

Wholesale and retail start from that 120. If you only counted the metal and forgot your time and the studio, you would undercharge without noticing.

How Alloy & Ledger turns cost into sell prices

We start from that making cost (COGS): materials, labour, and studio overhead drawn from what you set in Studio settings (including fixed costs such as rent, utilities, insurance, and software). Because every atelier’s fixed costs differ, every studio’s COGS for a similar piece can differ too. Then we apply your multipliers for wholesale, retail, and gallery.

You may see maker blogs teach (materials + labour) × 2 or “keystone” doubling. Those can be useful rules of thumb when you are learning. Alloy & Ledger does not pretend those shortcuts are our engine. We keep a clear cost of goods from your studio data, then your wholesale, retail, and gallery settings.

See wholesale, retail, and gallery update as you work. Try Apprentice free.

A note on marketplace prices

Etsy and similar feeds can be useful for style research. They are a poor floor for your business. Many listings sit below a sustainable wholesale. Use peers with similar materials and positioning as a compass, not a race to the bottom.

Try the idea in thirty seconds

Enter materials, hours, and an hourly rate. We apply example multipliers so you see the shape of the maths. In the studio you set and change those multipliers yourself.

Materials costHoursHourly rate

Illustrative making cost (COGS): CHF 40.00
Suggested wholesale: CHF 100.00
Suggested retail: CHF 120.00
Suggested gallery sticker: CHF 200.00

Illustrative only, not a saved quote. In the app, COGS also includes overhead from your Studio settings (fixed costs such as rent and insurance), live metal lines, and your own multipliers.

Open a free studio and price a real piece

Questions jewellers ask when they search this

Stop rebuilding the spreadsheet every Sunday

You already know how to make the work. Pricing should not steal the evening before every show. Alloy & Ledger turns materials and hours into sell prices, photo lists, and quotes you can still change, in English and French, on your phone or at the desk.

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