Free tool · margin by size2 questions
The Bleed Test
A free margin calculator for clothing brands. See which sizes make money and which lose it on every order.
Your profit dashboard says a product is profitable because it averages your sizes. Your medium funds the business while your XXL loses money on every sale: same product, different economics. Enter one product, starting with its selling price, and see the margin size by size.
Example · a $35 tee · what one order keepsbenchmark costs
Step 1 of 2 · the price
One product. One number. Let's go.
We start from real apparel benchmarks (COGS, shipping, returns, ad cost) so you get a credible answer now and refine after. Nothing connects to your store. This is one snapshot you control.
How this is calculated
Profit dashboards usually report margin at the product level, averaging every size into one number. This calculator works out contribution margin (CM3) for each size, because that is the level at which margin is true for an apparel brand.
For every size, CM3 is:
− cost of goods on kept units
− returned stock that can't be resold
− payment processing fees (charged on every order, kept by the processor on refunds)
− fulfilment and outbound shipping (every order ships once)
− return shipping and restocking on returned units
− ad cost per order (paid whether or not the order stuck)
= CM3 for that size
A size is flagged as losing money when its CM3 is negative, even if the product's blended gross margin looks healthy. That gap, measured in dollars on your real catalog with your real landed cost, is what a Size & Margin Audit finds.
Questions founders ask
Why does my profit dashboard show the wrong margin?
Profit dashboards report margin at the product level by averaging across every size. But each size has different economics: different demand, different return rates, and therefore different true margin. Your medium can fund the business while your XXL loses money on every order, and the blended number hides it inside one healthy-looking figure.
What is contribution margin (CM3) for apparel?
CM3 is what a clothing brand actually keeps from a sale after the variable costs of making it happen: cost of goods, payment processing fees, fulfilment and outbound shipping, ad cost per order, and the full cost of returns, including return shipping, restocking labour, and stock that can't be resold. CM1 is revenue minus cost of goods, CM2 adds fulfilment and fees, and CM3 adds marketing and returns. CM3 tells you whether a size makes money.
How do returns destroy margin on specific sizes?
A returned order still cost you to acquire, process, ship out, ship back, and restock, and a share of returned units can't be resold. Edge sizes (XS, XL, XXL) typically return at much higher rates than core sizes, so a size with a healthy gross margin can turn negative once its return rate is applied. That's why margin has to be measured per size, after returns.
Which sizes should a clothing brand reorder?
Reorder the sizes with the highest contribution margin per order, the ones funding the business, and cut, reprice, or stop advertising the sizes that lose money. Margin by size tells you what to buy again instead of guessing from a blended product-level number.
One product. One day. You typed it in yourself.
Revnce is the outsourced buying desk for Shopify apparel brands: every size of every style, checked against your real landed cost and turned into a reorder plan you approve. It starts with a Size & Margin Audit, in 10 business days.
Built for brands doing roughly $2–10M a year. Under about $1M, use the free test and come back when you're bigger.