To price silver jewelry for retail, start from landed cost — not the invoice price — and multiply: roughly 2–2.5× landed cost when you sell wholesale to retailers, and 3–5× when you sell direct to consumers. The higher direct-to-consumer multiplier is what covers ad spend, payment fees, returns and free shipping. This guide shows how to build each number from the bottom up.
Part of our Wholesale Jewelry Supplier Guide
A brand buys a silver pendant for $8 and retails it at $16. Fifty percent margin, healthy business — except that after freight, duty, packaging, payment processing, and the ad spend that produced the sale, it lost money on every unit. This is the single most common way small jewelry brands fail, and it is entirely an arithmetic problem.
Pricing silver jewelry is harder than pricing most products because the cost base moves with the silver market, the SKU count is high, and the customer's reference price is set by brands with completely different cost structures. Deechy Jewelry Manufacturing & Design can quote DDP to most countries, so landed cost is knowable before you commit — which is the precondition for any of the maths below working.
What goes into landed cost?
Every calculation starts here, and most brands start it in the wrong place. The number on the supplier invoice is one input among several.
| Component | Notes |
|---|---|
| Product cost | Silver weight, labour, stones, plating |
| Inbound freight | Included if quoted DDP; otherwise per shipment, allocated per unit |
| Duty and import fees | Included if quoted DDP; otherwise variable by tariff line |
| Customs brokerage | Fixed per entry — spread across the shipment |
| Packaging | Box, pouch, card, polishing cloth, shipping mailer |
| Inbound handling | Receiving, QC, tagging, photography amortised |
Add all of it, divide by units, and that is your landed cost. Every multiplier below applies to that number, never to the invoice figure.
Two notes. Packaging is regularly underestimated — a box, pouch, card and mailer can add $2 to $4 to a piece that cost $8, which is a material change to the maths. And fixed per-shipment costs mean landed cost varies with order size, so a 100-piece order and a 1,000-piece order of the same item have different landed costs. If you ship from China, our comparison of DDP vs FOB vs EXW explains which costs each shipping term leaves with you.
What is the difference between markup and margin?
These two terms are used interchangeably in conversation and mean different things in a spreadsheet, and the gap between them is where brands lose track of their profitability.
Markup is calculated on cost. Margin is calculated on selling price. A 50% markup on $10 gives a $15 price and a 33% margin. A 50% margin on the same $10 cost requires a $20 price, which is a 100% markup.
| Multiplier on cost | Markup | Gross margin |
|---|---|---|
| 1.5× | 50% | 33% |
| 2.0× (keystone) | 100% | 50% |
| 2.5× | 150% | 60% |
| 3.0× | 200% | 67% |
| 4.0× | 300% | 75% |
| 5.0× | 400% | 80% |
When a retailer says they need 50% margin, they mean a 2× multiplier. When a supplier offers 50% markup, they are offering 1.5×. The conversation is not about the same number.
What multiplier should you use for silver jewelry?
Keystone — doubling landed cost — is the traditional jewelry benchmark, and it was designed for a wholesale business with a fixed shop and no customer acquisition cost. It does not survive contact with direct-to-consumer economics.
Selling wholesale to retailers: roughly 2 to 2.5× landed cost. Your buyer needs to double that again to reach their shelf price, so your wholesale price effectively sets a retail price at 4 to 5× your landed cost. If that final number is uncompetitive, the problem is your cost base, not your retailer's greed.
Selling direct to consumers: 3 to 5× landed cost, and the higher end is not greed. A DTC brand absorbs everything a retailer would have absorbed — customer acquisition, payment processing at 2 to 3%, returns at 5 to 15% in jewelry, customer service, and free shipping. At a 3× multiplier with a $20 customer acquisition cost, a $30 product is close to breakeven.
Selling on marketplaces: add the platform fee, typically 10 to 20%, on top of everything above before setting the multiplier.
The test is straightforward. Take your retail price, subtract landed cost, payment fees, expected return cost, and average acquisition cost per order. If what remains is not a number you can run a business on, no volume will fix it.
How does silver price volatility affect your pricing?
Silver is a traded commodity, and its price moves. A range costed when silver sat at one level and left unrepriced for two years can quietly lose most of its margin without a single visible change in the business.
Three practical habits. Ask your supplier how quotes handle metal price movement — whether prices are fixed for a period or indexed. Review your own pricing on a set cadence, quarterly rather than reactively. And understand where silver actually sits in your cost: on a delicate 2-gram piece like a wheat pendant necklace the metal may be a small share of landed cost, while on a heavy 20-gram cuff it dominates and a metal move goes straight to your margin. Our guide to silver price volatility and jewelry costing goes deeper.
How should you structure prices across a range?
Price is not only arithmetic; it is also positioning. A range priced entirely at one level gives the customer nothing to compare against, and comparison is how people decide.
A good-better-best structure — an entry piece, a core piece, and a statement piece — makes the middle option feel reasonable, and the middle is usually where you want volume. In charms and pendants, for example, a plain silver charm, a freshwater pearl pendant and a stone-set statement piece can sit at three clearly different price points. The statement piece earns its place even at low volume by making everything below it look accessible.
Two further points worth attention. Silver jewelry sells heavily as a gift, and gift purchases cluster at psychological price points — under $50, under $100 — so a piece priced at $102 will underperform the same piece at $98 by more than the $4 difference suggests. And discounting is more expensive than it feels: at a 60% gross margin, a 20% discount consumes a third of your profit on that sale. Bundles and gift-with-purchase preserve perceived value in a way that percentage-off does not.
Pricing and stock depth go together — see how much inventory a silver jewelry brand actually needs. To build your range at wholesale prices, browse everyday fine & minimalist styles.
Frequently Asked Questions
What markup should I use on wholesale silver jewelry?
Roughly 2 to 2.5 times landed cost if you sell wholesale to retailers, and 3 to 5 times landed cost if you sell direct to consumers. The direct-to-consumer range is higher because you absorb customer acquisition, payment processing, returns and service costs that a retailer would otherwise carry.
What is the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is calculated on cost; margin is calculated on selling price. A 50% markup produces a 33% margin. A 50% margin requires a 100% markup, or a 2× multiplier. Confusing the two is a common source of underpricing.
What should be included in landed cost for silver jewelry?
Product cost, inbound freight, duty and import fees, customs brokerage allocated per unit, packaging, and inbound handling. DDP quotes fold freight, duty and clearance into the product price, which makes landed cost knowable before you commit.
How often should I reprice silver jewelry?
Review quarterly rather than reactively. Silver is a traded commodity and its price moves, and the impact depends on how much metal is in the piece — significant on heavy items, minor on delicate ones where labour dominates cost.
Does Deechy quote landed cost?
Yes, for most countries. Deechy can quote DDP, with freight, duty and customs clearance included, so landed cost is known before the order is placed. Shipping on catalog orders is calculated at checkout; custom orders are quoted individually.
Is there a minimum order when buying wholesale from Deechy?
Not on ready-to-ship styles. The listed website price is the wholesale price, and tiered pricing starts at 50 pieces, so small brands can test styles before committing to depth.
Part of our Wholesale Jewelry Supplier Guide
