LIGHTEN LIFE — Margin breakdown

Researched profile. The figures here are modelled by us from public information, published with the sources they were drawn from. How we research.

Margin breakdown

Read Sep 2026. Figures here are a reading taken then, not a live feed.

Amazon’s fulfilment fee is the biggest cost on a $20 gift. After it, the glass, duty, freight, the referral fee and advertising, a little over a quarter of each sale is left. That figure is a ceiling.

Two lines are measured: Amazon’s 15% referral fee and its pick-and-pack fee, read per listing. On a $16.99 boxed whiskey glass that fee is $5.61, a third of the price, because Amazon charges for the box’s size and weight, not its value. The goods are the weak part. No supplier quoted. Glass and wooden-box prices come from Made-in-China list prices, and no barrel box was priced at all. Every dollar of unit cost moves a 2,500-unit month by about $3,000 once duty is added.

COGS — what a glass and a box cost to make and land

Line	What was read	Tier	Unit cost
Whiskey glass in wooden box	Printed rocks glass $0.35–0.69 and wooden box $0.50–3.70 (Made-in-China list prices); ~$0.10 of printing assumed	Derived, weak	$2.60
16oz beer glass in barrel box	Glass at the top of the rocks-glass range; wooden box $2.50. No barrel box priced	Derived, weak	$3.20
Glass pair in barrel box	Two printed glasses and a wooden box; barrel shape and printing premium assumed	Derived, weak	$4.50
Decanter with four glasses	7-piece decanter set $7.50–8.50, MOQ 250	Derived, weak	$8.00
Mixing glass kit	20oz mixing glass $1.50–2.37; spoon, jigger, strainer, muddler and box assumed at $1.75	Derived, weak	$4.00
29oz decanter, shot glasses — a placeholder, not a quote	No price read for either	ASSUMED	$4.00 / $2.20
Tariff	HTSUS 7013.37 at 22.5%, Section 301 at 7.5%, plus the China duty in force two months before sale. Both the lag and China origin are assumed	Derived	$0.99 a unit in Sep 2026
Freight and inbound	Package volume at the FBX01 container rate (Freightos), plus $0.35 a unit for drayage and placement — a placeholder, not a quote	Derived + ASSUMED	$0.91 a unit in Sep 2026

List prices describe the category, not this brand’s supplier. The glass and box costs carry most of the units, so they are the first thing to replace with a real quote. Freight uses today’s container rate for every month, which overstates 2024–25.

• Cost of goods: -15.19% of revenue — About $3.10 of a $20.39 sale: glass and box by product, on September’s mix. Derived from supplier list prices and weak. The 29oz decanter, the shot glasses and part of the bar kit are placeholders, not quotes.
• Tariff: -4.84% of revenue — About $0.99. The 22.5% MFN rate on glasses under $3, Section 301’s 7.5% and the 10% China duty in force at an assumed import two months earlier. Derived from published rates. China origin is assumed from the sellers, and any IEEPA refund is left out.
• Freight and inbound: -4.47% of revenue — About $0.91. Ocean freight from package volume at the FBX01 rate, plus $0.35 a unit for drayage, brokerage and placement — a placeholder, not a quote.
• Amazon referral fee: -15% of revenue — Amazon’s Kitchen rate, and 15% on every LIGHTEN LIFE listing in Keepa. Measured.
• FBA fulfilment: -28.87% of revenue — About $5.89. Amazon’s pick-and-pack fee, read per listing on 15 September 2026: $5.61 on a boxed whiskey glass, $6.90 on the bar kit, $8.56 on the decanter set. Measured.
• Advertising: -4% of revenue — ASSUMED: a 4% placeholder. What was measured is the footprint: sponsored slots on the brand’s own name and none on four generic searches. That suggests a small budget, and it cannot show the bill.
• Margin: 27.629999999999995% — September 2026’s rates, and every month on the chart carries them, although tariffs, freight and the product mix all differed in earlier months. Storage, returns, glass breakage, coupons and overhead are not modelled, so this is a ceiling on profit rather than profit.

Tariffs move the rate more than the business does. The additional China duty was nothing before 2025, reached 30% during 2025, and is 10% on September 2026’s goods. The same glass kept a different share in each month. The dossier’s month-by-month model uses each month’s own duty and freight. In that model September 2026 keeps more than September 2025, although it sold less, and September 2025 to August 2026 keeps about $181,500 — less than this chart’s single set of rates gives.

The glass and box costs move this profile most. They stand in for a quote nobody has read, with advertising and part of freight as placeholders beside them. Those are the first three numbers to replace.

LIGHTEN LIFE overview · All ideas