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What a Beer Club box leaves you, after everyone has been paid

Beer Club box margin
Prices below include VAT, the way the member sees them. In the US, enter the pre-tax price and 0.
The box
Your production cost, beer plus can plus label, ex-VAT. No cost figure yet? Enter your B2B price instead: the margin you see is then what the Club earns on top of selling the same cans to the trade.
Duty is optional: it depends on your country and the strength of the beers. Leave 0 if it is already inside your cost per can.
Optional. A four-can box takes almost as long to pack as a full one. Leave 0 for gross margin.
Applied to beer, packaging and shipping. 10 percent is the buffer the pricing guide uses.
Delivery
Basic plan, standard card, online. Source: Shopify pricing, July 2026. Check yours under Settings, Payments.
Starter plan, charged on the full amount collected, shipping and VAT included. Source: Recharge billing and pricing, 2026. Billed in USD; the fixed part is converted here. Some comparisons quote 1.49 percent; check the pricing page.
Shopify Basic
Recharge up to 50 members
Recharge Starter after
Recharge is 25 $ a month until 50 lifetime customers, then 99 $. Converted at rough 2026 rates; edit to yours.
Margin per box
€14.8340% of price ex-VAT
Price ex-VAT €37.50
BeerPackagingShippingDuty, breakage, labourFeesMargin
Beer
€9.60
Packaging
€1.50
Shipping, net
€8.00
Duty, breakage, labour
€1.91
Payment fees
€1.66
Per member per year
€177.99
Members50
Margin per month
€742
Margin per year
€8,899
After Shopify and Recharge plans, per month
€688
Plans covered from
4members

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Margin chart
Margin per box in euros, at 8 beers, 1.50 packaging, 8.00 shipping included in the price, 10 percent breakage, 20 percent VAT, euro-zone fees, no duty or labour. Rows are the Club price, columns the cost per can. Tap a cell to load it.
Club price0.80 per can1.20 per can1.60 per can2.00 per can
30 €6.272.75-0.78-4.29
40 €14.3210.807.283.76
50 €22.3818.8615.3411.82
60 €30.4426.9223.4019.88
70 €38.5034.9831.4627.94
80 €46.5643.0439.5236.00
90 €54.6151.1047.5844.05
Method

Everything is brought back to ex-VAT. The Club price and any shipping charged to the member are divided by 1 + VAT to get revenue. Beer is the number of beers times your cost per can. If you enter your B2B price there instead, the result reads as what the Club earns beyond trade sales, not as a margin on cost. Breakage is a percentage of beer, packaging and shipping cost. Labour is packing minutes over sixty, times hourly cost. Fees are applied to the full amount collected, VAT and shipping included, since that is what Shopify Payments and Recharge charge on:

margin = revenue ex-VAT − beer − packaging − shipping cost − duty − breakage − labour − fees

Members are assumed to receive one box a month; a year is twelve boxes. For a bi-monthly Club, halve the yearly figures. Recharge moves from its 25 $ plan to Starter at 50 lifetime customers, so with churn the switch comes before 50 active members; the calculator switches at 50. Fee defaults are for the Basic Shopify plan and a standard domestic card; international cards, Amex and currency conversion cost more. Not in this calculation: failed payments and retries, launch discounts, acquisition cost, churn, and admin time outside packing. To set the price itself, use the pricing guide; for how many members to expect, the launch estimator.

Questions

Do I pay Shopify and Recharge fees on the VAT?

Yes. Both take their percentage on the amount charged to the card, VAT and shipping included. Recharge says so in its billing terms: fees are calculated on the total processed amount, including shipping and taxes, and still apply to refunded orders. On a 45 € box at 20 percent VAT, that makes the fees a fifth higher than a calculation on the ex-VAT price would suggest.

What margin should a Beer Club box make?

There is no target number. The pricing guide sets a floor on the price: never below what the trade pays you for the same beers, plus shipping, plus 10 percent for breakage. The margin on cost you see here sits above that floor and has to pay for the packing time, which most calculations leave out, and leave something for the brewery. Fill in the packing time and hourly cost above and the number you see is the one that matters.

Is pickup always more profitable than shipping?

Per box, yes, by the whole shipping cost. Per Club, not always. Pickup limits membership to people who come to the brewery, and a box that waits in the cold room is a member who forgets the Club exists. A shipped member who stays twelve months is worth more than a pickup member who stops after three.

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